HudsonUP pilot features in The Economist

The HudsonUP Basic Income Pilot featured in The Economist this week with the story of one recipient’s experiences with his first full year of $500 per month in payments as part of the five-year basic income pilot. JFI serves as research partner with HudsonUP, a program funded by the Spark of Hudson and Humanity Forward. The pilot provides $500 per month to 25 residents of Hudson, New York and this year expanded to 75 residents of Hudson, NY. The five year time horizon of payments makes HudsonUP one of the longest cash pilots in the country.

From the piece:

“Jahed Miah no longer worries about rent. For much of his time at the State University of New York at New Paltz, the 23-year-old lived on a tight budget. When he needed textbooks, he asked his brothers for cash. But since October 2020 Mr Miah has received $500 a month through a guaranteed-income programme in Hudson, New York. He puts most of it towards housing costs, but he can also now afford to donate to his mosque and take his nieces and nephews for ice cream. ‘I’m not a financial burden on my family,’ he says.”

The story also describes early results from the first year’s report from Principal Investigator and JFI Senior Fellow Leah Hamilton:

“After one year recipients in Hudson reported greater emotional and physical well-being as well as better relationships. Critics fear that unconditional cash transfers may put people off working. So far, Hudson and a similar experiment in Stockton, California, have found the opposite—perhaps because the payments give people the flexibility to spend time on training or job applications.”

Thank you to The Economist for a great feature and for taking the time to speak with a HudsonUP recipient. Read the full piece here.