The Detroit City Council is currently considering a guaranteed basic income program. Patrick Cooney, assistant director of the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility, discussed the benefits Detroiters would gain from the program.
“It would allow those households to gain some measure of stability, which actually could boost employment rates by allowing them to put gas in the car and buy clothes for an interview,” Cooney said. “These types of things that people often will prop up as barriers to employment for lower-income individuals, this will help, potentially, to alleviate some of those things.”