Executive Summary 

As the wealthiest city in the world, New York City should not accept homelessness among pregnant mothers, families with young children ages 0 to 5, and young people ages 18 to 24. The city can also better help youth aging out of its foster care system alone, not having been adopted or reunified with their birth families, to transition to independent adulthood, so they do not experience homelessness or chronic instability that undermines their success. 

Adrienne is proposing NYC’s Guarantee for the Next Generation, a new guaranteed basic income program that will help end youth homelessness and homelessness for pregnant mothers and young children ages 0 to 5 in our city. It would also support young people leaving the foster care system. By providing monthly unconditional basic income for three years and connecting the participating New Yorkers to supportive services that help them with housing stability, educational advancement and workforce development, the city can help them achieve independence and self-sufficiency, end homelessness for the youngest children and youth without families. 

The NYC Guarantee for the Next Generation will save the city money by dramatically reducing the much higher cost of housing unaccompanied youths and families with young children in homeless shelters and hotels, which also produces worse health and socioeconomic outcomes that generate further costs to the city. If the plan performs like the pilot it’s based on, it could generate over $1.13 billion in cumulative savings.

This plan would also improve maternal and child health outcomes while reducing poverty that studies have shown yields positive improvements in public safety. Finally, the basic income provided to recipients would be injected back into the local economy as participants spend it to acquire essential goods and services from local businesses. 

 

Adrienne’s plan will make New York City a national and international leader in fighting child and youth homelessness and poverty, with the largest guaranteed basic income program in the U.S.

 

Background

Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI)

GBI programs support people enduring financial instability or poverty to make informed financial decisions that efficiently address their household’s needs, whether paying for rent, a new tire, or an unexpected trip to urgent care. Participants have the freedom to meet their most pressing needs without delay. Their financial future becomes more secure and predictable, providing families with the resources to address problems before they lead to larger and costlier burdens.

Historically, New York City, like places within many high‐income countries, has offered social assistance programs to help alleviate poverty for people with little or no income. These have increasingly become conditional and stringent due in part to federal requirements based on the premise that transitioning people from government support to paid work will improve their circumstances. However, many people end up with low‐paying and insecure jobs that can increase poverty because they lose benefits such as housing subsidies and health insurance while incurring job‐related expenses. These conditional assistance programs are also expensive to administer and can cause stigma. 

GBI programs have been proposed as a more effective approach for alleviating poverty, combating homelessness, and improving economic stability and socioeconomic outcomes. In the United States, these programs have been expanding, with pilot studies showing positive outcomes such as reduced income instability, improved mental health, and higher rates of full-time employment among recipients. Studies have generally shown improvements in health, well-being, mental health, food, income, and housing security. The results of initial pilot programs provide strong indications that a guaranteed basic income can help homeless individuals become housed and rebuild stable lives.

NYC’s First City-Funded Program by Speaker Adrienne Adams

In 2024, the New York City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams made history by allocating $1.5M in municipal funding to a guaranteed basic income program, administered by nonprofit partner The Bridge Project, which supports homeless pregnant women over three years. Speaker Adams led the council to change city law to permit municipal funding support for the approach. This represented the first time New York City had directly supported a guaranteed income program. The funding supports 161 homeless pregnant women in NYC with unconditional basic income, starting in pregnancy, over three years. It provides a one-time upfront $2,500 prenatal stipend, $1,000 per month for the first 15 months of program participation, and $500 per month for the remaining 21 months. The intervention, supporting 1 in 8 babies born into homelessness in our city in its first year, aims to have a profound effect on the health of the mothers and their babies. It also accelerates their transition into permanent housing, creating significant cost savings for our city. 

Pregnant people experiencing housing insecurity are far less likely to receive quality prenatal care and are more likely to experience adverse health conditions while pregnant and postpartum. Infants born into homelessness are also more likely to experience adverse health conditions, including a higher likelihood of respiratory disease, asthma, and hospitalization. Research shows that children who are born into and continue to stay in the shelter system begin to show signs of emotional problems and developmental delays by 18 months. They also have poorer nutrition and go to fewer preventive medical appointments, including vaccinations.

Putting money directly in the hands of mothers empowers women to make decisions about their finances and the well-being of their babies. Support during the first 1,000 days of life can allow an entire generation to separate from the toxic stresses of poverty, break intergenerational cycles, and provide the environment for children to grow into healthy adults — physically, financially, and mentally. In previous cohorts of the program, which was privately funded, 63% of participants living in transitional housing moved to permanent housing within 9 months of program participation. Ninety percent of participants reported improvements in their mental health and stress levels after receiving just one payment. There was a 242% increase in participants having more than $500 in savings after just 6 months in the program. These cohorts covered two groups of mothers, one with 100 participants and another with 500 participants. 

