LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The national movement to promote guaranteed income programs as a solution to poverty took off in 2020.

What’s the background?

Guaranteed income programs, which provide monthly cash payment to low-income participants with no strings attached, sprouted up all across the country.

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That came during the first year of the pandemic and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income was launched as a network that unites mayors across the country in promoting guaranteed income programs. Lansing, Ann Arbor and Flint are members of that mayor’s network.

ARPA funds.

In January 2021, President Joe Biden announced the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which was described then as an “Emergency Legislative Package to Fund Vaccinations, Provide Immediate, Direct Relief to Families Bearing the Brunt of the COVID-19 Crisis, and Support Struggling Communities.”

Municipalities were flush with federal pandemic money and used ARPA to fund many of these guaranteed income programs.

How did Michigan cities spend the money?

The city of Flint approved $1 million in ARPA money to fund Flint Rx Kids. The program also received $16.5 million from the State of Michigan’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. Flint Rx Kids provides every new mother in Flint with $1,500 during mid-pregnancy and then families receive $500 per month after birth for the first 12 months. One program will run in Flint for three years and another will start in Kalamazoo in January and run for a year.

The city of Ann Arbor approved $1.6 million in ARPA money to fund Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor. That program gives $528 a month to low-income entrepreneurs that started in January 2024 and goes through December 2025.

“Rx Kids only has a little ARPA money. Our more important source of public funds is from the TANF block grant, which is a federal block grant states receive every year,” said Luke Shaefer, a University of Michigan professor and director of Poverty Solutions, a U-M research center, in an email to Michigan News Source.

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Kristin Seefeldt, an associate professor at U-M and an administrator at Poverty Solutions, said the Ann Arbor entrepreneurs’ program is set to be funded for 24 months.

“After that, each community that runs a pilot will need to decide how they want to proceed. For example, Denver is continuing their program, although on a much smaller scale,” Seefeldt said.