Eve is here. This financial assistance program for homeless youth has had positive early results, and even administrators who were once skeptical of the concept have become supporters. A monthly stipend is the core of the scheme, but support with planning, housing and career development is also included.
I wish this story contained data rather than anecdotes, but the program is very small ($1.5 million) and is still ongoing as a pilot. Scaling up will likely require information on outcomes, such as how many people are able to find housing, find stable jobs, or make progress toward a degree or license. Another performance measure is to compare program costs to estimated social service costs (such as shelter living) and how much they are saved during program implementation and prospectively. We hope this experiment produces enough tangible benefits to lead to more funding and similar efforts elsewhere.
By Heidi Chu, Queens-based THE CITY reporter. First published on THE CITY on January 20, 2026
A young man eats at Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter in Hell’s Kitchen on January 8, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
What can a $1,200 monthly allowance do for youth experiencing homelessness?
A 22-year-old Bronx woman said she was able to save up a rent deposit for the first time since entering the shelter system a year and a half ago.
A 19-year-old Lehman College student living in Harlem said her dream of getting her cosmetology license is finally within reach.
New York City is home to more than 6,800 homeless youth who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian and are living on the streets or in temporary shelters. Since December, 60 of them, between the ages of 18 and 24, have been randomly selected to participate in a program called Cash for Care, run in partnership with Covenant House New York, a nonprofit service and shelter provider for homeless and runaway youth, and have received $1,200 in cash each month.
The $1.5 million initiative, funded by the City Council under the leadership of former Speaker Adrian Adams, will provide recipients with monthly payments as well as a one-time payment of $5,000 available at any time during the program. The program includes services such as financial planning, housing search and career development assistance and will run until June of this year.
The Covenant House youth shelter in Hell’s Kitchen helped connect young people with employers. January 8, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The program was introduced in collaboration with the Center for Policy Research’s Chapin Hall to test whether guaranteed income can help young people escape homelessness. The idea, which has gained national attention in recent years, is to simply hand people cash and let them decide what to do with it.
The new project builds on the research center’s Trust Youth Initiative, which was launched during the pandemic in June 2021 and also provided monthly stipends to dozens of homeless youth in the city.
More than 90% of participants in the 2021 initiative said their monthly stipend helped them find stable housing. But the current iteration seeks to reevaluate the effectiveness of the payments in light of dramatic rent increases and reductions in emergency rent assistance in subsequent years, said Chapin Hall policy fellow Sara Berger Gonzalez.
The researchers added that they will measure housing stability and food security outcomes through surveys and casework data among program participants and compare the results to a control group of 60 youth from another Covenant House who do not receive assistance. (All survey respondents can earn up to approximately $400, depending on participation.)
So far, young participants who spoke to THE CITY said the cash assistance has opened up new possibilities for them. These youth spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their privacy and avoid conflict with other youth at the shelter who were not selected for the program.
For the 22-year-old, who currently lives in a shelter in the Bronx, a new source of income means she can consider permanent housing options outside of the city’s rapid rehousing program, where her application has been pending for months.
“I’ve been in the shelter for so long that sometimes I get a little depressed because I’m like, ‘Okay, when are they going to call me about this apartment?'” said the 22-year-old, who has cycled in and out of the youth shelter since his family was kicked out a year and a half ago. “Now, with this money, my sister and I are like, ‘Okay, maybe it would be easier for us to get that apartment ourselves.'”
She also said she plans to use the money to explore new skills. She was unable to attend free training on medical billing and sterile cleaning techniques because it conflicted with her job as a sales representative at the Bronx Zoo, she noted. However, she said the monthly stipend has allowed her to pay for things on her own that fit her schedule.
She will also begin driving lessons soon.
“The options are endless now,” she says.
“Are we crazy?”
Shakima Northalbert, CEO of Covenant House New York, said she wasn’t necessarily sure that a guaranteed income program would work when Chapin-Hall first approached her with the idea.
“Putting myself in the shoes of other people who weren’t wealthy and had to work it out, if someone had given me $1,000 a month and said, ‘You can do whatever you want with it,’ I probably would have blown most of it because I would have gone out and gotten everything I thought I was missing,” North Albert said. “It probably took me three months to figure that out and say, ‘Girl, we’re running out of money. We’ve got to think of something.'”
However, North Albert said there is still an opportunity for the program to move from a crisis shelter model to something innovative that helps young people exit homelessness for good, and is looking to the Trust Youth Initiative as a model. Unlike some other guaranteed income programs, this model includes services designed to help people find stable housing, she said.
“The support services made this program even more appealing to me,” said North Albert, who now hopes to secure more funding to expand the program. “Young people still have the autonomy to make the decisions they want, but at least we can mentor them and help them see this opportunity in the light of their current circumstances and move them closer to their goals.”
Lindell Pittman, the organization’s senior vice president of support services, said he initially had similar questions.
“Frankly, at that time, [North-Albert] “They told us what we were doing, and I thought, ‘Are we crazy?’ But I saw young people who wanted to make a difference in their situations, who were willing to learn, who were open to support to learn,” Pittman said.
He said many young people started the program talking about paying off debt and bills. One young person in particular told how the money would help them get back on track to reunite with their child who is currently in foster care.
“I’m not 180, but I’m at 160,” Pittman added, explaining his change in attitude. “It was so real to see young people turn on the light bulb about finances.”
The 19-year-old Covenant House resident told the City his approach to the scholarship had already changed since he received his first deposit last month.
“I didn’t want to save my first paycheck. I just wanted to have some fun, so I bought a cell phone and went out to new places,” she said. “But I met with my case manager and she encouraged me and was like, ‘Are you saving money?'” So I thought about it and also thought I should save money. ”
She is currently taking a break from her studies at City College to find out more about herself and what she wants to pursue as a career, but added that she is struggling to find work due to her mental health.
“It doesn’t cost money to go to school, so I felt like it wasn’t a priority right now,” she said.
Meanwhile, the monthly allowance helps ease her financial worries.
Another 19-year-old, a student at Lehman College, said that after the initial cash infusion, he initially increased his spending, but now limits his weekly spending to less than $100 and saves at least $500 from each deposit.
She said the steady monthly payments mean she is no longer seeking financial support from her mother, who lives with alcoholism and was kicked out in October after an argument. Since then, their relationship has improved, and so has she, and a few weeks ago she moved home to live with her mother.
She now plans to set aside a portion of her monthly paycheck to get her cosmetology license and buy cosmetics so she can start offering workshops and classes, she said.
She showed off this year’s vision board and explained the photos and quotes she had pasted onto a piece of paper. “My savings, the 8 A’s, candles, coffee, a Bible, a sexy girl, my driver’s license, and my cosmetology license are all in there too.”
“My birthday is coming up and I’m turning 20,” she continued. “And I’m trying to change into better habits. So I’m like, ‘Okay, let me lock in.'”
