Ulster County residents to receive $500 per month for one year

A lot of local residents are getting excited.

If you could use some extra cash, assistance, or even a lifeline this year, Ulster County may swoop in to be that hero for 100 very lucky residents. The county is planning to give a universal basic income of $500 per qualifying, chosen resident per month for a full year under a pilot program intended to study the impact of a guaranteed income on lives and behaviors.

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County Executive Pat Ryan discussed details of this pilot in his State of the County Address, which was recorded in advance and published on his official Facebook page yesterday. Ryan described in his 14-minute sermon an image of "resilience and renewal" for the year ahead, stressing that "compassion," and "economic justice," would guide the local economy out of the "darkness and difficulties of the past year." The Basic Universal Income pilot program, which will serve 100 Ulster County residents, will provide a guaranteed $500 monthly income from May 1, 2021 through April 30, 2022, for a total of $6,000 per resident.

County Executive Pat Ryan, Facebook

One local resident, Brandon H., described the payments as a hopeful. "These payments make me hopeful for the county. We had more tourism but less impact. I worked the last few summers at one of the popular ice cream shops in Kingston, and I needed that overtime money. I had almost no overtime last summer, and the tips I normally would get were gone. Nobody was coming in. Maybe city people came up to rent houses, but they weren't really going around and spending money in the tourist spots like normal."

The pilot program is a partnership with the county's Project Resilience, The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research, Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, and Ulster County Savings bank. The bank plans to provide bank accounts and associate debit cards for recipients, and the actual funds will come through Project Resilience and other local foundations.

Who qualifies for the $500 monthly guaranteed income payments from Ulster County?

For starters, you must be a full time resident of Ulster County, New York with a current and legal address within the county's confines. Eligible participants must also have an annual income of $46,900 or less, and will be selected through the University of Pennsylvania's lottery system. Those chosen must agree to share their information, how they plan to spend and budget the received funds, and other noteworthy details with the university's Center for Guaranteed Income Research.

In addition to the $500 a month payments, Ryan also laid out plans to create affordable housing on the site of the old county jail, adding another way to cope with mounting local economic tensions. He also plans to bring inpatient mental health services back to HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, which many users of local neighborhood apps like NextDoor have long battled for.

While many residents echoed the sentiment of hope on Ryan's Facebook page, several were left disenchanted with continued inability to access COVID-19 vaccines and perceived distribution inequality.

County Executive Pat Ryan, Facebook

Others issued concerns about growing the local job base, reminding residents that Ulster County has yet to fully recover from the loss of IBM corporate headquarters which provided an anchoring financial boon to the local economy for the better part of the 1980s and 1990s.

County Executive Pat Ryan, Facebook

For now, residents interested in applying for the pilot program can visit the Ulster County government Project Resilience landing page here.

If you have thoughts or opinions on this new Ulster County guaranteed income pilot program, please leave them in the comments section below or reach out to me on social media to discuss a follow-up article.