THE SOLUTION TO POVERTY IS WEALTH:

When a San Francisco-based nonprofit started a basic-income pilot last year--giving a small group of people experiencing homelessness $500 per month for six months--it didn't expect that the cash would be enough to help people find housing in a city where the average one-bedroom apartment rents for more than $3,000 a month.

The group predicted that the money would help reduce stress and improve food security, and it did. But two-thirds of the people who were unhoused when the pilot began also now have permanent housing. (The number has grown since the program first ended, when only a third had moved into new housing.)

"There's a level of incredulity, like, how did this happen?" says Kevin Adler, founder and CEO of Miracle Messages, the nonprofit. "That's an important narrative to be able to realize--our unhoused neighbors are often more tapped into resources, housing options, networks that might be able to open up, but just are lacking a little bit of funds. For me, it's yet another testimony of the importance of seeing the agency and the intrinsic dignity of each of our unhoused neighbors."

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