The program has served as a local and national model that Adrienne will expand to help end homelessness among those eligible: 1) in the youth shelter system, 2) in families with young children under the age of 5 years old within homeless shelters, and; 3) to ensure youth aging out of the foster care system alone can achieve stability towards successful futures.

Adrienne’s NYC Guarantee for the Next Generation 

Adrienne will establish the largest GBI program in the nation to end homelessness for pregnant mothers, children 0 to 5 years old, and youth ages 18 to 24. It would also help all youth aging out of the city’s foster care system alone to successfully transition into independent adulthood, preventing them from slipping into homelessness, poverty, and instability. Studies have shown that 20 percent of foster youth experience homelessness within six years of leaving care. This program would be a first step towards eliminating all child homelessness, starting with the families of the youngest children ages 0-5 in homeless shelters and young people ages 18-24 in the youth homeless system (recipients must be at least 18 years old, unaccompanied homeless youth ages 14–17 would be ineligible). 

Modeled after the first city-funded program by the city council, under Adrienne’s leadership, the program would provide three years of support for participants. Similar to the existing program, 

there would be an initial one-time stipend of $2,500, followed by monthly income payments over the course of the program that start at $1,000 per month and taper off to $500 per month for the remaining months. While these amounts are based on the existing program funded by the city council under Speaker Adams, Adrienne’s program as mayor would utilize the data to determine the precise amounts based on what is most effective in delivering outcomes. The program would be administered through partnerships with one or more non-profit organizations that operate similar programs and provide support services to the targeted populations, including educational, workforce development, and other support to participants. This assistance would complement the unconditional basic income to help participants attain long-term stability, self-sufficiency, and economic mobility. This approach must be combined with the continued increase in housing production to advance the goal of ending homelessness. Adrienne has the strongest record of any mayoral candidate in producing concrete results on housing in New York City. Adrienne led the approval of creating 120,000 new homes for New Yorkers, which she would continue to build upon as mayor.  

The most recent available data for New York City shows: 

• There are approximately 15,000 homeless children (0–5 years old) in the shelter system
• There are roughly over 6,000 unaccompanied homeless youth (ages 18 to 24)
• Approximately 500 young adults exit the foster care system every year on their own

Based on the council’s previous model, Adrienne’s GBI program expanding the support for these over 21,000 New Yorkers would cost the city approximately $430 million over two years. Adrienne’s plan would leverage social impact bonds and partnerships with the private sector, including philanthropy, to defray some of these initial costs and support the third year of programming. Partnerships with the private sector philanthropic organizations would support the third year of programming, similar to the funding model of the current program.

Program Cost Savings

The plan will save the city money by eliminating the much higher cost of housing these individuals in homeless shelters and hotels, which also produces worse health and socioeconomic outcomes that generate further costs to the city. 

• A previous pilot that this program would be based on resulted in 63% of basic income recipients moving into permanent housing. 
• The city’s cost for a family with children in the shelter system has been rising significantly and exceeded $270 per day in recent fiscal years. Families with children comprise the largest portion of the Department of Homeless Services’ shelter system, with a budget of $1.29 billion in the current fiscal year.

 

• If 63% of homeless families with young children eligible for Adrienne’s program (approximately 15,000 total) left shelter, the NYC Guarantee for the Next Generation would save the city over $955 million per fiscal year in shelter costs. 

• The current cost per person for Department of Youth and Community Development homeless youth shelters and DHS single adult shelters is approximately $130 per day. 
  • If the 63% transition rate applied to the roughly 6,000 homeless youth ages 18–24 eligible for the program, it would save the city $179 million per fiscal year from sheltering them. 
• These cumulative savings of over $1.13 billion, which do not even account for other non-shelter costs for these families and youth or the costs of instability for aging-out foster youth, would far outpace the $430 million two-year cost of Adrienne’s proposed guaranteed basic income program. 
• The savings would also enable the potential use of social impact bonds to help pay for the program, further limiting the cost to the city of supporting its operation. 

Similar to most guaranteed income programs, Adrienne’s would collect comprehensive data for a thorough evaluation of outcomes achieved and research to improve its effectiveness.