Young Baltimore parents feel immediate effects from guaranteed income

Ever since she was teenager, Jewels Hawkins says she’s been more or less on her own. Not long after she stopped attending high school, her father lost his home — the beginning of several unstable years for the now 21-year-old mother of two. Since then, Hawkins has moved from one place to the next around Baltimore, often living with friends or relatives. She did a stint in a homeless shelter. She had an apartment for a while but lost it. I’m just grateful to be alive,” she said. Later this week, Hawkins and her two boys plan to move into a place of their own in East Baltimore — rent she can suddenly afford thanks to $1,000 in monthly, no-strings-attached funds that Baltimore City started sending her at the end of this summer.