Kunc's Colorado Edition

Since early 2023 hundreds of Denver residents experiencing homelessness received a monthly income whether they had a job or were unemployed. Eight hundred participants received the payment as part of a program called the Denver Basic Income Project.  It was a pilot program designed to study whether rates of homelessness decrease when people are given a base-line income. Participants received either $600 a year or $12,000 a year.  The money came from a combination of public and private sources, including $6 million dollars from the office of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.   But the mayor’s office recently announced it plans to end its funding of the project. A spokesperson pointed to disappointing results documented in a study of the program. So what were the results – and did the basic income payments help the people who received them? Erin O’Toole spoke with  Katie Calhoun -- an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University -- about the results of the study.  She served as a research lead on the project and