One of the most closely watched ideas in American social policy is being tested right here in the Triad. Guaranteed income, providing people with direct, unconditional cash rather than narrowly restricted services, has moved from academic thought experiment to real-world practice in dozens of cities over the past decade. In Greensboro, that experiment has a name: HELD, a nonprofit that provides direct, no-strings-attached financial assistance to people in need.
HELD’s model is deliberately simple and deliberately humble. Rather than building a new service bureaucracy, HELD partners with agencies already working with people in need. Those partner organizations refer participants, who then receive consistent monthly financial support while continuing to draw on the expert care of the referring agency. Through its Housing Support Program, launched as a pilot in 2025, HELD extends this approach to individuals and families experiencing homelessness, combining guaranteed monthly income with upfront assistance for the costs that so often stand between a person and a lease, such as security deposits, utility deposits, and first month’s rent, alongside personalized support in finding and securing housing.
The premise is that stable housing is fundamental to personal security, dignity, and opportunity, and that direct cash, delivered with trust rather than conditions, can move people into housing faster and keep them there longer than fragmented in-kind assistance. It is a testable premise, and that is where Innovative Research Insights comes in. IRI serves as HELD’s evaluation partner, and we designed and maintain the client tracking and outcomes measurement system behind the program, producing the pilot’s client tracking report in 2025 and ongoing tracking updates through 2026.
Evaluating a program like this requires measuring more than whether money was disbursed. Our tracking framework follows participants’ journeys across several dimensions: movement into housing and the time that transition takes; housing retention and stability over the months that follow; and the broader markers of stability that direct cash is meant to unlock. Just as important, systematic tracking documents how the model itself operates in practice, including how referrals flow from partner agencies and where participants encounter friction, so that HELD can refine the program as it grows rather than waiting for a retrospective verdict.
Why does careful measurement matter so much here? Because guaranteed income sits at the center of a genuine policy debate, and the quality of the evidence will shape whether promising models spread or stall. National pilots have produced encouraging findings on financial stability, employment, and wellbeing, but local context matters enormously, and small programs are too easily dismissed or oversold on anecdote alone. A rigorous, transparent account of what happens when Greensboro residents receive direct cash and housing support, who is served, what changes, and what does not, is the most valuable contribution a local pilot can make to that national conversation.
Findings from the evaluation will be shared as the program matures and in coordination with HELD. In the meantime, readers interested in the model, or in supporting the work of getting neighbors housed, can learn more directly at heldgso.org.
IRI designs monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems for programs that need credible evidence of what works. To discuss an evaluation partnership, visit our Consulting Services page or contact us.
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