PORTLAND, Maine — This time last year, Allison Edwards was living in fear and uncertainty, putting off necessary car repairs and skipping meals so her 3-year-old daughter could eat.
Only a few months later, Edwards is hopeful for the future. The 29-year-old is taking better care of herself, easily makes rent payments, fixes her car when necessary and will graduate this spring from Southern Maine Community College and enter the workforce. She can even send her daughter to gymnastics class, something she wanted to do for years.
“I didn’t think it would ever be possible for our family that my daughter would be enrolled in any extracurricular activities,” Edwards said. “It makes me feel good as a mom that I can provide for her. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right.”
This pivot was possible for Edwards because she is one of 20 low-income, single mothers enrolled in a program run by the Quality Housing Coalition, a Portland-based housing agency, meant to pilot a universal basic income. Since June 2023, Edwards and the other participants have received a $1,000 direct cash payment with no strings attached.
The year-long program is well past its midpoint now. Preliminary survey results show that every participating household has reported life changes that they weren’t able to achieve on other assistance programs. The full results won’t be published until the summer, but it renews a long-standing question for policymakers: How are assistance programs best administered?
A state committee formed by the Maine Legislature to study universal basic income took that question up five years ago. It published a 2020 report that found a “clear correlation between a guaranteed basic income program and a reduction in poverty” and that Maine’s safety net programs are poorly coordinated and deter those most in need from seeking them.
The idea has gone no further in Augusta and is unlikely to anytime soon. The liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy said in a November report that a state agency should run a cash assistance program. But MaineHousing, the state housing authority, does not administer any such programs now and has no plans to start, said Scott Thistle, a spokesperson for the agency.
“We have not been asked or been provided funding to administer such a program,” Thistle said. “We’ll certainly take a look at the study to learn more about it.”
The Portland-based Quality Housing Coalition put its program together with private donations and a grant from the city to cover staffing. The pilot is modeled after a Mississippi program, The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, that the Legislature used as a case study when formulating their report in 2020.
The program began after coalition staffers noted that many of the single parents involved in its flagship housing program, Project Home, were making too much money to receive benefits like Section 8 or General Assistance. Yet they were still “struggling to make ends meet,” said Peace Mutesi, who coordinates the pilot program.
“Imagine one paycheck having to cover your childcare, your transport,” she said. “It is really hard to make it out of that.”
People in that position illustrate the so-called benefits cliff, known as the inflexible decrease or elimination of public benefits that can come as incomes increase. While welfare programs often prompt contentious discussions in Augusta, lawmakers in both parties have prioritized bills easing these cliffs in certain programs.
The central idea underlying basic income programs is that families know how to best spend their money. Providing cash payments without specifying what they are used for nor requiring monthly documentation of purchases cuts bureaucracy, upholds the dignity of beneficiaries and offers them flexibility, the basic income committee wrote in its report.
Less than a year into the program, Mutesi said the 20 participating mothers have most often used the funds for housing, transportation and childcare. A few have used the payments to start their own small businesses, attend work training or pursue an education.
Coumba Holland, 40, has used the money to tide her family over while she trains to become a bank teller. Though she receives a Section 8 housing voucher that covers her rent, her two children, aged 7 and 4, have autism and need specialized childcare that Holland can now afford.
“It’s given [me] independence,” said Holland, who was interviewed through a translator.
Edwards relied on food stamps and cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs after experiencing homelessness and substance use disorder, but she found them convoluted and time-consuming to apply for.
“This saves a lot of time to be able to just meet our family’s needs when they come up, instead of having to wait on somebody else or wait on an agency,” Edwards said.
Eight months into the pilot program, Mutesi said that none of the women would qualify for it should the trial be run again. The coalition has enough funding for one more year of the program, but they will study the results this summer before determining whether to do so.
It is clear that many in the group have been able to save money and invest in their families’ future, Mutesi said. They’ve also formed a tight community, even though many of the mothers come from different countries and speak different languages.
“Being able to hang out with people who understand the struggles that go into being a single parent, have fun and forget about the harder parts together has been nice,” Holland said.