Research

The Income Assistance and Wellbeing Research Project

Research Results

Our research team compiled a list of papers evaluating the effects of the Johnson County Direct Assistance Program after utilizing participant data from Johnson County, public data such as the US Census Bureau, specialized data from Experian and Catalyst, a series of surveys with the Iowa Social Research Center (ISRC), and in-depth interviews. Explore these effects by category, including impacts on debt, short-term effects, long-term effects, and the spending breakdown of how individuals spent the $1,400.

The top of the Johnson County Courthouse off of Clinton Street in Iowa City, IA

This is a timeline of the DAP and survey process.

Link to timeline long description

Survey Response Rates

	September 2022	July 2023
Complete responses (total)	1015	825
Complete responses (English)	823	691
Complete responses (Spanish)	192	134
DAP Recipients	2242	2242
Overall response rate	45%	37%

Note:About 300 Wave 2 respondents did not respond to the Wave 1 survey.

Survey Demographics

	All program recipients	Wave 1 Survey Respondents	Wave 2 survey Respondents
Female	64%	62%	64%
Male	35%	38%	35%
Black	40%	38%	39%
Hispanic	23%	32%	27%
White	31%	25%	29%
Age	45.4 years	42.5 years	44.2 years
Married		36%	33%
High School Graduate		87%	86%
Some College		60%	59%
Children (number)		1.5	1.5
Household Size	2.8 people	2.8 people	2.8 people
Income (annual)	$22,687	$22,643	$23,218

Blank Surveys

Read below exactly what our surveys stated. The first page shared instructions.

Wave 1 Survey

Wave 2 Survey

Spending Patterns

Read the breakdown of how individuals spent the $1,400 assistance, including how the breakdown varies among demographics.

Debt

Explore how the assistance impacted debt in the short and long run, including various types of debt payments.

Trust in Government

Did receiving the assistance change how recipients felt about the government at different levels, from local to federal?

Housing Security

70% of low-income Johnson County households are housing cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing, according to United Way.

Results coming soon.

Health

Explore the ways the direct assistance impacted health factors, such as mental wellbeing and the likelihood of delaying care.

Results coming soon.