Path Home Basic Income Guarantee Pilot Project
Path Home is a Portland, Oregon nonprofit whose mission is to help homeless families with children get back into housing and stay there. Its Basic Income Guarantee (Cash Transfer) program, seeded by a private individual donor, gives $575 per month for 24 months to formerly homeless, now-housed families with children who have earned income. Unitus Community Credit Union direct-deposits the funds into fee-free bank accounts it set up for participants, and Path Home tracks outcomes in-house through case management and quarterly surveys rather than an external research institution.
Homelessness Prevention, Family Homelessness, Housing First, Credit Union Partnership, Unconditional Cash Transfer
Headquarters
- Organization Name
- Path Home
- City
- Portland
- State / Province
- Oregon
- Country
- United States
Contact
- Website
- https://www.path-home.org/
- Phone
- +1 503-915-8306
- info@path-home.org
- Social media links
Status & Funding
- Organization status
- Active
- Program status
- Inactive
- Application status
- Timed
- Number of recipients
- 23
- Funding type
- Nonprofit, Philanthropic
Benefits
- Currency Type
- Fiat
- Currency
- USD
- Total Amount
- 13,800 USD
- Avg. Per Month
- 575 USD
- Payment frequency
- Monthly
- How long the program lasts
- 24 months
- Distribution Type
- Direct Deposit
- Benefit details
Eligible families receive $575 per month, deposited directly into a fee-free bank account opened for them by Unitus Community Credit Union, which waived background/credit checks and account fees for participants. Payments continue monthly for 24 months, totaling about $13,800 per family, and can be used without restriction. Participants are paired with a Path Home case manager who helps set goals and track progress over the cohort. Families complete quarterly surveys covering housing stability, income, debt, education, and overall wellness. Reported outcomes include first-time savings accounts, first vehicle purchases, further education, and better-paying jobs.
Eligibility
Overview
- Eligibility details
Participants must be families with at least one dependent child who have experienced homelessness and are already housed through Path Home's other homelessness services (shelter, rapid re-housing, or prevention). All participating households must have income from employment, generally at or near federal poverty-level wages, and none have been reported to stop working while enrolled. The program is cohort-based rather than open enrollment; Path Home's website currently states it is not accepting new Cash Transfer program applications. No specific age, sex, race/ethnicity, disability, or immigration-status eligibility criteria were identified in public materials.
Family
- Family Status
- Parent
- Number of dependents (minimum)
- 1
- Household size (minimum)
- 2
Financial
- Employment status
- Employed
Geography
- US states covered
- Oregon
- Countries covered
- United States
- Cities covered
- Portland
- Counties covered
- Multnomah
- Residency of Target Geography
- Yes
Participation
- Research / data sharing
- Required
- Complementary program enrollment required
- Path Home case management (participants are paired with a Path Home case manager for goal-setting and progress tracking)
- Research / participation requirements
Tracked in-house by Path Home (not an external university or research partner); families complete quarterly surveys on housing stability, income, debt, education, and wellness. Findings have been shared publicly via press interviews (e.g., Oregon Center for Public Policy podcast, Dec 2024), but no formal public evaluation report was identified as of this research.
Application Process
- How to apply
Not currently accepting new applications for the Cash Transfer program. Enrollment is cohort-based, with participants historically drawn from families already engaged with Path Home's other homelessness services (per path-home.org).
- Selection process
Not fully detailed publicly. Participants appear to be selected by cohort from families already served by Path Home's housing, shelter, or prevention programs, all of whom must have a dependent child and household income from employment.
