While Cambridge is full of ivy-adorned elite universities and sleek biotech giants, it also — like many cities — struggles with income inequality. A new city pilot program aims to slash that inequality through guaranteed monthly payments to single-family households.
Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday that the program, which will give $500 a month to more than 120 families in the city, is "just the simplest and most powerful way to do the most good for the most people during these really uncertain times."
Siddiqui, who serves on the city council and became mayor just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, said the majority of calls City Hall fields from residents are about financial difficulties. She said she's been working to implement the program ever since hearing about Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of 40 mayors piloting universal income programs in their cities across the country.
A year after the initial program launched, findings revealed that more recipients were incentivized to work full-time, undermining stereotypes about what so-called welfare systems do for the working class. According to an NPR report about a high-profile guaranteed income program in Stockton, California, financial stability provided through the program markedly improved job prospects and overall well-being.
Cambridge's program will specifically target single-parent families, who Siddiqui said are particularly vulnerable when it comes to building savings and paying basic bills. Chelsea launched a similar direct payment stipend last year, giving 2,000 low-income families a monthly stipend ranging from $200 to $400.
"There's these economic benefits, but what's really amazing is also these nonmaterial ones that are really significant," she said, like more time spent with families, and an improved sense of connection in inter-personal relationships.
Cambridge's program is primarily funded with $500,000 from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income; $100,000 from Harvard and MIT each; and donations from various local companies and foundations. Siddiqui said the data collected in Cambridge and throughout the broader program will hopefully help proponents of universal income get governmental buy-in.
"After this, we'll have mechanisms to advocate for these cash-based policies at the state and federal level," she said. "The goal is that we'll have so many of these that the government will step in and take charge."
Opponents of universal income programs often cite the cost over long term. Economist Paul Krugman wrote in a recent column examining Andrew Yang's "Freedom Dividend" proposal to give every American adult $1,000 a month would be financially unsustainable without massive tax increases.
Siddiqui said there are many ways to think about funding guaranteed income programs, tax increases for the wealthy included.
"If you really think about budgets as moral documents, I think the money should not be an issue," she said.
