The project, which aims to combat poverty and homelessness by providing a monthly stipend to vulnerable families, has yielded positive results: participants used around a third of their extra income for basic expenses such as rent and food.

Despite these promising results, doubts remain among some lawmakers who consider such initiatives potentially unconstitutional in the United States.

• Similar initiatives in other US cities have shown success in fighting poverty. Denver’s program, which gave $1,000 a month to the city’s poorest residents, had such positive results that it was extended for another six months.
• In addition, the city of Flint, Michigan, recently launched a basic income program for pregnant women, providing a lump sum payment during pregnancy and a monthly stipend of $500 for the first year of the child’s life.

With homelessness and inequality on the rise in the United States, more and more cities are exploring the possibility of implementing guaranteed basic income programs. However, some MPs continue to resist.

Two Republican representatives in Iowa are pushing for legislation to ban such programs, and a Texas lawmaker called a basic income initiative in Harris County, which includes Houston, unconstitutional.

As cities grapple with economic inequality, debates over the effectiveness and constitutionality of unconditional income initiatives continue.