A basic income program in Yolo County — one of the first such programs nationwide — lifted unhoused families above the California poverty line for two years. Families could, for a while, spend less time worrying about money and more time being a family, according to new University of California, Davis, research.
The program provided a monthly stipend to 76 mostly single-parent families between 2022 and 2024, helping them gain housing, food and general wellbeing for two years.
As one parent described her situation, “I’m in a motel instead of in my car with my daughter . . . it’s [Yolo Basic Income] got me where I needed to be.” This housing assistance helped provide stability and health at a critical time in a young child’s life.
The study , which analyzed the program and families’ experiences in it, was published March 26 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health .
The program gave families on average about $1,300 a month. Families also received social services and access to community resources. As a result, some reported learning to budget money better.
They also reported they were able to pay more attention to their children’s healthcare and educational needs while not worrying as much about money.
Researchers from the UC Davis Center for Regional Change, and the Department of Human Ecology, checked in with the families throughout the program, charting their experiences with finances, education, housing, health, mental health, substance abuse and entry into the child welfare system. The Yolo County program was one of the first 100 guaranteed income programs nationwide, and one of 28 guaranteed income pilots in California. They were funded through private and public money.
Participants reported that the program gave them room to think, plan and envision — which is necessary as people navigate the complexities of poverty, housing and early child development and care, said Catherine Brinkley , the associate professor of Human Ecology and Regional Development at UC Davis who led the study.
“Our results show that immediate improvements in housing stability were accompanied by improvements in mental health and reduced stress, aligning with findings from previous studies that suggest income support can mitigate the psychological toll of poverty,” she said.
For some participants trapped in multigenerational poverty, participation in this program was not sufficient to create a permanent path to financial independence, researchers said. Administered and reviewed by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors — and covered regionally by media during and after its completion — the initiative has lessons for communities nationwide still considering such programs, Brinkley said.
While the benefits were clear, researchers recommend that future studies track families over the long term to evaluate lasting effects on housing, health and wellbeing. They also recommended tapering out the assistance to help participants face the realities of diminishing financial support. Another recommendation was to extend the funding beyond two years, in line with many child support programs in other countries.
From April 2022 through March 2024, 76 adults received unconditional cash support in addition to their existing CalWORKS, or California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids, and other benefits, to bring their family up to $1 above the California Poverty Measure minimum. The average monthly family stipend was $1,289 per month. Household size ranged from two (one adult and one child) to eight, with the average family size of three. Every household included one child under the age of 6.
Most parents were single-parent households led by women.
Parents reported that the basic income program reduced their stress levels, which made them better parents. Collectively, participants described how the reduced parent stress coupled with the material support positively changed the childhoods of the children in the program.
Study co-authors included Ahna Ballonoff Suleiman, executive director of the Center for Regional Change, as well as Selena Regalado and Katherine Menendez of the CRC, and Emmanuel Onuche Momoh, a Ph.D. student in Human Ecology and Geography at UC Davis.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Case study
People
"I'd Probably Be Homeless": Basic Income Participants’ Lived Experiences Related to Housing Stability, Health, and Wellbeing
26-Mar-2026