Guaranteed income is an unconditional monthly cash payment given directly to selected individuals and is meant to supplement, rather than replace, the existing social safety net. Guaranteed income provides a steady, predictable income to recipients to decide how to spend direct payments based on their personal needs.

Baltimore is the birthplace of redlining and residential segregation. That legacy shows up in stark inequalities and continues to shape life in the City of Baltimore today. These inequalities have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and have disproportionately impacted low income families.

Baltimore Young Families Success Fund (BYFSF) will address income inequality and will combat the economic fallout from COVID-19 by providing payments to eligible parents who have been hit hardest by the crisis with schools and daycare closing, experiences of unemployment, and housing or food insecurity.

To be eligible to participate in Baltimore’s Guaranteed Income pilot, applicants must:

• be residents of Baltimore City,

• between the ages 18 -24 years old at time of application deadline,

• be either the biological or adoptive parents, or guardians, must have full or partial care-taking responsibilities and

• have income at or below 300% of the federal poverty level based on their household size.

No. Once the application closes on May 9, 2022, eligible applicants will be placed into a randomized lottery to be selected.

Candidates may apply beginning 6:00 AM Monday, May 2, 2022 through 11:59 PM Monday, May 9, 2022

To apply, individuals must:

1. Answer the eligibility questions

2. Consent to taking the survey and filling out the application

3. Complete the application

NOTE: The application and survey may take up to 90 minutes to complete. If applicants opt to provide their email address in the application, they will have the option to exit the application before finishing and complete at another time. They will receive an email with directions to continue the application, which can take up to 4 hours to receive. Please do not wait until the last minute to complete the application!

Approval and Onboarding: The 200 verified participants will be notified of their approval and get instructions for how to receive their payments of $1,000/month for 24 months.

The CASH Campaign has a team of trained professionals ready to discuss the potential impact on benefits and provide free benefits counseling for selected participants who currently receive benefits (e.g., TCA, SNAP, SSI, WIC, childcare). The $1000/month should not impact participants’ taxes because it is considered a grant or gift, not income.

Anticipated Timeline: CASH Campaign of Maryland will begin contacting participants selected through the randomized lottery 2-3 weeks after applications close. The onboarding and approval process is expected to take 4-6 weeks. At this point, applicants that provided an email contact in their application and were not selected for the pilot will be notified. The Baltimore Young Families Success Fund’s website will also be updated to note that the pilot is filled and all participants have been identified and onboarded. Payments to participants will begin in late Summer 2022.

The money you receive in the pilot is unconditional meaning you can’t do anything to lose these funds over the span of the pilot project and you can spend it however is best for you and your family.

There are many programs available to residents in our community who need assistance. We want to make sure you can access them. Please refer to the community resource list to learn more about what programs and resources are available for Baltimore residents.

Last year, Mayor Brandon M. Scott joined the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and committed to launching a Guaranteed Income pilot to increase economic security among low-income Baltimore City residents. Mayors for a Guaranteed Income is a national network of mayors who advocate for a Guaranteed Income—direct, recurring cash payments with no strings attached—to lift up all of our communities and create a just country, one city at a time. Joining the network puts Baltimore at the forefront of a national fight for equity.

Research on similar initiatives over decades has shown that there is no negative effect on the labor market, and the most recent research out of Stockton, California shows recipients found more work. Guaranteed income is not a replacement for work, it’s a much-needed financial floor to supplement families who desperately need an economic safety net.

This demonstration project is financed by a mix of funds from the City’s American Recovery Plan funds and philanthropic donations.

Abt Associates will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation of the project and leverage qualitative research funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by a joint team of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty. In the RCT evaluation, quantitative & qualitative data will be analyzed across multiple core domains, including recipients’ physical functioning, mental health, income volatility, spending, consumption, employment, education, family dynamics and parenting, stress and coping, hope and mattering, household food security, and COVID-19 variables.

In addition to these core domains of the evaluation, Baltimore’s pilot project will also evaluate parental engagement and childcare usage, aim to increase parental time with children, and better understand how additional resources impact a family’s decisions about the quality and quantity of childcare.