Austin gave people $1,000 a month with no strings attached. One participant said the money helped her get by — but she's still struggling to get housed.

Jessica Nairns received $1,000 each month from the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot. Jessica Nairns

• The Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot served 135 low-income families who received $1,000 monthly.
• Jessica Nairns, a participant, said the program helped her advance her career and buy essentials.
• She still is unhoused and said the program didn’t give her financial stability to plan for the future.

Jessica Nairns, 43, is still living on the streets of Austin. But she’s confident she has a future helping others in her situation.

Nairns has navigated homelessness for the last six years after a painful breakup, finding temporary housing for a few months at a time but never having long-term stability. She’s worked for nonprofits and organizations in Austin, helping vulnerable and homeless residents.

As a participant in the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot, she received $1,000 monthly for a year between August 2022 and August 2023 to help her “survive more comfortably,” she said. She advanced her career, bought essentials to stay safe, and lived for a few months in a hotel. Though, the program didn’t fix all her issues and she hasn’t gotten back on her feet after losing her job.

She’s hopeful the lessons she learned during the program about being more resourceful and planning for the future will help her as she navigates the next chapter of her life.

“It took me until after the funding was over to realize that the main part of why it didn’t do what I thought I could do with it is that I was never able to maintain stability for more than a couple of months at a time,” Nairns said. “I didn’t have the ability to save some money. It was also just survival and paying what I needed to pay or paying because I’m behind or in an emergency situation.”

The Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot, which began in May 2022, served 135 low-income families who received $1,000 monthly with funding from the City of Austin and philanthropic donations. Austin was Texas’ first city to launch a taxpayer-funded guaranteed-income program.

“We saw things from people being able to get back to work, or being able to access better education opportunities, or being able to spend more time with their families so that they could then do better in school,” said Ivanna Neri, senior director of partnerships at UpTogether, which partnered with Austin for the pilot. “We also saw that people were able to start businesses, how people were able to work within their communities, and how those relationships got strengthened because of the investments.”

An analysis by the Urban Institute, a Washington, DC, think tank, found that participants used their payments for housing and food — the average participant spent over half of the payments on housing. The number of participants unable to afford a balanced meal fell by 17 percentage points at the end of the yearlong program.

The Austin program and a new program in Harris County, home to Houston, have been met with resistance from politicians who allege these programs are unconstitutional.

Although many participants reported benefiting from guaranteed income, Neri said the pilot is only a model and cannot work independently without looking at affordable housing crises and inequality in healthcare and education. Neri said another pilot iteration in Austin might launch by the spring or summer.

“This needs to be in partnership with policymakers, really thinking through other policies that need to be addressed, because this is not going to be a stand-alone solution if there are not other policies that also get addressed,” Neri told BI.

Navigating difficult times

Nairns has lived in Austin her whole life. She raised her kids in the city, rented homes in various neighborhoods, and worked at high-end and casual restaurants downtown as a pastry chef.

She gave birth to her daughter in high school, who was raised by her adopted family in Dallas, and the two remain close. Nairns also has a five-year-old son with her ex.

While pregnant with her son, she lived with her mother about 40 miles from Austin. She moved in with a friend in Austin when her son was nine months old, and she cleaned houses to pull in as much income as possible.

“It was living paycheck to paycheck every week, and it was tough since his dad wasn’t involved at all,” Nairns said.

She said her ex had a custody and visitation agreement written up, which she did not agree to. Because she didn’t feel comfortable dropping off her son, she was arrested on contempt of court charges.

During this time, she lost her job, car, and home. She stayed in hotels while looking for a safer environment and she asked her ex to take custody of her son temporarily while looking for more stable housing and work. She said her husband took full custody and moved to Ohio with her son three years ago.

Since then, she has experienced homelessness off and on and has tried to get help with housing through programs in Austin. She was offered a room she could share with three other people, but no visitors were allowed, and she turned down.

In winter 2019, she was given the contact of a man also experiencing homelessness who had resources to stay safe, and within two days, she moved in with him. They lived in a tent and began building structures like a bathroom and kitchen in their camp.

“The only thing we didn’t have at the camp was internet, but I was able to source food and water every day, so we actually weren’t too bad off,” Nairns said.

At the time, she volunteered with Austin Mutual Aid, helping secure food and clothing for other vulnerable Austin residents during and after a major storm.

She said a generous woman helped her pay for a hotel for two weeks during the storm. The same woman later offered her an apartment for six months after the storm with a kitchen, shower, and bed.

Having a place to live for a few months gave her the stability to take a paid role with Austin Mutual Aid, creating programs such as outreach and public art.

“I knew that there were so many people with issues that needed help,” Nairns said. “There were good people who just couldn’t access the right person to listen to them.”

She later moved out of the apartment after her boyfriend at the time cheated on her, and she got a hotel room that was half her monthly salary. She could afford a car with her salary, though between all her expenses, she couldn’t save much money.

Joining the Austin Basic Income Pilot

Nairns said she learned about the Austin Basic Income Pilot through another organization called the Austin Area Urban League, which helps low-income families.

“When I first found out about it, it was like a dream come true — I was thrilled,” Nairns said. “I hoped this would help so much, and it did. My income doubled, obviously, and for the first few months, it was actually great, and I was really enjoying having a real income for the first time in a long time.”

She said a lot of the money went toward costs associated with her job, such as gas and various items to help vulnerable people in the community such as food. For part of the program, she spent her earnings on a hotel room, and most of her groceries were donated.

However, she said she was “just passing by” with the extra $1,000. There was a point where she pulled in $2,800 to $3,000 between the program’s payments, her mutual aid job, and governance work with another organization.

“It was helpful because it helped me to survive a lot easier, but it didn’t do what I wanted it to do, which was really boost me up to the next step and get my head above water,” Nairns said. “It definitely helped me to survive on a level of somewhat being comfortable rather than struggling every day to find money to fund yourself.”

She said there was never an opportunity to save money and prepare for life after the payments. She acknowledged her story may not match the typical participant who may have had more financial security at the pilot’s start.

While still receiving payments, she was laid off at Austin Mutual Aid, losing her housing and car the same day. The $1,000 went to food, blankets, ice, and other basic living expenses to stay safe.

She lived in a shelter for three months while navigating new opportunities, though she lost her bed. She returned to a camp in late 2023 and received resources from a friend.

She said she’s applying for new positions and still works as a “lived experiences consultant,” which entails talking to people in the community about being homeless to highlight gaps in the city’s services and suggest what can be improved.

“Right now, I’m just recouping from all that and then trying to get back on my feet, get back into the full swing, and be involved in working and doing what I want to do,” Nairns said. “I have a lot of support from the people I worked with as well, so hopefully, it’ll lead to more opportunities to get more stability and more money and hopefully some kind of housing here, somewhere.”

She said the program helped her learn to better care for herself and spend money more wisely.

“It helped me to realize my abilities and my limits very much,” she said. “I’m doing better now, honestly. It allowed me to be stable and kind of helped build my career. I wouldn’t have been able to go as far as I did with working and being homeless had I not had that money to be able to be more comfortable.”

Have you recently received payments from a basic income program in a US city? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].