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Some wildly successful results from Seattle's $500 per month universal pilot program.

Seattle gave low-income residents $500 a month no strings attached. Employment rates nearly doubled. A guaranteed basic income program pilot in Seattle gave 102 low-income residents $500 monthly. Employment among the participants nearly doubled.

How do fiscally responsible people lose their homes?

Imagine you are a full-time single parent with a couple of kids. You love your kids more than anything. You work hard to support them. But, they take a lot of time. Some of which can have a great impact on your career and ability to earn.

Now imagine that you were lucky enough to find a great daycare. The cost of which is over $22 per hour for both children; neither at school age.
Your partner used to take care of the children while you pursued a career. Now that partner is gone and no longer in the picture.

You have just made a career change that you hope will lead to greater financial success in the future. Unfortunately, it's a small sales operation and your boss is running on thin margins. So, when you have one bad month, they decides to cut you loose.

Now you're scrambling for a new job. Unemployment is paying too little to pay the bills. After about a month you are offered a lower paying position. You take it in desperation to keep you and your kids afloat.

Now you find yourself a month behind on rent. But, you work out a payment plan with your landlord. It's a relief that they understand your situation and have decided to work with you.

Just as you are about to finally catch up on rent, the Christmas holidays hit. Your daycare closes for a total of two weeks between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

Temporary daycare for two weeks is not a realistic option. After all, you found your current provider after calling a list of nearly 30 others. Emergency drop-in care has a much higher cost that you can afford. Your family and friends have their own jobs and lives. So, you stay home.

You were already behind in rent. Now you're off work, unwillingly, for another entire paycheck.

As if things aren't bad enough. Then, a once-every-two-years snow storm hits in a year that it shouldn't. Daycare closes once again.

This is not an imaginary tale. This story is based on one person’s real experience this year.

For lower to mid-wage earners, this is how quickly a hard-working person can find themselves and their family on the streets.

is working to ensure that very real scenarios like this one never end in eviction.

For those who have already had events in the past that may hinder their future ability to find a safe quality place to call home, can help. With a suite of products will help those with varied backgrounds better qualify for long-term rentals.

Is $60,000 a year a livable wage?

This was a conversation that took place outside of a local downtown business hotel. The conclusion was that $60,000 per year was a “survivable wage”, not a livable one.

agrees that $60,000 per year is not a livable wage.

Since wage is vital for housing and housing extremely important for a stable wage, let's take a more in-depth look at this question.

To explore this topic, let's look at the MIT Living Wage Calculator. As will be launching in Oregon, we will use this state as our leading example.

For a single adult with no kids, just over $40,000 per year will do it. That is the only example of where one can truly live and thrive on less than $60,000 per year.

If you have two adults with both working, each individual only needs to make just north of $30,000 per year. However, the household as a whole must make over $62,000 per year to live outside of poverty and adequately cover all expenses.

Now, if you add even one kid to the equation, suddenly the Oregon minimum wage of $13.50 per hour ($28,000 per year) is just barely above what is considered a “poverty wage”.
Now let's look at one working adult with the other staying at home with the kids (not working). This is a common arrangement given the extraordinarily high cost of childcare. The working adult would need to make over $88,000 per year for a livable wage.

It should be pointed out that MIT is considering a “livable wage” as the ability to adequately support one's self and family. It doesn't necessarily account for discretionary fun and entertainment expenses that most would consider important to thrive. However, there is an “other” category that may capture some of this.

Other states such as New York and California will be examined in future posts for comparison.