By Jen Rice
See original post here.
Harris County’s guaranteed basic income program received more than 82,000 applications from residents before the online portal closed earlier this month.
Around 1,900 households will be randomly selected from the applicant pool to participate in the Uplift Harris program, which will provide $500 monthly payments to low-income households for 18 months.
POVERTY IN HARRIS COUNTY: Eight percent of Harris County residents live in areas of persistent poverty, census data shows
Applicants who are selected to participate will be notified by Feb. 26, with the first cash payments going out on April 3, according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office.
Nearly 90% of residents who applied for the program identified as Black or Hispanic, Hidalgo said.
“The huge amount of interest in this program shows how great the need is in Harris County for a program like Uplift Harris, especially among vulnerable communities,” Hidalgo said. “Reducing poverty and helping families who are struggling to meet basic needs should not be a political debate.”
Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis attributed the program’s “overwhelming response” to “unchecked inequality and soaring costs.”
“People want government to do something about the economic divide, and that’s what Harris County is doing,” Ellis said in a statement. “In a state with vast prosperity, we refuse to be bystanders as 750,000 Harris County residents endure a relentless cycle of poverty.”
County officials are looking into how they can continue to fund the guaranteed income program after the 18-month pilot phase concludes, Hidalgo added.
The $20.5 million pilot program is one of many initiatives the county is launching using its allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
Others efforts include creating affordable child care slots, boosting eviction legal aid resources and training more than 1,500 low-income Harris County residents for higher-paying jobs.
Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt has questioned the legality of the Uplift Harris program, requesting an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office about whether counties have the authority to carry out a guaranteed income program and whether such a program would violate a state constitutional clause prohibiting the gift of public funds to any person.
In response, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee sent a brief to Paxton’s office in which he argued that the guaranteed income program is on firm legal ground.
Paxton’s office has yet to respond, according to the Harris County Attorney’s office.
