Dear Neighbor,
JORGE O. ELORZA
I wanted to share an exciting update: This month, we are celebrating the one-year milestone of our Providence Guaranteed Income (PVDGI) Pilot Program, providing direct $500 payments to 110 Providence residents as part of a randomized control trial to learn more about how to build effective guaranteed income and cash assistance programs.
As part of this milestone, we’re sharing the stories of Providence residents participating in the program, like Brandi and Leticia, whose lives have been tremendously impacted by these direct payments.
MEET BRANDI
We know that poverty and economic instability are the result of systemic oppressions and underinvestment in marginalized communities — not individual failures. The participants in our guaranteed income pilot program like Brandi and Leticia have shown over the last year that effective assistance programs come from trusting recipients to make the right financial decisions for themselves and their families.
MEET LITITIA
The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the anonymized spending of participants and a public Data Dashboard is now available to share insights into how participants are spending funds. According to this data, more than half of the direct payment funds were spent on “retail sales and services,” which encompasses everything from discount retailers where participants can buy groceries and other essential supplies, like diapers and personal hygiene products, to maintenance and repair services.
Many Providence residents living in poverty are less likely to have access to traditional grocery stores and are more likely to rely on retail stores for grocery purchases. In addition to these retail sales, nearly a quarter of direct payment funds were spent on food and groceries.
I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to the audio narratives from some of our participants, so participants themselves can tell you their stories and express the power of these monthly cash payments — from reuniting with family to securing transportation and housing for the first time in decades.
Thank you to our community partners Amos House, Rhode Island Foundation, United Way of Rhode Island, and One Neighborhood Builders for a year of success and I look forward to the full results at the end of this eighteen-month pilot. If you’re interested, learn more about the PVDGI program and view the full data report by visiting pvdgi.com.
Sincerely,
Jorge O. Elorza