Event Celebrates Successful Guaranteed Income Project

Published on October 06, 2026

Rise Up Alameda Celebration 10-13-26.png

(Alameda, CA) – Tuesday, October 13, the City of Alameda, Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income will host a celebration of Rise Up Alameda, Alameda's guaranteed income pilot program, at Almanac Brewery's Emerald Lodge (651 West Tower Ave, Alameda). The "Guaranteed Income Works" celebration begins with a 6:00 PM reception followed by a 6:30 PM panel discussion featuring Michael Tubbs, founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and End Poverty in California; Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Co-President and Co-Founder of The Maven Collaborative; and Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft. The celebration ends with the premiere of a short film that spotlights several Rise Up Alameda participants.

The "Guaranteed Income Works" celebration coincides with the release of independent data from the second and final year of Rise Up Alameda, whose primary goal was to reduce economic instability for program participants, using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. Findings showed that guaranteed income recipients saw meaningful improvements in financial stability, as well as improved mental well-being, and more flexible working arrangements, with no negative effect on employment.

The guaranteed income pilot program provided 150 individuals with an unconditional cash payment of $1,000 per month for 24 months, from December 2023 through November 2025. To qualify, recipients had to be Alameda residents, ages 18 years and older, living in households with annual incomes no greater than 50 percent of the County’s Area Median Income (AMI) based on household size (e.g. $51,800 for a family of one, based on 2023 AMI).

To ensure that data from this pilot program enhanced the growing national body of research on impacts of providing a minimum basic income, the City of Alameda partnered with Abt Global to design a rigorous evaluation of Rise Up Alameda, including a control group of 180 randomly selected applicants with similar demographic characteristics that did not receive monthly payments. Analyzing data from the full program, the final report found that Rise Up Alameda participants are doing better than people in the control group across several key evaluation markers.

Key findings include:

Financial Stability
After two years, participants demonstrated stronger financial well-being than members of the control group, including:
- Participants were more likely to build savings, with 35% reporting more than $500 in savings at 24 months compared with 12% of the control group.
- Participants were less likely to take on debt during the study period. At 24 months, 16% of participants reported going into debt, compared with 27% of the control group.
- Participants were also less likely to report using certain public benefit programs, including SSI, SNAP, WIC, and SSDI.
Mental Health
The evaluation found consistent improvements in participants' mental well-being.
- Participants reported lower levels of psychological distress than members of the control group at both the 12- and 24-month follow-up surveys.
- Participants also reported lower perceived stress during the program, with statistically significant reductions observed across multiple survey waves.
- Taken together, the evaluation found a consistent pattern showing reduced stress and improved mental well-being among participants
●Flexible Working Arrangements
The evaluation found no detectable reduction in overall work participation or hours worked among participants.
- Participants and control group members reported similar levels of overall work involvement and similar average hours worked per week.
- Participants were less likely to report working full time and more likely to report working part time, suggesting that some participants used the additional income to pursue more flexible working arrangements.

Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, who championed the pilot program, said: “Guaranteed income is a proven tool to help our most vulnerable residents achieve financial stability. I am proud that Alameda launched this critical program when families need it most.”

"Mayor Ashcraft and the City of Alameda demonstrated tremendous leadership in putting forth this pilot program. The results show that people used the cash to create stability for themselves and their families," said Michael D. Tubbs, founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. "Alameda's data aligns with results from over 30 cities, proving that guaranteed income is a policy solution to income inequality and the affordability crisis facing Americans."

Alameda’s pilot is affiliated with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of over 180 mayors and growing. The research findings from Alameda build upon similar results from over 30 mayor-led guaranteed income programs in Stockton, CA, Saint Paul, MN, Cambridge, MA, Paterson, NJ, and many other cities across the nation, which have shown greater financial stability, increased employment, more parent-child time, and better levels of overall well-being, among other findings.

Read the full report on the second and final year of Rise Up Alameda here. To attend the Rise Up Alameda Culmination Celebration, registration is required as space is limited; those interested can RSVP via the registration link or by contacting econdev@alamedaca.gov or 510-747-6859.

Founded in June of 2020 by former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income is a coalition of nearly 180 mayors committed to advancing a federal guaranteed income – direct, recurring cash payments to middle and low-income people. Expanding to include city and county legislators in 2023 with Counties for a Guaranteed Income, and state legislators with Legislators for a Guaranteed Income in 2025, the network acts as a research and resource hub for municipal pilots around the country–over 70 and counting. An award-winning documentary film, It’s Basic, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023, follows recipients and illuminates the life-changing impact of guaranteed income programs on families’ economic security and opportunity.

###