By Julianna Morano
See original post here.
A guaranteed basic income program is coming to Fresno County this summer – despite the county being shut out of California’s state-funded program in 2022.
No-strings-attached stipends of $500 will be available monthly to 150 county residents over 18 who live in Fresno’s southwest neighborhoods or Huron, an announcement from the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission specified Thursday.
Supporters hope the program, “Advancing Fresno County Guaranteed Income,” will help alleviate local poverty, which U.S. Census data estimates affects almost one out of every five residents.
“Just like our Fresno County residents, we are resilient and we don’t take no for an answer,” said Fresno EOC chief Emilia Reyes in an interview Thursday. “When we got the notification (from the state in 2022), we were more determined to figure out how to bring this program to our community because we knew our community needed it.”
The EOC will collect applications for the program March 15 through May 15. The first round of recipients will be chosen through a lottery system and begin receiving stipends in the summer for up to 12 months.
The organizers behind this initiative hope they’ll see some of the same financial and health benefits as guaranteed basic income recipients up north in Stockton received after then-Mayor Michael Tubbs started a similar pilot program with a $500 monthly stipend.
“Fresno residents deserve a guaranteed income,” Tubbs said in an interview with Fresnoland.
“Oftentimes the Central Valley is an afterthought when it comes to thinking about the future,” he said.“This positions Fresno in the center of a conversation about what … the future look(s) like.”
Rey León, the mayor of Huron, celebrated the initiative at a media briefing Thursday.
“There’s no better community that could’ve been chosen for this,” he said, “other than the place that’s considered the poorest but is one of the hardest-working in the county.”
How will Fresno County’s program work?
Eligibility is restricted to people living in Fresno County’s 93706 ZIP code, which encompasses southwest Fresno, and 93234, which covers the city of Huron.
These areas are home to some of Fresno County’s highest levels of concentrated poverty, according to the Fresno EOC.
“We always wanted to have an even mix of urban and rural” participants, said Andy Levine, an adviser to the program and a Fresno Unified trustee, on the selection of those two ZIP codes.
Applicants’ income must be 80% or below the median income for the respective ZIP code, which is less than $35,103 for Huron residents and less than $30,615 for folks in southwest Fresno.
A total of 75 people from each region will be chosen for the stipends.
Participants who receive CalWORKs aid and CalFresh can get income exemption waivers so that the additional income doesn’t affect their eligibility for these benefits, according to the Fresno EOC.
Recipients must also be either pregnant or have children under the age of 5.
Levine confirmed that residents without documentation are welcome to apply.
“Immigration status won’t be a factor, and we won’t share any information with government officials,” he said. “It’s absolutely open to everybody.”
León said it’s important to bring a program like this to Huron’s large farmworker community and hopes they’ll benefit from the additional income.
“(Guaranteed basic income) should exist everywhere there’s farmworkers,” he said, “if it is that the corporations aren’t going to provide them with the wages and/or benefits or pension plans that they should get.”
How to apply for Fresno’s guaranteed basic income program
Applicants can submit their information online or in person at locations in Huron and southwest Fresno.
In the southwest region, people can apply in person at the Fresno EOC’s Local Conservation Corps located at 1805 E. California Ave.
In Huron, folks can apply at the Senior Center, located at 16900 5th St.
The Fresno EOC also plans to hold two informational sessions for interested applicants in March.
The first will take place March 16 at the Fresno EOC Franklin Head Start (1189 Martin Avenue #3631) from 10 a.m. to noon.
The second will take place March 26 at the John Palacios Community Center (16846 4th Street) from 5 to 7 p.m.
Guaranteed basic income in California
The Fresno EOC’s announcement said the program “does not have any requirements” on how selected families should spend the stipends.
Stockton’s 2019 guaranteed basic income pilot program also had no spending restrictions.
Researchers who tracked the program’s results over two years found that participants had stabler income and reported better mental and physical health, concluding that “provision of a guaranteed income is a potentially powerful public health intervention.”
Following Stockton’s high-profile experiment, California became home to more guaranteed basic income pilots than anywhere else in the nation, CalMatters reported.
The Fresno EOC’s will be the second-ever in the Central Valley after Stockton’s, according to program leaders.
The concept isn’t universally loved, however, with critics questioning whether the guaranteed payments disincentivize people from working and how programs like this fit into the broader social safety net.
Tubbs pushed back against these criticisms, saying they’re based on “tropes and prejudices.”
“There’s a critique that somehow giving $500 to a person will make that person forget how to work (or) make that person, who’s already working incredibly hard, lazy. It’s just not true,” he said. “It’s just not based in data, and none of the data bears that out. In fact, the data says the opposite.”
The study of Stockton’s program found that particularly in year one, participants’ part- and full-time employment increased substantially.
Whether the program picks up more political support remains to be seen. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who isn’t listed as a member of Tubbs’ Mayors for a Guaranteed Income organization, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Fresno hoped to get a piece of the state funding pie for guaranteed basic income pilots after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced $35 million for these projects in May 2021.
A $5 million proposal from a coalition of organizations led by the Fresno EOC was not ultimately chosen for state funding, to the disappointment of local advocates.
The Fresno EOC turned to philanthropic organizations for funding instead, ultimately raising over $1 million.
Half of the project’s funding comes from the California Wellness Foundation, according to the Fresno EOC’s announcement.
About $900,000 of the project funds will go toward the stipends, and the remaining funds will go toward program evaluation, Reyes told Fresnoland.
How the program’s impact will be measured
Fresno County’s program will be evaluated by Fresno State’s Center for Community Voices initiative in the College of Social Sciences.
The team, led by associate professor Amber Crowell, will measure both quantitative and qualitative impacts on participants.
That will include tracking what participants spend their stipend on. In studies of other guaranteed basic income pilots, the biggest spending category is typically basic needs, Crowell said.
“Sometimes it’s fixing a car so they can get to work,” she said. “Sometimes it is stuff that is just to make their life more fun, make their day a little better. That’s something that families are entitled to.”
Fresno State’s team will also partner with participants in the guaranteed basic income program on establishing which criteria should be used to measure success.
“We really want the participants to … define that with us” through listening sessions and focus groups, she said.
Participants in focus groups will be compensated for their time, she added.
Who donated to the program?
In addition to $500,000 from the California Wellness Foundation, Levine said the project also received:
- $150,000 from the California Endowment
- $100,000 from Delta Dental Community Care Foundation
- $100,000 from the James Irvine Foundation
- $100,000 from the Kresge Foundation
- $50,000 from the Central Valley Community Foundation
- $25,000 from Sierra Health Foundation
- $15,000 from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income
