Author, advocate explores universal income among solutions for homelessness

A San Francisco-based nonprofit group focused on helping people who are homeless is expanding basic income payments, with results that they hope can win over local elected officials willing to try the programs using public money.

Kevin Adler, founder of the Miracle Messages nonprofit group and author of the book “When We Walk By,” appeared at a South by Southwest panel discussing his group’s work to help those experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco area over the last decade. In addition to pilot programs for basic income, believed to be the first such program in the country at the time, Miracle Messages offers family reunification help for those who wish to find their family members and a phone buddy program that pairs volunteers with an unhoused person for at least weekly calls to provide them with a regular companion to talk with.

Starting with a $50,000 pilot, the basic income experiment showed early success. Its 14 recipients received $500 a month for six months, with two-thirds of them securing stable housing by the conclusion.

“How do you do that in a market like the Bay Area? And what we saw is people doubled up, people getting to (single-room occupancies), people getting to senior housing that they were eligible for because you needed some kind of minimum monthly contribution to be eligible,” Adler said. “They use the money better than I could have used it for them.”

With corporate donations from companies such as Google, Miracle Messages has partnered with the University of Southern California to do a randomized trial distributing $1 million in payments to recipients across the state. With payments increased to $750 per month given to those unhoused or in danger of losing their homes, Adler said the 30 percent of those without homes at the start decreased to 12 percent after six months.

When those results are compared against the estimates that each unhoused person accounts for $40,000 to $80,000 per year in public spending, Adler said he hopes to start winning over elected leaders who are willing to try direct payments as a tool to reduce homelessness.

“It’s not an either/or. Some of that money should probably be going directly to individuals experiencing homelessness. And we’ve talked to city officials about that,” he said. “We’ve talked to mayors, and the pushback is the optics. The concern is folks are going to be using it on substances or is it going to go to waste?”

While not targeted at homeless people, Austin launched a universal basic income pilot program in 2022 that provided low-income families with $1,000 per month for a year. Survey results after the program concluded showed that 60 percent of the money went toward rent and mortgage payments, with respondents less likely to be evicted or go through foreclosure.

Adler’s work, which started by documenting the daily lives and experiences of unhoused neighbors near his San Francisco home, is focused on helping people see those without homes as people who have experienced setbacks and likely lost connections with those who can help them. By reminding the public that most homeless people tend to have been formerly living in homes nearby, he hopes to make it easier for the public at large to show kindness and empathy for the people they often walk past silently on the street.

“Once you get close enough to hear someone’s story, what the challenges and barriers are … the answer is housing first, yes, but it’s understanding what’s been the barrier to housing. Is it economic? Is it a mental health or a behavioral health issue? Is it a relational issue? Because you can provide housing to folks out of encampments, and many folks will then go back into the encampment because they feel isolated and lonely.”

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