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Elevate MV, the Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program

Elevate MV: A Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program

The Mountain View Elevate MV pilot program gives direct cash payments of $500 per month to 166 randomly selected eligible extremely low-income Mountain View residents that will elevate their basic income to provide more financial security.

The pilot program sets itself apart from other direct relief programs by providing unrestricted financial assistance to the most vulnerable in our community. This means participants in the pilot are empowered to choose how the assistance best meets the basic needs of their family and is not tied to conditions.

Elevate MV is operated through the City’s partner Community Services Agency (CSA), supported by YMCA, working with the payment processor, Community Financial Resources. This pilot program is a research study and will be a part of a national study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research along with participants from other cities across the State and nation.

Eligibility

Extremely low-income Mountain View residents below 30% Area Median Income (AMI); and
Pregnant or caregiver for at least one child under the age of 18 at the time of application

Program

Amount and Number of Participants: $500 per month ($6,000 per year), serving approximately 166 families
Selection Process: participants will be selected by an unbiased randomized process completed by the researchers (not the City or CSA)
Pilot Program Length: 24 months
Timeline: 1st Payments issued December 15, 2022.

Program Results

The Elevate MV pilot program includes a comprehensive Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) survey conducted by the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the University of Pennsylvania to understand the effects of providing an unconditional guaranteed income. CGIR will provide the City of Mountain View with a final report of all findings from the Elevate MV pilot 12 months after the final collection round, which occurs six months after the final disbursement in December of 2024. This means the comprehensive report will not be available until 2025.

However, the City will share ongoing updates about the pilot throughout its duration. Through a partnership with CGIR and the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, Stanford Basic Income Lab has received demographic and anonymized spending data from program participants. The information is presented in a dashboard accessible at: https://guaranteedincome.us/mountain-view

Lastly, the City will have ongoing media engagement throughout the pilot with a cohort of recipients who are supported to share their stories on a purely voluntary basis about how the $500 per month in direct cash, impacts their lives. The cohort will be ongoing from approximately December 2022 to December 2024.