What can Philadelphia learn from Cleveland's water department?

Philadelphia’s Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) provides water debt alleviation and locks water bill rates to 2-3 percent of a household’s income. The program provides a unique security net to qualified homeowners in the city. Cleveland has the potential to provide a similar benefit to its residents with a few manageable changes.

Philadelphia’s Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) provides water debt alleviation and locks water bill rates to 2-3 percent of a household’s income. The program provides a unique security net to qualified homeowners in the city. Cleveland has the potential to provide a similar benefit to its residents with a few manageable changes.

A guaranteed income program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, provided 130 single caregivers who made below 80% of the local median income with $500 cash payments, no strings attached. The 18-month program, Cambridge Recurring Income for Success, helped participants increase their savings, cover emergencies, and spend more time with their children.

Connecticut and several other East Coast states are implementing baby bond programs to help children in low-income families generate wealth. The programs create trust funds for babies born into families on public health insurance that are managed by the state until they turn 18.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the nonprofit-run Magnolia Mother’s Trust is a guaranteed income program providing a no-strings-attached monthly stipend of $1,000 to Black mothers living in affordable housing to help them combat poverty.

The city of Louisville, Kentucky, partnered with community organizations to launch a guaranteed income program for young adults. The program distributed monthly $500 payments to participants for one year with no strings attached to help ensure financial stability, reduce community violence, and combat displacement.

Fund a Mom gives 40 single mothers in Jaipur, India, $60 a month with no strings attached. The guaranteed income program helps them cover necessary expenses giving them the breathing room to find paid employment.

A philanthropy-funded guaranteed income pilot program, Oakland Resilient Families, distributed a $500 monthly payment to 300 participants for a year and a half. The money was provided with no strings attached, so participants could use it for whatever they needed.

Between 1993 and 2019, government aid for working families in the United States grew, with federal spending on low-income children roughly doubling. This expansion of the safety net coincides with significant declines in child poverty, with research showing that child poverty fell 59 percent during that time period.

Minnesota’s community resource centers are one-stop hubs where families and soon-to-be parents can get help with everything from applying for benefits to finding child care, housing or transportation. The state now has 16 centers in seven counties, though continued state funding for these facilities is uncertain.