Wu shows skepticism of guaranteed income pilot program

Local News

Such a program is not imminent, but some on City Council support the idea.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe

In a pair of radio interviews Thursday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pushed back on the idea of implementing a guaranteed income pilot program for certain residents. Wu said that funds could better serve residents by being invested in long-lasting solutions and infrastructure.

Her comments came in the wake of a City Council hearing earlier this week, where city officials said they had explored the concept but that no program was imminent. 

Multiple councilors expressed enthusiasm for the idea, which revolves around direct cash transfers to residents on a regular basis for a set period of time. Similar programs have been tested out by Massachusetts communities like Chelsea and Cambridge, as well as in other places around the country. Councilor Kendra Lara sponsored the hearing, and said a discussion of creating such a program for residents living below the poverty line was needed.

In appearances on WBUR’s “Radio Boston” and B87FM’s “Notorious in the Morning,” Wu said these pilot programs are usually framed as experiments to learn more about what people use the money for, whether it be basic necessities or more superfluous purchases. Data clearly shows that money from guaranteed income programs is mostly used for necessities like food or medical care, she said. 

In Chelsea, recipients spent 75% of the money handed out on food, as was intended. Lara cited this statistic in her hearing order. 

“Of course, people use money on things that they need in their daily lives. We know that. We don’t need to test it anymore, we don’t need to pilot this or that,” Wu said on B87FM. 

“How do we get something that we can actually sustain and scale and touch everyone? For me, I want to make sure that’s actually infrastructure building rather than dropping in some resources which will be very, very helpful for those small groups of families who can access it but then evaporate because the pilot ends,” Wu said on WBUR. 

Wu acknowledged that getting resources directly into the hands of struggling residents is the quickest way of helping people in the short-term. But in Boston, the scale of the resources required to help everyone in need in this way would be “tremendous,” she said.

Just under 19% of Boston residents live in poverty, and the child poverty rate is 27.7%, according to Lara’s hearing order. 

Council President Ed Flynn also expressed concerns about a pilot program like this during Monday’s hearing. He said that a guaranteed basic income program would require “significant funds” and that those dollars would be better used on improving basic city services and public safety. 

Any guaranteed income program in Boston would require the help of private philanthropic partners, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu said Monday. Wu said that any program like this should be “sustainable,” but that that would require funding from outside organizations. 

“It’s not what I have been hoping that we would do. Anything that we run in Boston I hope would be actual infrastructure that people need, whether it’s help with transportation or all the other basic necessities and something that would actually feel sustainable,” Wu said on B87FM. 

Of course, there are “absolutely” ways philanthropic organizations and others who want to support the city can help, she added. One example would be the improvement of school buildings; Wu said she wants to find “every possible partnership” to help with that. The city is also eager to work with outside partners to rebuild the Long Island recovery campus. 

On WBUR, Wu clarified that she is not opposed to the idea of experimenting in any area if it can help officials learn new things or find better ways of delivering services to residents. 

“I would need to feel like we were very clear of what something new or different we would learn here would be in order to say ‘OK it makes sense to direct funding to this rather than some larger infrastructure need that could actually build sustainable change over the long run,’” she said.