Salem To Give Residents $500 Monthly 'Guaranteed Income' For 1 Year

SALEM, MA — Salem is launching a new program that will provide $500 a month in "guaranteed income" to 100 residents for one year in an effort to combat poverty in the city.

Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo said Uplift Salem is a pilot program that the city will run in collaboration with UpTogether aimed at helping make Salem "an affordable place for everyone."

"A guaranteed income program offers an innovative approach to help achieve that goal," Pangallo said. "Hopefully, the outcome of this year-long effort will be to add to the momentum for greater state and federal support for these programs and, most importantly, to life up some of our most vulnerable neighbors here in Salem."

The program cost of $685,000 is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and a private contribution to UpTogether. Residents will be able to spend the $500 a month in cash payments on whatever they choose.

Applications will be accepted here starting on Oct. 28 and remain open for two weeks or until 350 eligible applications are received.

Housed and unhoused Salem residents are eligible with income eligibility limited to being at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level based on household size.

Pilot members will be randomly selected from eligible applications, with members receiving their first payments by Dec. 1. UpTogether, a national nonprofit working to disrupt the way poverty
is addressed, is managing the pilot.

"We know guaranteed income works to help families achieve economic mobility. They know what's best for their families and can be trusted to make decisions that move them ahead," said UpTogether CEO Jesús Gerena.

Thomas Pineros Shields, from the politics, policy and international relations department, and Sara Moore, from the sociology department, are the two Salem State University faculty researchers who will evaluate the impact of the cash payments on the 100 individuals and a comparison group of 100 individuals.

Salem officials will utilize the data from this initiative to consider new ways of addressing poverty in the community.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)