Hundreds of low-income D.C. families reported better mental health and food security after participating in a direct cash pilot program that could be a model for efforts elsewhere, according to an Urban Institute analysis of the program’s effectiveness

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       The THRIVE East of the River cash-payment program, a combined effort of four established D.C. nonprofits, launched in 2020 soon after the pandemic began. It gave $5,500 with no-strings-attached to approximately 600 families in Ward 8, where the median income is $40,000, under half the Districtwide median.

       Placing money into peoples’ hands without restrictions empowered them to address their needs, program administrators said, and removed the typical layers of bureaucracy and eligibility requirements that can frustrate recipients and hamper the effectiveness of aid efforts.

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       “I would argue that people with less means are going to make even more smart and thoughtful decisions because they know how to stretch the dollar,” said Scott Kratz, director of 11th Street Bridge Park, one of the nonprofits that created the program.

       The study’s quantitative and qualitative data showed that “participants often struck a thoughtful balance between addressing immediate survival concerns like paying rent and longer-term concerns like accumulation of debt,” analysts concluded.

       Recipients surveyed for the study, which was released Thursday, reported lower rates of mental health stressors and food insecurity than people with comparable incomes in the District and nationally.

       Nonprofit project offers cash lifeline to District’s poorest

       For Rahgeena Preble, a single mother of two young children who lives in southeast D.C., the money arrived last year when she needed it most. She didn’t have a car and had missed a couple of doctor’s appointments for her children because of unreliable transportation. She also had an unexpected medical bill for herself that she had to put on a credit card.

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       “It helped tremendously,” said Preble, 26. “I’m very grateful. It’s just amazing when you think about how much they’re giving.”

       Preble said she opted to take the $5,500 spread out over six months. She used it to pay for transportation, food and clothes for her children. And she paid down her debt. She also managed to save some of the money for an emergency fund after the payouts ended.

       “It made everything a lot easier for me,” she said. “The money definitely gave us a head start.”

       A city gave people $500 a month, no strings attached, to fight poverty. It paid off, study says.

       The THRIVE East of the River program is a partnership of organizations that have long addressed the needs of low-income District residents: Martha’s Table, Bread for the City, the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative and 11th Street Bridge Park (a project of Building Bridges Across the River). The program raised more than $4 million in private and foundation funding to pay for the cash relief effort.

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       Administrators say the results were a success by almost every measure. According to the report, a key goal of THRIVE — to stabilize participants hard hit by crisis — was mostly achieved. Participants in the program applied to the nonprofits that administered it and were selected based on need.

       The program “demonstrated that unconditional cash is an extremely effective form of support during an emergency,” said Scott Kratz, director of 11th Street Bridge Park.

       Before receiving the cash payments, 34 percent of the participants said they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat, the study reported. After receiving the payments that number dropped to 19 percent. Sixty percent of recipients said they used personal savings to meet household needs before receiving the payments. After the payments were disbursed, 50 percent said they resorted to personal savings.

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       Housing was a big concern for most of the participants. Fifty-four percent of recipients said they spent “all or almost all” or “a lot” of their $5,500 paying rents and mortgages.

       Mary Bogle, principal research associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank that conducts economic and social policy research, said the numbers on food and mental health are particularly compelling.

       “Here is a more marginalized and distressed population doing better on mental health than anybody else in the country in a like-type income group,” she said. “And on food insecurity, the THRIVE participants come close to what people without low income are reporting.”

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       Kratz and Bogle said they hope the findings from the study will encourage other cities and communities to consider similar cash disbursement programs to address the needs of low-income families, even in non-emergency situations.

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       Last month, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced a $1.5 million pilot program that will provide $900 in monthly cash assistance to new and pregnant mothers in need as part of an effort to support child care efforts in the city and reach children long before school.

       The city of Richmond launched a smaller guaranteed pilot program last year that provided 18 recipients with $500 a month for a year. It has since announced plans to expand by 37 recipients after reporting “very positive outcomes for the individuals who participated.”

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       Bogle and Kratz dismiss critics who argue that people who are poor will make bad decisions with their money if given cash directly rather than through food stamps or housing vouchers.

       “You have to look at the evidence on these things,” Bogle said. “The conclusion of these studies isn’t, ‘Oh, people with low income who you give benefits to never spend that money on temptation goods.’ The conclusion of these studies is that they don’t spend it [on those goods] any more than you or I or anybody else would.”

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       A study released last year of a $500 monthly guaranteed income program in Stockton, Calif., showed recipients were more likely to find full-time jobs, be happy and stay healthy. According to the study, most of the money distributed was spent on food or other essentials. Tobacco or alcohol made up less than 1 percent of tracked purchases.

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       Bogle and Kratz also said that local, state and federal governments should rethink how funding is currently distributed through allocations that subject applicants to extensive bureaucracy and ever-changing requirements.

       The current way that billions of dollars are distributed to the most needy “have so many strings attached to it and you have to jump through so many hoops,” Kratz said. “There is something that is just sort of clean, elegant and respectful of providing cash directly to families.”