The New York City Council launched a new initiative called Cash with Care, designed to help 60 young New Yorkers aged 18 to 24. Working together with Covenant House New York (CHNY), the project uses $1.5 million set aside from the state’s federal funds.
Speaker Adrienne Adams spoke highly of the initiative and the positive difference it’s going to make in people’s lives. She explained that by putting resources into the younger generation, the city is actually securing its own future. She also noted that plans offering steady cash payments really help people become independent and get back on their feet.
What the program aims to do
The plan focuses on helping young people escape homelessness by giving them both financial aid and support services. After a participant signs up, they’ll get a monthly payment of $1,200 for nine months. Plus, they get a single $5,000 grant that they can use whenever they need it while involved in the program. CHNY will study the information gathered along the way to see how well things are working.
They will track how many people manage to find a permanent place to live and who has an easier time affording food. CHNY is also going to watch for participants who pay down their debt or get rid of it entirely, as well as those who take steps toward a stable future.
Speaker Adams added that giving money and resources to young people without stable housing is a big move toward making all New Yorkers healthier and safer. She believes everyone should have the chance to live with dignity and security, and she is proud the Council is making that possible for the city’s young residents.
Council Member Crystal Hudson backed the law that made this program a reality. She mentioned that she was proud to back the law that lets the City create direct cash aid projects, noting that she has personally witnessed how well a similar trial worked for pregnant women struggling with housing. She went on to say that this funding gives the group of 60 young New Yorkers the tools they need to find permanent homes and cover essentials like groceries and electric bills.
Other cities with the same kind of program
Despite what the press may say, the “Cash with Care” program is not an innovative thing where the NYC Council came up with a new idea. In fact, this kind of “no-strings-attached” assistence program has been piloted for a few years now in different. Only in the US there were 150 income pilots in recent years.
However, this kind of assistance usually targets extremely low-income family units, and not so much single youths who risk becoming homeless. Very few pilots do target homelessness like the NYC program does.
The closest to the NYC program happened in Denver, and also focussed on getting people off the streets. To achieve that, they chose a pool of 800 homeless individuals and gave them various amounts of cash; some got $1,000 a month, others just $6,500 up front, or $500 per month.
The findings were quite surprising: the common fear that free money would be used for drugs was mostly debunked. In fact, the spending on alcohol and drugs actually decreased in comparison to their homeless days. Most of the money was spent on food, utilities and less than 10% was spent on recreative drugs. After 10 months, nearly half the participants were living in apartments of their own or living in stable housing.
The public cost also decreased; since the city no longer had to accommodate so many people in their emergency shelters, county jails, and the ERs were emptier, the program—despite expendind hundreds of thousands of dollars—did save $589,000 in public services costs.