Housing Initiative at Penn

Cash and Vouchers: The Impact of Different Forms of Rental Assistance on Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity is at an all-time high for renters nationally. The Housing Choice Voucher program protects over 2.3 million households from housing insecurity, but many households offered a voucher cannot…

Housing Initiative at Penn

A Randomized Control Trial of a Cash Rental Assistance Program in Philadelphia, PA

PHLHousing+ is a direct-to-tenant, cash rental assistance program that began in Fall 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program provides monthly cash payments to 301 low-income families with children over nearly…

Policymakers’ Report

As more and more researchers release their findings, a complex picture of the impact of cash in the United States is emerging. Some studies show that cash moved particular outcomes in significant ways while other studies show that cash had no impact on those same outcomes. While advocates often highlight the more positive or exciting findings, it is critical to understand the full set of results and learn from pilots that find no impact or had unexpected results in order to better inform the field and policy.

Economic Security Project

Cash Transfers Improve Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Outcomes Memo

Black women are at highest risk of experiencing pre-term births, low birthweight, and maternal and infant mortality. Both the human and the financial costs are immense. As the U.S. continues to fall further behind, it’s clear a new approach is needed–and direct cash transfers show huge promise. This brief synthesizes key research findings and explores why investing more public dollars in cash could be transformative for infant and maternal health.

Direct Rental Assistance and Landlords: Considerations for Program and Pilot Design

In this paper, we examine how landlords might respond to a novel tenant-based housing program, direct rental assistance (DRA), which provides cash payments directly to tenants to help them afford their housing. These insights provide considerations and recommendations for those designing DRA programs and pilots.

Guaranteed Income Blueprint Self-Diagnostic

Use this self diagnostic to help assess your organization or coalition's readiness around multiple variables along the Guaranteed Income Blueprint to further an offensive or defensive initiative. With this tool, you can identify actionable steps if a defense bill is introduced in your state, or steps to advance offensive efforts. Even if a full fledged offensive or defensive campaign is not possible, significant progress can still be made toward strategic objectives. It is common to have few, if any, ratings of 5, as guaranteed income campaign implementation is a relatively new and evolving field in the US.

A Policy Landscape Review of 105 Programs in the United States

Cash assistance programs have been piloted as Basic or Guaranteed Income across the United States. This research asks how programs are being designed and evaluated, with implications for how collective program impacts are understood.

John's Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health (2024)

Guaranteed Income & Health Consortium Toolkit

The Guaranteed Income & Health Consortium (GIHC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is focused on providing technical assistance to strengthen the United States (U.S.) guaranteed income (GI) landscape with an emphasis on health equity. We are committed to building robust scientific evidence that examines the health implications of GI, guided by research and design justice principles that elevate co-creating knowledge, resources, and tools. We believe in a world where everyone has the opportunity to attain the highest level of health and envision GI’s potential to transform lives, especially historically minoritized communities.

Center for Guaranteed Income Research (2024)

A Policy Framework for Guaranteed Income and the Safety Net

Paired with other innovative health interventions (e.g., Medicaid Section 1115 demonstrations), child and family policies (e.g., Child Savings Accounts or Child Welfare Prevention), or climate and disaster response strategies (e.g., Justice40 Initiative), GI can provide financial stability to absorb income volatility, generate opportunities for wealth acquisition and economic mobility, and promote thriving communities.

RxKids (2024)

Playbook for Replicating Rx Kids

This document describes the nuts and bolts of how to access TANF funds to support an Rx Kids program, and how state departments of human services can protect other social benefits from being impacted by Rx Kids cash prescriptions. It is a “living document” that will be updated with time. In brief, states can use TANF funding to implement an Rx Kids program by replicating the prescribed steps outlined in the Rx Kids Policy Playbook.

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (2024)

State Fact Sheets: How States Spend Funds Under the TANF Block Grant

States have broad flexibility over the use of state and federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds. Many have used that flexibility to divert funds away from income support for families and toward other state budget areas often unrelated to TANF’s goals. In 2021, states spent only about a fifth of the funds on basic assistance to meet essential needs of families with children. Investments in cash assistance can improve academic, health, and economic outcomes for children in families in poverty, research shows. In the linked map, click on a state for a fact sheet detailing how it spends its state and federal TANF funds.

NYC Family Policy Project (2024)

The Protective Power of Cash

Shifting Cash Support in New York to Promote Family Well-Being: Lessons from Research on Guaranteed Income and Child Welfare: Research is clear that families turn to cash assistance in times of deep hardship and emergency. Today, the number of people needing to rely on cash assistance in New York City is the highest it has been in almost 25 years. In October, more than 100,000 NYC families were enrolled in cash assistance for needed support.