I’m not sure how I feel about a UBI. It’s just redistribution at it’s core. If you tax me $13K and give me back $6500 or just tax me $6500 it’s the same. Maybe psychologically one is easier to sell than the other but the net result is the same. No strings attached welfare is probably a good thing if people acted rationally but if people acted rationally there would be no need for food stamps.
In you list of priorities food should probably be number 1 followed by shelter and utilities and yet we are told that kids are going hungry. On almost any minimum wage budget you should be able to find money for food and shelter. You might not have anything to pay the cell phone bill, the cable bill, the day out to the movies, but you should be able to eat. Yet we apparently have families and people that can’t figure that out, so we need food stamps. Is it just an easier sell to the public, or are people really that stupid. I don’t know, but if people really are that stupid then you certainly can’t adopt a UBI.