Cash is freedom. For recipients Dia Broncucia, 53, and Justin Searls, 45, those payments have been a manifestation of a different concept: hope. The money got them off the street, played a critical role in helping Broncucia recover from Stage 3 breast cancer and was a catalyst as the couple charts a new course for their lives after getting sober following years of drug use. The Denver Basic Income Project marked the anniversary of the first payments of its pilot program on Nov.
The program is funded through a mix of private, nonprofit and government money, with the city of Denver recently agreeing to renew its initial investment. Researchers with the Center for Housing and Homelessness Research at the University of Denver have been tracking the impact the money has had on participants via voluntary surveys. The people who enrolled in the program were broken into three categories. The next step is turning Denver into a national model for basic income initiatives focused on homelessness, he and other advocates hope.
The Denver project has had a fundamental impact on Mark Gaskin. He was considering taking his own life before he was connected with the project. He lost his job after being injured in a workplace accident and then lost the home he was renting in Denver. He sees light at the end of the tunnel. He is hoping to be approved as a caregiver so he can take care of an aunt who recently was released from the hospital, something that will give him a source of income while he helps her. They said here, you use this the best way you know how.
The final round of payments to those enrolled later in the program will go out January 15, program runners say. Searls received his last payment in October. Exactly how it will operate going forward is still to be determined but the project has its first big funder for a second round of payments already lined up. That matches the federal funding former Mayor Michael Hancock and the City Council dedicated to the pilot program in and That first batch of city money was earmarked specifically to support unhoused women, families and nonbinary or gender-nonconforming people.
At first, Johnston did not include the project in his budget but he changed his mind based on the early research findings and effective lobbying. She dropped that amendment to help secure more money for emergency rental assistance in the city next year. His sales pitch goes beyond the inspirational. He argues the payments are practical. Program participants in the midpoint study reported going to the emergency room less frequently and spending fewer nights in homeless shelters, drawing down fewer emergency resources that taxpayers support.
