Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project

NCT05698498 | Enrolling By Invitation

• 1 other identifier: 21-35573
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 300
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about how unconditional cash payments equivalent to $1,000 for 24 months (also called 'guaranteed income') might help families experiencing homelessness and/or unstable housing in Santa Clara County, California. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. 1.What is the impact of guaranteed income on homelessness and housing stability among families experiencing homelessness or housing instability?
2. 2.What is the impact of guaranteed income on the health and well-being of families experiencing homelessness or housing instability?
3. 3.In terms of size and frequency of cash payments, do families prefer monthly recurrent payments ($1,000/month) vs a larger up front amount followed by smaller monthly payments ($6,500/month, then $500/month)? Is one payment strategy more helpful than the other in terms of achieving improved housing stability, health, or other measures of well-being?

Conditions

Families Experiencing Homelessness and/or Housing Instability; Housing Stability

Keywords

Homelessness; Homeless persons; guaranteed income; economic support

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  'Experiencing homelessness' will be defined as: 1) per the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH) Defining Homeless Final Rule published in the Federal Register in 2011; and/or 2) living in a public or private space intended for temporary (≤6 month) residence, such as residing in a hotel/motel; 3) residing in a space without a legal right to the space and therefore being at threat of being asked to leave at any time (i.e., no lease); and/or 4) being in a shared living situation intended to be temporary (i.e., being 'doubled up' due to lack of available and/or affordable housing).

  At 24 months after randomization

Secondary Outcomes (349)

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  At 6 months after randomization

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  At 12 months after randomization

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  At 18 months after randomization

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  At 27 months after randomization

• Number of days experiencing homelessness

  At 30 months after randomization

Study Arms (2)

Usual Care

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants in the active comparator control group will receive usual care, which includes usual public benefit, assistance and social service programs that are available at the local, county, state, and federal levels to all residents of Santa Clara County. They will also be offered the option to attend a Public Benefits Information Session.

Other: Public Benefits Information Session

Guaranteed Income

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the intervention group will receive guaranteed income gift payments equivalent to $1,000/month for a total of 24 months in addition to usual care. They will also have the option to attend the same Public Benefits Information Session being offered to the control group as above.

Other: Guaranteed Income; Other: Public Benefits Information Session

Interventions

Guaranteed Income OTHER

Guaranteed income payments will be disbursed monthly for a total of 24 months to participants who are randomized to the guaranteed income intervention group. Participants will be given the choice to select from one of two different payment strategies (equal monthly payments of $1,000/month vs hybrid payment schedule with initial amount of $6,500 the first month followed by $500/month x 11 months); payment strategy preferences will be re-assessed after 12 months. The choice of payment strategy will be strictly left to participants to specify.

Also known as: Unconditional cash transfer, Unconditional cash assistance, Cash assistance, Basic income, Universal income, Universal basic income, UBI

Guaranteed Income

Public Benefits Information Session OTHER

All participants (both the control and intervention groups) will be offered the option of attending a Public Benefits Information Session during which they will receive a comprehensive resource directory of public benefit, assistance, and social service programs available to residents of Santa Clara County, have the opportunity to ask questions about enrolling in those programs, and also have the opportunity to seek additional benefits navigation assistance from our community partner, Sacred Heart Community Service. This session is intended to be optional, with the decision to attend and participant to be left to the discretion of each study participant. Attendance is not required for study participation.

Guaranteed Income; Usual Care

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• ≥18 years of age at baseline visit/assessment
• Experiencing homelessness, as defined by:
• The HEARTH Act; or
• Living in a public or private space intended for temporary (≤6 month) residence, such as residing in a hotel/motel;
• Residing in a space without a legal right to the space and therefore being at threat of being asked to leave at any time (i.e., no lease); and/or
• Being in a shared living situation intended to be temporary (i.e., being 'doubled up' due to lack of available and/or affordable housing).
• Vulnerability-Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT) score within the eligibility range for referral to rapid rehousing assistance programs in Santa Clara County (score of 4-8 for households), if available at the time of study entry.
• \- The VI-SPDAT score is commonly used by housing assistance service providers to prioritize households for housing assistance programs, where households with scores of 0-3 are lower priority for referral to programs, and households with scores of 9+ are recommended for referral to more intensive housing services such as permanent supportive housing (which combine affordable housing assistance with voluntary support services including health and mental health care, case management and other social supportive services). Households with a score of 4-8 are considered most appropriate for referral to housing assistance programs that may not offer additional supportive services.
• Living in a household with ≥1 dependent children (i.e., ≤17 years of age at the time of study entry)
• Written informed consent (and assent when applicable) obtained from participant or participant's legal representative and ability for participant to comply with the requirements of the study.

