Thirty Newark residents picked at random are about a get a major payday to help with their basic needs as the city starts a guaranteed income program.

The program will provide $500 per week to those living below the poverty lines.

“We believe cash payments help people,” says Mayor Ras Baraka.

The money comes with no strings attached, no work requirements and no obligation from taxpayers. The $2.2 million needed to fund the program is coming from private donors.

There are 22 similar programs nationwide. Those programs have shown that people are using the money for basics like rent, food and clothing, and not for luxuries.

“We push against those notions, in fact, evidence has proved that those are in fact not true…People use this to improve their lives,” Baraka says.

The first 30 participants will receive $6,000 over the next two years. Some will get a lump sum, while others will get biweekly payments.

One of the first Newark residents to get the payments is19-year-old Duwen Priestel, who is getting ready to start college.

“It feels like a load off. It feels amazing,” Priestel says.

He says that he will be commuting to Raritan Valley Community College and that the money will be used to pay his rent.

“The money will go toward getting my apartment because the college I will be attending doesn’t have dorms,” Priestel says.

Most of the money for this program is coming from two sources – The Victoria Foundation and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Paterson has recently started its own guaranteed income program, also with funding from Twitter.

The first 30 Newark residents who will receive payments are part of a pilot program. It will be expanded to 400 people by the fall. Program manager Hawwa Muhammad says that the goal is to lend a hand in removing people from poverty.

“For some it makes a difference between falling into a deeper cycle of intergenerational poverty, finding a new home to escape domestic violence or getting help to combat depression and many other invisible symptoms of poverty,” Muhammad says.

The Newark Movement for Economic Equity will start taking the next round of applications in July. The next round of participants will be selected at random, with the help of the University of Pennsylvania.