How satellite images are helping one country hand out cash

To quickly distribute money to poverty-stricken areas in Togo during the coronavirus pandemic, the country's government turned to mobile cash payments. Working with a nonprofit and UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action, Togo established a system of mobile payments to reach 30,000 of Togo’s poorest people who were identified via satellite imagery and image analysis algorithms.

Togo distributed money to people in need, including informal sector workers, by identifying them using machine learning. Algorithms search satellite photos for clues of poverty, using measures like building density, and individuals within those areas are found using mobile phone data as a proxy of their wealth. Media campaigns also encourage people to apply for assistance. Once eligibility is confirmed, the first of five monthly payments is instantly sent to their phone and can be collected at local pick-up points. People without mobile phones can use an inexpensive SIM card in a borrowed phone.

Rent relief payments in California are helping public housing residents pursue full-time employment. The Jobs-Plus initiative provides payments that are conditional on enrolling in job training and placement programs. An increased income often disqualifies public housing residents from benefits and subsidies such as food stamps, childcare, and discounted rent rates which can negate the increased income from higher wages or more hours. Rent relief empowers residents to build a security net for themselves in addition to pursing full-time employment without the strain of losing much-needed benefits.

A new app is helping communities facing food insecurity in California. Forage Grocery finds the best bargains for SNAP recipients in their local grocery stores. Users upload their grocery list, select the stores they would typically visit in person, and the app compares prices to provide shoppers with a grocery list that makes the most of their SNAP benefits. The app also includes links and ads to local food banks and other resources for food insecurity.

After a Housing First program in Brno, the Czech Republic's second-largest city, stabilized families' housing and health status, the city of Jihlava used local and European Union money, plus a charity's services, for a two-year pilot to provide subsidized apartments and social services to a dozen families. Nationwide, EU-supported Housing First projects have found housing for about 400 people in 16 cities. Though often opposed as a giveaway, the programs both longer-term and in the pilot phase have shown that after a family is housed, the resulting stability helps set them up to solve many other problems.

American households were able to avoid income loss when the federal government implemented an extra $600 a week for anyone facing unemployment in addition to $1200 for those who qualified, regardless of their employment status. Despite an almost total economic shutdown, the universal payments have kept poverty rates from increasing. The money has provided a security net for households while also preventing a collapse by generating economic activity.

Maryland's punitive child-support policies, which have piled $233 million in largely uncollectable debt on the state's poorest residents and destabilized families and neighborhoods, could be improved by adopting reforms other states have used to increase payment compliance. In Colorado, for example, more support payments have meant healthier families and communities, after the state stopped offsetting welfare payments by whatever child support had been paid. Other states have stopped revoking driver's licenses and work permits as a non-payment penalty, in order to make steady employment more attainable.

The city of Stockton, California is providing several low-income residents with $500 per month to pilot the effects of a "Universal Basic Income." So far, pilot participants report feeling less stressed about money, have been able to pay off small amounts of debt, and can afford extra groceries with the additional monthly income.

Pennsylvania’s WIC program, offering people experiencing economic hardship food stipends, is switching from paper checks to plastic cards. The seemingly small change will have a huge effect on how the benefits are used, allowing participants to be more flexible in where and how they spend the money. Such flexibility means more of an opportunity to buy healthier food and to use the entire stipend across a month, rather than having to spend it all in one place at one time.

A pilot program in Jackson, Mississippi called Springboard to Opportunities is providing 20 single, African-American mothers living in public housing with $1000 a month, with no stipulations on how that money should be spent. The experiment so far has allowed mothers to save money, avoid predatory loans, pay off loans, and consider classes and higher education.