You may not qualify if:

• Substantial to severe level of problematic substance use as defined by the validated Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) (score of 6-8 or 9-10, respectively).
• Hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption, or active and severe alcohol use disorder as defined by the validated Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) (score of 8-14 and ≥15, respectively).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, San Francisco: lead
• Destination: Home SV: collaborator
• Sí Se Puede Collective: collaborator
• Sacred Heart Community Service: collaborator
• County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

¡Sí Se Puede! Collective

San Jose, California, 95116, United States

Location

Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing

San Jose, California, 95131, United States

Location

Related Publications (8)

• Gibson M, Hearty W, Craig P. The public health effects of interventions similar to basic income: a scoping review. Lancet Public Health. 2020 Mar;5(3):e165-e176. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30005-0.

  PMID: 32113520 BACKGROUND

• Bastagli F., Hagen-Zanker J., Harman L., Barca V., Sturge G., Schmidt T. (2019). The Impact of Cash Transfers: A Review of the Evidence from Low- and Middle-income Countries. Journal of Social Policy, 48(3), 569-594. doi:10.1017/S0047279418000715

  BACKGROUND

• Aubry T, Bloch G, Brcic V, Saad A, Magwood O, Abdalla T, Alkhateeb Q, Xie E, Mathew C, Hannigan T, Costello C, Thavorn K, Stergiopoulos V, Tugwell P, Pottie K. Effectiveness of permanent supportive housing and income assistance interventions for homeless individuals in high-income countries: a systematic review. Lancet Public Health. 2020 Jun;5(6):e342-e360. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30055-4.

  PMID: 32504587 BACKGROUND

• Pinto AD, Perri M, Pedersen CL, Aratangy T, Hapsari AP, Hwang SW. Exploring different methods to evaluate the impact of basic income interventions: a systematic review. Int J Equity Health. 2021 Jun 16;20(1):142. doi: 10.1186/s12939-021-01479-2.

  PMID: 34134715 BACKGROUND

• Gubits D, Shinn M, Wood M, Brown SR, Dastrup SR, Bell SH. What Interventions Work Best for Families Who Experience Homelessness? Impact Estimates from the Family Options Study. J Policy Anal Manage. 2018;37(4):735-66.

  PMID: 30272428 BACKGROUND

• Forchuk C, MacClure SK, Van Beers M, Smith C, Csiernik R, Hoch J, Jensen E. Developing and testing an intervention to prevent homelessness among individuals discharged from psychiatric wards to shelters and 'No Fixed Address'. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 2008 Sep;15(7):569-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2008.01266.x.

  PMID: 18768009 BACKGROUND

• Forget E.L. The town with no poverty: The health effects of a Canadian guaranteed annual income field experiment. Canadian Public Policy. 2011;37(3):283-305.

  BACKGROUND

• Morton, M. H., Chavez, R., Kull, M. A., Carreon, E. D., Bishop, J., Daferede, S., Wood, E., Cohen, L., & Barreyro, P. (2020). Developing a direct cash transfer program for youth experiencing homelessness: Results of a mixed methods, multistakeholder design process. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

  BACKGROUND

Related Links

• Pre-Analysis Plan: Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration. Martin-West S, Castro Baker A, Balakrishnan S, Rao K, Tan GY. December 2018.

Study Officials

• Oanh K Nguyen, MD, MAS

  University of California, San Francisco

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Single-blinded study
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 27, 2022
• First Posted: January 26, 2023
• Study Start: December 10, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026
• Last Updated: February 10, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (2)