A new study found Santa Fe’s guaranteed income program made a positive impact on 100 student participants in its first year. Mayor Alan Webber led the initiative called The Santa Fe Learn, Earn, and Achieve Program (Santa Fe LEAP). The pilot program gave local community college students who are parents a $400 per month guaranteed income. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found improved financial security, better housing, and greater workforce participation for the recipients of the monthly cash payments.

Mayor Alan Webber says, “This successful program directly addresses the fundamental problem that is holding New Mexico back: poverty. A monthly stipend will allow community college students and young parents to complete their program. With a certificate or diploma from the community college, these graduates can get good paying jobs. Good paying jobs puts them on a path to a better life, and we break the cycle of poverty. It works."

The pilot project collaboration included Mayor Alan Webber, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, the Santa Fe Community Foundation, and Santa Fe Community College. It’s the nation’s first guaranteed income pilot program targeted toward community college students with lower incomes, caregiving responsibilities, and under 30 years old. Since the release of the University of Pennsylvania results, Wayne County, Michigan has adopted the Santa Fe LEAP approach for their community.

Santa Fe LEAP provided a monthly guaranteed income of $400 per month, no strings attached, to 100 recipients from October 2021 through November 2022. Researchers worked with Santa Fe’s Expanding Opportunities for Young Families (EOYF) program to randomly select students enrolled at Santa Fe Community College who were age 30 or under, the primary caretaker to at least one child, with an income of less than 200% of the federal poverty line. The results of Santa Fe LEAP show that recipients were able to reintegrate into the workforce, secure better housing, improve their financial security and maintain their progress or finish school. Key takeaways include:

Employment – There was a statistically significant increase in employment within the first six months of the LEAP program, and a 19-percentage point increase in full-time employment by the end of the study period. The percentage of stay-at-home caregivers in the recipient group fell slightly from 11% to 9% over the same period.

Financial wellbeing – Guaranteed income increased the capacity of students to handle a $400 financial emergency with cash or a credit card paid off in full. The percentage of participants who could afford such an expense started low, at 22%, and increased to 39% six months after the program ended, suggesting a lasting impact.

Housing – There is evidence that living conditions improved for participants. There was an increase in the percentage of recipients reporting living in “better homes”, beginning at 54% at the start of the program and increasing to 76% after the study ended. Neighborhood quality also improved, with the percentage of students reporting a better environment increased from 40% at baseline to 65% after the program ended, reflecting an improvement in overall living conditions.

The program was meant to address the well-documented struggles of community college students juggling employment, schoolwork, parenting, and familial responsibilities that can leave degrees unfinished and student loan debt. The study period coincided with historic inflation in both consumer goods and housing costs, and recipients faced an increasingly difficult financial reality while pursuing higher education, combined with the increased caregiving responsibilities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Santa Fe LEAP provided a fungible resource—cash—that could be leveraged to address various household needs.

Santa Fe LEAP is affiliated with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of over 170 mayors and growing. The research findings from Santa Fe build upon similar results from over a dozen mayor-led guaranteed income programs which have shown increased employment, greater financial stability, more parent-child time, and better levels of overall well-being, among other findings.