This summary focuses on Thrive Prince George’s guaranteed income pilot participants’ outcomes eight months after the first payments went out. We report on outcomes across five key areas: cash use, housing cost burden, employment, food insecurity, and mental health. Thrive Prince George’s is testing how direct cash might help seniors ages 60 and older and young people who have aged out of foster care face challenges to their housing and financial stability, health, well-being, sense of agency, and community belonging. In March 2024, the Prince George’s County Council and Executive, together with the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the Meyer Foundation, and four community-based partners, enrolled 125 seniors and 50 young people to receive $800 per month for two years. The pilot is prioritizing caregivers and formerly incarcerated individuals.

Why This Matters

In Prince George’s County, Maryland, the target communities include Chillum, Seat Pleasant, and Suitland, which are clustered between DC’s eastern borders and Interstate 495. These areas are experiencing rapid redevelopment through county- and state-led transit-oriented development projects and have some of the largest homeownership and income disparities. This pilot can be a springboard for policy innovation in Maryland to identify how guaranteed income programs can be integrated or deployed in tandem with other state benefits and policies to close these homeownership and income gaps. Eight-month data display outcomes well in advance of program completion. Data collection is ongoing, and a final fact sheet will be published after the pilot concludes to provide greater insight into the program’s effects.

What We Found

• Participants reported spending most of the Thrive Prince George’s payment on food, housing, utilities, transportation, debt, and children’s needs.
• Both seniors and young people reported being less housing cost burdened eight months after Thrive Prince George’s began. Among seniors, the share of respondents that reported being housing cost burdened decreased almost 50 percentage points.
• Employment trends remained relatively the same eight months into the pilot.
• Participants experienced notable reductions in food insecurity eight months into the pilot.
• Seniors reported a decrease in delaying or not getting medical care attributable to the cost.

How We Did It

Participants responded to an eight-month survey, which was designed by the Urban Institute and administered by Court Appointed Special Advocate/Prince George’s County and United Communities Against Poverty in February and March 2025. The summary draws on data from the baseline survey, the eight-month survey, interviews with participants and staff members, and other sources, such as the US Census Bureau.