Recently, an executive order was signed creating a Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) Task Force, the first major step toward designing a pilot program to support low-income residents with steady monthly payments. The task force will sort out key decisions—who would qualify, how much money participants would receive, how long the pilot should run, where funding would come from, and how to evaluate the results. Representatives from the city, the Hoboken Housing Authority, and local nonprofits including HOPES, the Hoboken Shelter, and the Hoboken Community Center will all have a seat at the table.
The following post takes a closer look at how guaranteed income programs work in other cities and what the data suggests a pilot might look like here in Hoboken.
What a Guaranteed Income Pilot Could Look Like in Hoboken
Over the past several years, cities across the United States have been quietly running a large social experiment: guaranteed income pilots. These programs provide a modest, reliable cash payment each month to a selected group of residents, with no work requirements and very few conditions. The goal is not to replace employment, but to reduce the constant instability that makes it hard for families to plan, save, and respond to emergencies.
The best-known example is the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) in Stockton, California. There, 125 residents received $500 per month for two years. Evaluations found that recipients experienced less income volatility, improved mental health, and, importantly, higher rates of full-time employment compared to a control group.
Stockton is not alone. The Magnolia Mother’s Trust in Jackson, Mississippi provides $1,000 per month to low-income Black mothers for a year. Participants report greater financial security, improved ability to meet basic needs, and progress toward education and savings goals. In California, the Abundant Birth Project offers monthly cash support during pregnancy to people at highest risk of poor birth outcomes, with early results pointing toward reduced stress and better conditions for maternal and infant health.
Taken together, these and many other pilots now form a meaningful body of evidence. Reviews of Stockton, for example, show that guaranteed income reduced income instability, improved mental and physical health, and increased full-time employment. The Jain Family Institute and others have documented dozens of pilots around the country, from large county-level programs to very targeted efforts focused on young adults, parents, or people leaving foster care.
The pattern that emerges is fairly consistent:
People spend most of the money on basics: food, housing, utilities, transportation, and debt.
Financial stress goes down; in many studies, measures of anxiety and depression improve.
Far from “discouraging work,” modest payments at the levels being tested often give people the stability they need to search for better jobs, take training, or increase hours.
None of this means guaranteed income is a magic cure, or that we understand all the long-term effects. But we are past the stage where this is purely theoretical. We now have real data from real families.
How does this relate to Hoboken?
Hoboken is a relatively small city with a high cost of living and considerable income inequality. Based on available figures, roughly 7.1% of residents would likely meet income criteria similar to those used in other pilots. For a population of 60,419, that translates to about 4,290 income-eligible residents.
No city can responsibly launch a fully universal program overnight, which is why most places begin with a pilot: a smaller, carefully designed effort that allows for rigorous evaluation. A reasonable Hoboken pilot, informed by the national landscape and by the 32 programs we reviewed earlier, might look like this:
Participants: 200 adults who meet clearly defined income and residency criteria.
Monthly payment: $500 per month.
Duration: 18 months (1.5 years).
Estimated direct cost: About $1.8 million in cash transfers.
Estimated total budget (including administration and evaluation): Roughly $2.07 million.
These numbers are not pulled out of thin air. A $500 monthly payment sits right in the middle of what many pilots are using. The duration matches several successful programs elsewhere, and the participant count is large enough to generate meaningful data, but small enough to be financially manageable for a city the size of Hoboken.
What would we want to learn?
If Hoboken were to move forward with such a pilot, the most important work would not be sending out checks; it would be answering clear questions:
Does a predictable $500 per month reduce evictions, utility shutoffs, or high-interest debt?
Do participants report lower stress and better mental health?
Does the added stability change employment patterns over 18 months and beyond?
How do families with children, older adults, or people with disabilities experience the program differently?
What happens when the payments stop?
Good research design would involve comparison groups, careful data collection, and collaboration with community partners. The goal would not be to “prove” guaranteed income works in all places for all people. Instead, it would be to understand what it does, and does not, accomplish in a specific context like Hoboken.
A cautious but serious opportunity
The national evidence does not justify sweeping claims that guaranteed income will solve poverty. It does, however, suggest that relatively modest, unconditional cash transfers can reduce instability, improve health, and in many cases support stronger engagement with work and education.
For Hoboken, a pilot would be an experiment in the best sense of the word: a structured way to test an idea, learn from it, and adjust. It would require transparency about goals, methods, and tradeoffs. It would also require a willingness to look honestly at the results, whether they are as dramatic as advocates hope or more modest and mixed.
