Reports, Data, and Plans
Tompkins County Homeless Needs Assessment 2022
2019 Independent Living Survey
2015 Independent Living Survey
YHDP Coordinate Community Plan 2022
Home Together Tompkins, Accessible
HUD Exchange – System Performance Measures
Ithaca Guaranteed Income (IGI)
The Ithaca Guaranteed Income program (IGI) directed privately-funded monthly cash payments to 110 randomly selected unpaid caregivers and their families in order to strengthen the City of Ithaca and supplement the existing social safety net. This can be a critical tool for improving racial and gender equity as well as strengthening relief and bolstering resilience amid COVID-19. Those not randomly selected for the cash assurance payments were offered a chance to remain in the research pilot’s control group, even getting paid for their time.
Why cash?
Cash is the currency of urgency, and guaranteed income works more effectively when it’s unconditional, direct and simple. Research shows us that recipients of such programs overwhelmingly use the money on their basic needs: housing, utilities, food, unexpected medical costs or other financial emergencies. The pandemic has shown us we should not be putting up barriers to desperately-needed aid. We believe people can be trusted to make their own financial choices, which supports the ideals of freedom and dignity that our country is founded upon.
Won’t “free money” encourage people not to work?
- Research on several similar initiatives over decades has shown
no negative effect on the labor market. - In Stockton, Calif., recipients actually found more work.
- In Alaska, where they’ve had a guaranteed income for nearly
40 years, cash did not stop people from working. - Most proposals for a guaranteed income are rather modest.
Would you quit your job for $5,400 a year?