Google "Oakland 59000" and see what you get regarding their new basic income plan to give $500/mo to families earning under $59,000 annually.
The mayor of Oakland, California, on Tuesday announced a privately funded program that will give low-income families of color in the city $500 per month with no rules on how they can spend it.
The program is the latest experiment with a "guaranteed income," the idea that giving low-income individuals a
regular, monthly stipend helps ease the stresses of poverty and
results in better health and upward economic mobility.
The idea isn't new, but it's having a revival across the U.S. after some mayors launched smaller scale pilot programs across the country in a coordinated campaign to convince Congress to adopt a national guaranteed income program.
The first program launched in 2019 in Stockton, California, led by former Mayor Michael Tubbs. Tubbs, who later founded the group Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, expects six other cities to launch similar programs by this summer.
An analysis of the first year of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) found that compared to a control group, residents who received regular payments experienced less income volatility, secured more full-time employment, were better parents and partners, and even saw improvements in their health and overall well-being.
The "Oakland Resilient Families" program has so far raised $6.75 million from private donors including Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropy group. To be eligible, individuals must have at least one child under the age 18 and an income that is at or below 50% of the area median income — about $59,000 per year for a family of three.
Half the spots are reserved for people who earn less than 138% of the federal poverty level, or about $30,000 per year for a family of three. Participants will be randomly selected from a pool of applicants who meet the eligibility requirements.
Local people of color only
Oakland's project is significant because it is one of the largest efforts in the U.S. so far, targeting up to 600 families. And it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.
The reason: White households in Oakland on average make about three times as much annually than black households, according to the Oakland Equity Index. It's also a nod to the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the political movement that was founded in Oakland in the 1960s.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced this week that the city will launch a guaranteed income project to give hundreds of Black and Indigenous families and people of color $500 per month for 18 months.
The project's payments will be unconditional, and recipients may spend the money however they choose.
...
The project targets groups with the city's greatest wealth disparities, per the
Oakland Equality Index, which reveals the median income for White households in Oakland to be nearly three times that of Black households.
"The poverty we all witness today is not a personal failure, it is a systems failure," Schaaf said in a
statement. "Guaranteed income is one of the most promising tools for systems change, racial equity and economic mobility we've seen in decades."
Guaranteed income is different from Universal Basic Income (UBI), which would provide enough income to meet everyone's basic needs.
Instead, guaranteed income is only meant to supplement other wages and programs for low-income residents, helping to build the
"income floor" on which people in poverty can begin to build financially secure lives.
Who is eligible?
To qualify for the Oakland Resilient Families payments, families must have at least one child under 18. Their income must be at or below the area's median income: around $59,000 for a family of three.
But half of the available spots will be reserved for very low-income families -- those who earn below 138% of the federal poverty level -- or, about $30,000 per year for a family of three.
An online, multilingual screening form will be released later this spring and summer, after which families will be chosen at random to receive the payments. The program is also open to undocumented and/or unsheltered families. Because recipients will not be required to work for the payments, the money is not considered taxable income.
City of Oakland Mayor is branded racist for giving families of color $500 a month if they earn under $59,000 with no rules on how they spend it - but offering poor white families nothing
- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced race-based program to give families of color $500 monthly checks
- Half of the $500 grants will be to families earning under $30,000, in the predominantly 'BIPOC' East Oakland area
- The program, funded by wealthy private donors, explicitly excludes poor white families
- An estimated 10,000 of Oakland's 435,000 population are white residents who live in poverty, defined by earning less than $12,880
- Many of the wealthy white city residents are 'young transplants', who move to the Bay Area for high paying jobs in tech and finance
A program to give $500 monthly checks to low-income families of color in Oakland, California, has been criticized for explicitly excluding the 10,000 white residents living in poverty in the city.
The lottery system, funded by private philanthropists, will see the no-strings-attached checks go to households with an annual income of less than $59,000 if they have at least one child. The other half of the $500 checks will go to those earning under $30,000.
According to data from an Oakland Equity Indicators Report, cited by officials to justify favoring people of color, white households earn about three times that of African-American ones.
The same report states around 8 per cent of the city's white residents, approximately 10,000 people, live in poverty.
This caught my eye (via right lean media) because of excluding whites. Reading it further, I'm a bit torn - it is an experiment (18mo only only 600 families, 50% to families earning under $30k), so in that sense it is a targeted group and local gov't wants to see how it goes. But I really can't see their justification to exclude whites. They say the average income for whites is 3x that of other races, but articles also state 8% of the city's white residents live in poverty. Why not let the experiment also include those white families (it's a lottery system on who gets the $500 for the 18mo). Use it to see if the poor whites to any better or worse in the program, leverage the opportunity to truly run an experiment with those IN NEED.
I'm generally against the welfare approach, but for an experiment I'd like to see how it goes. I am firmly against using race as a criteria for eligibility, to me that is both pandering AND racist by definition. Do it based on NEED.