Guaranteed Income Pilot Program

No applications are being accepted at this time.

The City of South San Francisco’s Guaranteed Income Pilot program, launched in 2021, was designed to assist the City’s most vulnerable populations to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and allow everyone to join the knowledge economy and succeed in Silicon Valley. Guaranteed Income reduces month-to-month income fluctuations and alleviates financial scarcity. There have been several guaranteed income pilots around the country under various names, and South San Francisco adds to the explorations of this type of assistance program.

SSF Program Design

The South San Francisco Guaranteed Income Pilot program goals were two-fold:

  1. To provide immediate and direct income to vulnerable households recovering from COVID-19
  2. To provide tools and resources to help residents become upwardly mobile economically

The program was administered by the YMCA Community Resource Center (CRC) located in South San Francisco provided $500 per month for 12 months to 160 eligible households. The program intake required participants to evaluate their self-sufficiency, participate in a budgeting and financial counseling session, and to open a bank account for the deposit of monthly payments. Participants were incentivized to participate in quarterly surveys throughout the program about how they were spending money and what having the guaranteed income enabled them to do.

Program Takeaways

Read the Final Program Report(PDF, 505KB) for more detailed information.

Some Highlights from the Pilot Program

  • 275 children benefited from the program as dependents of the 160 participating adults.
  • Prior to the program, the average monthly household income was $1,816. The program truly served the lowest income individuals.
  • The top four uses of the Guaranteed Income were expenses for:
    1. Food
    2. Rent
    3. Utilities
    4. Clothing
  • 67% of participants note that they plan to keep their bank account open after the program’s conclusion.
  • Participants kept their jobs, though those who worked fewer hours largely invested that time in their education, job training, or spending time with children.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

The City saw that overall the program met its goals to help vulnerable households recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and become more economically mobile. The program was most impactful to participants who can utilize the time with the guaranteed income to take care of health, job training, and education expenses for themselves or their family members. The City is interested in a second pilot program and looking at funding options to make this happen. Anyone interested in partnership can reach out to housing@ssf.net.

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