Erin Allen: Good afternoon, I'm Erin Allen and this is The Rundown. As expensive as things are these days, a little help every month could go a long way for a lot of us. And both Cook County and the City of Chicago along with a few other cities in Illinois are starting to provide that help in the form of monthly cash payments directly to residents. Sounds like a damn dream, right? Well it might be for more than 3,200 Cook County residents selected for what it's calling the Cook County Promised Guaranteed Income Pilot. There are several programs like these happening all over the country, but Cook County's the largest and it's the first one where the government has committed to permanently continuing payments after the pilot ends. The Chicago pilot is already underway and Elvia Malegaon has spoken with some of its recipients. She's a reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times and she's also looked into the Cook County program. Elvia is here to talk through all of it, hi Elvia.

Elvia Malagón: Hi, thanks so much for having me.

Erin Allen: Thanks for being here. So break it down for us. What exactly is basic or a guaranteed income?

Elvia Malagón: So, the concept of a universal basic income is that everyone would receive a certain monthly income every single month. The city and county are doing what they're calling a guaranteed base income and what's different about it is that with a guaranteed income, they are looking at a specific group of people rather than a universal basic income where everyone would be eligible for it.

Erin Allen: What are the demographics, what would qualify a person for that specific guaranteed income?

Elvia Malagón: It was a wide range of people that could be eligible. Anyone who was 18 years and over. And there was a residency requirement for the Chicago and the Cook County one. And the main requirement was that in both pilots, your household income had to be at or below 250% of the federal poverty line. So for example, if you're living in the household of three people, your total income had to be about $55,575 or less. So they were targeting people who are more so at the low income or poverty line.

Erin Allen: Okay, so it does strike me personally a little bit odd that the county that includes a city that both would be doing their own separate pilots. Do you have a sense of why they would separate the two?

Elvia Malagón: That's a really good question. Um, and I'm not sure. I think the only thing that comes to mind is because the city received a certain pot of money from the federal government, as did the county. So I think that's why, and there are some differences to. The Chicago pilot is only running for 12 months, whereas the Cook County pilot is running for two years. So I do think there will be interesting data that comes from that.

Erin Allen: Okay, that makes a little bit more sense, especially from a research perspective too. So can you talk a little bit about the other cities in Illinois that are piloting something like this?

Elvia Malagón: Yeah, we know that Evanston is also piloting one and it's a bit smaller, a lot smaller actually than the Chicago and Cook County one. And then there's also a group that's doing a private pilot that's also gearing towards a specific population, but other than that there's not too many in Illinois. But we do know across the country there are other cities that are doing this. For example, Los Angeles is doing a similar pilot with a little bit of differences, in that they're giving $1,000 and they're targeting people who have a child which was not a requirement here in Chicago or Cook County.

Erin Allen: Okay, let's focus on Cook County. What is the timeline? When does... When does the pilot actually start? What was the application process? Like, how did that whole thing go? And how will it continue to unfold?

Elvia Malagón: Yeah, so the application process happened this fall and when I spoke to people who were applying all of them said that if you had some form of knowledge of using either a mobile phone or using a computer, it seemed like a pretty straightforward process and all the participants were selected through a lottery process. And they have been selected. And right now they've been going through a bit of an orientation of getting signed up, figuring out if they want to have their payments done either through their direct deposit at their bank account. If they don't have a bank account, they get a prepaid card that the $500 is put into, and they get every single month. And right now, the county is saying that they're aiming to have their very first payment out by mid-December before the holidays.

Erin Allen: Okay, that makes sense just to make sure people want to do some last minute planning, they can have a little extra cash to do that. And then what about the Chicago program? I know that it already started, right? But how's the timeline I'm looking for that?

Elvia Malagón: Yeah, so some people have been getting payments through the Chicago pilot since July. There was a bit of a longer process there for the orientation and to get everyone signed up. So between July and September was when all five thousand participants were officially enrolled and have started to get the $500 monthly benefit and somewhat similar to the county program, they either get it through direct deposit or they're getting it through a prepaid card. And both the county and the city are actually partnering with the same exact organization called give directly, who is the one that's actually administering the program.

Erin Allen: Okay. Now, I know that you spoke with a couple of folks who will be receiving these funds as a part of the City of Chicago program. How did they say the money would be most helpful to them when you talk to them,

Elvia Malagón: It's a lot of essential expenses. One person that I spoke to his name is Felix. He's 71 years old, lives in Pilsen and he actually had to leave his job earlier this year. He did factory work. But because his wife has been having some pretty serious medical issues, they needed someone in the family to be her caretaker. So he left his job and he said that him and his wife went through their savings, they lean pretty heavily on their children for help and assistance. So the money that they're receiving is really towards helping pay rents. His children pick up the rest of the rent and also just basic essentials, you know, toiletries, fruit from the supermarket. His wife has to have these specific type of supplemental meal shakes, so helping him purchase that. Another woman that I spoke to her name is Gail Goodwin and she's 57 years old and like Felix, she's been using it towards her rent. She's been helping out her children even though she lives on her own. She's still a bit of a caretaker helps out her grandchildren and children when she can. And one of her big goals was even though she isn't pretty good health, she is concerned about what will happen um when she does die and she doesn't want her children to be burdened with debt. So she's hoping to be able to stash away a little bit of this, so her children could use it towards any funeral expenses when that time comes.

Erin Allen: Yeah. So I assume both Cook County and the City of Chicago are going to want to be measuring and evaluating their respective pilots. Do you have a sense of how they plan to do that?

Elvia Malagón: Well I think they're tracking um how the people are spending the money and if you look at some of the other pilots from across the country, that seems to be one of the big things. We know from the other pilots that started before this, another thing that they've looked at is what are the outcomes of people, like were they able to move up to different jobs? Were they able to secure better, more stable housing? A lot of people that I spoke to mentioned that they had no savings like whatsoever if an emergency were to happen. So I think that's also an interesting thing to look at, is if people are able to not only pay all of their bills, but also start to build up money if there's some sort of emergency or like Gail, the participant I was mentioning - if there is sort of like a tragic death that happens in their family.

Erin Allen: Yeah. Is there anything else that you think it's important to bring forth here.

Elvia Malagón: Just that I think it's an interesting time. People who I've spoken to have mentioned that. I mean the most unique thing about this compared to other forms of social service assistance that we have in this country is that there are no strings attached. I mean of course you're not supposed to use it for like illegal things or things like that, but no one is sort of monitoring how they're spending it and it gives people this sense of agency to really be the ones that are kind of dictating their household budget. And they're the ones that are deciding what is most important to them. And I think that's kind of unique and I think it will be interesting to see how that impacts the program overall and if this would continue into a larger, more federal program.

Erin Allen: Yeah, there's nothing like autonomy. Well, Elvia Malegón is a reporter with the Chicago Sun Times. Elvia, thanks so much for keeping us updated on all this. 

Elvia Malagón: No problem at all. Thank you guys so much.

Erin Allen: And that's it for The Rundown today. We'll be back in your ears early tomorrow morning. I'm Erin Allen, talk to you then.

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