Seattle gave low-income residents $500 a month no strings attached. Employment rates nearly doubled.

For years, Candice Johnson had a stable job and few money troubles.

But when she was laid off during the pandemic, she found herself in “a chain reaction of events that kept going down.” Pregnant, jobless and forced to leave her home due to domestic violence, Johnson’s life “was an absolute mess,” she said.

Then her luck turned around. She got an apartment through King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s Rapid Re-Housing Program and connected with case workers at the YWCA, landing a job at a Pierce County bank.

And critically, she was tapped to receive $500 a month through a 10-month guaranteed basic income pilot program run by the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, a local nonprofit organization. ...

BusinessInsider article: https://www.businessinsider.com/seattle-ubi-guaranteed-basic-income-low-income-poverty-housing-employment-2024-4
Original (paywall): https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/how-king-countys-500-a-month-guaranteed-income-program-fared/
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