diff --git a/backend/app/models.py b/backend/app/models.py
index 128d765..0f8d1a0 100644
--- a/backend/app/models.py
+++ b/backend/app/models.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from . import db
 import uuid
 from sqlalchemy.dialects.postgresql import UUID
+from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash, check_password_hash
 from datetime import datetime
 
 
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@ class UserMixin(object):
     phone_number = db.Column(db.String(64), nullable=False)
     email_address = db.Column(db.String(64), nullable=False)
     username = db.Column(db.String(64), nullable=False)
+    password = db.Column(db.Text, nullable=False)
 
     @property
     def serialize(self):
@@ -21,6 +23,17 @@ def serialize(self):
             "username": self.username,
         }
 
+    @property
+    def password(self):
+        raise AttributeError("password is not a readable attribute")
+
+    @password.setter
+    def password(self, password):
+        self.password_hash = generate_password_hash(password)
+
+    def verify_password(self, password):
+        return check_password_hash(self.password_hash, password)
+
 
 class Volunteer(UserMixin, db.Model):
     __tablename__ = "volunteers"
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 9bd1e82..34be9b9 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ alembic==1.7.5
 click==8.0.3
 Flask==1.1.2
 Flask-Cors==3.0.10
+Flask-JWT-Extended==4.3.1
 Flask-Migrate==2.5.3
 Flask-Script==2.0.6
 Flask-SQLAlchemy==2.5.1
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ Jinja2==3.0.3
 Mako==1.1.6
 MarkupSafe==2.0.1
 psycopg2==2.9.2
+PyJWT==2.3.0
 six==1.16.0
 SQLAlchemy==1.4.28
 Werkzeug==2.0.2