As a researcher, I am less interested in slogans for or against guaranteed income and more interested in what high-quality evidence tells us. Right now, that evidence is encouraging enough to justify a careful, well-designed pilot in a city like Hoboken – not as a final answer, but as the next, necessary question.
Executive Summary- Potential Hoboken Pilot Program for Guaranteed Income
A cost analysis was conducted for 32 income-support programs across U.S. cities and counties. Program costs were estimated by multiplying participant counts, monthly payments, and program duration. Individual program costs vary widely, ranging from $437,500 (New Orleans) to over $46 million (New York City), driven primarily by differences in participant volume and program length.
The total estimated cost for all programs combined is approximately $173.6 million. However, the dataset includes two extreme outliers in scale—Los Angeles (3,200 participants) and New York City (1,300 participants)—that substantially inflate the overall cost picture. When these two programs are excluded, the recalculated total falls to $88.4 million, providing a more representative estimate of typical program costs.
Most programs fall in the mid-range, with participant counts between 100–200, monthly payments clustered around $500, and durations of about one year. These mid-sized programs generally cost between $500,000 and $2 million each.
This refined analysis highlights the cost distribution more clearly and helps distinguish large urban pilot programs from the smaller, more common efforts found across the majority of sites.
1. Potential Hoboken Pilot Design
City: Hoboken, NJ
Population: 60,419
Estimated income-eligible residents (7.1%): ≈ 4,290
Proposed Pilot: Hoboken Guaranteed Income Pilot
Participants: 200
This is a modest but meaningful pilot sample.
Still consistent with the size of many existing programs (e.g., Alexandria 170, Louisville 150, Providence 110).
Monthly Payment: $500
Matches the most common payment level in your 32-program dataset.
Duration: 18 months (1.5 years)
Aligns with Cambridge, Providence, St Paul PPP, St Paul Springboard.
Long enough to see trends in financial stability, employment, and well-being.
2. Direct Payment Cost Estimate
Formula:
Participants × Monthly Payment × Months
200 × $500 × 18
200 × 9,000 = $1,800,000
Estimated direct transfer cost:
≈ $1.8 million
3. Including Administration & Evaluation
Assuming 15% for administration, outreach, case management, and evaluation:
15% of $1,800,000 = $270,000
Total estimated pilot budget (with admin/eval):
≈ $2.07 million
This puts Hoboken’s pilot comfortably in the mid-range of the existing program ecosystem: similar payment level, familiar duration, smaller but analytically useful sample size, and a total cost that is realistic for a serious, research-grade demonstration.
Here is the data reorganized into a clean, easy-to-read table.
Program Summary Table*
| Location | Participants | Monthly Payment | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandria | 170 | $500 | 2 years |
| Atlanta | 275 | $500 | 1 year |
| Baltimore | 200 | $1,000 | 2 years |
| Birmingham | 110 | $375 | 1 year |
| Cambridge | 130 | $500 | 1.5 years |
| Columbia | 100 | $500 | 1 year |
| Durham | 109 | $600 | 1 year |
| Gainesville | 115 | $1,000 first month, then $600 | 1 year |
| Ithaca | 110 | $450 | 1 year |
| Los Angeles | 3,200 | $1,000 | 1 year |
| Los Angeles BOOST | 251 | $1,000 | 1 year |
| Los Angeles County | 1,198 | $1,000 | 3 years |
| Louisville | 150 | $500 | 1 year |
| Madison | 155 | $500 | 1 year |
| Mount Vernon | 200 | $500 | 1 year |
| Mountain View | 166 | $500 | 2 years |
| New Orleans | 125 | $350 | 10 months |
| New Orleans & Indianapolis | 470 | $200 ($50/week) | 1.3 years |
| New York City | 1,300 | Up to $1,000/month | 3 years |
| Newark | 400 | $500 | 2 years |
| Oakland | 600 | $500 | 2 years |
| Paterson | 110 | $400 | 1 year |
| Polk, Dallas & Warren Counties, IA | 110 | $500 | 2 years |
| Providence | 110 | $500 | 1.5 years |
| Richmond | 94 | $500 | 2 years |
| San Diego | 150 | $500 | 2 years |
| Santa Fe | 100 | $400 | 1 year |
| Shreveport | 110 | $660 | 1 year |
| St. Paul PPP | 150 | $500 | 1.5 years |
| St. Paul Springboard | 75 | $500 | 1.5 years |
| Tacoma | 110 | $500 | 13 months |
| West Hollywood | 25 | $1,000 | 1.5 years |
