Can $500 a month help Pierce County families long-term? Here’s what happened
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County trials $500 monthly aid to test guaranteed income's local impact.
- Participants reported gains in stability and mental health, yet housing lagged.
- Spending focused on retail, food and utilities; employment shifts remained modest.
A local organization has been running trials to see if a guaranteed income program can help low-income Pierce County families into financial stability. While the sample size has been small, they claim promising results.
During the Pierce County Council’s Health and Human Services Committee meeting on Sept. 2, Dona Ponepinto, President of United Way of Pierce County gave a presentation on the guaranteed income pilot programs.
“We have used the term ‘guaranteed income,’ it’s used a lot, and it raises red flags for a lot of individuals,“ Ponepinto told council members. “Cash is a strategy for helping get people to self-sufficency.”
She said the program was focused on serving specific populations who are disproportionately impacted by economic challenges.
“It’s intended not to be a replacement for wages, but really a much needed supplement to families who desperately need that financial safety net,” she said.
The program, called Growing Resilience in Tacoma (GRIT) is designed to demonstrate that a modest no-strings-attached cash investment can improve economic stability, housing security, mental health and well being and reduce poverty in the community.
The program targets ALICE families, ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed.
According to a report from UnitedForALICE.org, the two pillars of the ALICE measures are local costs of living and income. For example, in Washington in 2023 the ALICE Household Survival Budget was $32,436 for a single adult and $109,500 for a family of four with two adults, an infant and a preschooler.
According to Ponepinto, one-in-three Pierce County families are considered ALICE families and those families are not just limited to urban areas. She also said that many of the families participating in the GRIT pilot programs have head of households who worked multiple jobs, according to data from participants.
The first GRIT pilot ran for 13 months through December 2022 and included 110 single-head-of-household families with children under 18. All were in one of the four highest ALICE zip codes in Tacoma, according to United Way of Pierce County.
The project was funded by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for GI Research and the City of Tacoma. Ponepinto told The News Tribune the pilot cost approximately $900,000.
The first GRIT program gave each family $500 per month for 13 months. As part of the study, 132 families of similar demographics did not receive the monthly income but were monitored to compare to those who did.
“What we are trying to do here is test the efficacy of these kinds of programs,” Ponepinto told the council members.
She said researchers who continued to monitor and check in with the families who participated found that after the program, families were more financially resilient and many were able to improve their employment opportunities. However, she said food security and housing affordability still remained a common challenge.
According to data shared by United Way of Pierce County, 35.7% of participants in GRIT 1.0 spent their additional income on retail purchases and services, 32.2% spent it on food and groceries, about 9.4% spent it on transportation, 9.2% spent it on housing and utilities, 3.7% spent it on travel, leisure and entertainment, 2.2% spent it on medical expenses and healthcare, and 0.5% spent it on education.
Roughly 5.7% of participants spent their additional income on “financial transactions,” which Ponepinto said could include fees for ATM withdrawals and wire transfers.
A second pilot program, called GRIT 2.0, was funded by a $1.9 million provision from the state Legislature, in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, the City of Tacoma and Pierce County.
The study included 175 single-head-of-household families with children and expanded to other zipcodes in Pierce County such as Parkland and Spanaway. According to Ponepinto, the second study recruited applicants who were involved in education programs or had been involved with the criminal justice system.
GRIT 2.0 gave families $500 per month for 12 months from 2024 to 2025.
Thiery Prim participated in the GRIT 2.0 study and then became involved with the team studying the program.
During the Sept. 2 committee meeting, Prim said the team conducted interviews, surveys and focus groups with participants to better understand how the program impacted each family.
“We gathered together and did video surveys which ask a lot of our participants hard questions, ‘What are you doing with the money?’ ‘How are you spending it?’ ‘What changes with the monthly $500 you are getting?’” Prim told the committee.
Then the interviewers came together and shared their findings to understand how these types of guaranteed income programs could make the best investment.
From surveys and interviews, Ponepinto said they found participants noted improvements in food security, financial well-being, life satisfaction, and mental distress.
While they noted minimal impact on employment status, she said many people working 2-3 part-time or gig jobs dropped one job in exchange for more time to engage in education, training or pursuit of a better paying job.
She said survey results showed a reduction in indicators of financial hardship such as missed payments and avoiding healthcare expenses.
According to Ponepinto, an additional GRIT pilot program will conclude at the end of September. The program was funded by a $100,000 grant from a private organization. The pilot program gave 15 single-head-of-household families with children $500 a month for a year.
