California Department of Social Services. (Photo: CDSS.ca.gov)
California Unveils $25 Million In Guaranteed Income Grants
‘UBI just gives money with no strings attached’
By Evan Symon, November 22, 2022 4:34 pm
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) announced on Monday that they would be giving more than $25 million worth of grants to guaranteed income projects across the state, with the amount given to affect around 1,975 people in the state.
Guaranteed income/universal basic income (UBI) programs have continued to pop up more and more across the state since the late 2010’s, with programs giving individuals a certain amount of money each month for around 1-2 years. To date, UBI programs have been in Stockton, Sacramento, Compton, Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Some cities, such as San Francisco, have multiple short term UBI programs going on at a time, affecting different groups of people found to have been struggling to make ends meet as a whole. All the programs have been monitored to some extent, as city governments have wanted to see if the programs even work, and what the pros and cons are in the projects.
While statewide UBI efforts have all fizzled out in the state legislature, the funding of individual pilot programs at a city level has seen more success. The California Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, devised by Governor Gavin Newsom and state legislators, has continued on, with project focus groups including pregnant women and those leaving foster care. As such, on Monday, the CDSS announced that the following 7 city-level programs would be funded by the state:
• Expecting Justice (Heluna Health DBA Public Health Foundation Enterprises, Inc.) in the amount of $5,000,000. Pilot will provide 425 pregnant individuals who are disproportionately impacted by perinatal health disparities with $600-$1,000 per month for 12 months.
• Inland Southern California United Way in the amount of $5,000,000. Pilot will provide 500 pregnant individuals and 150 former foster youth with $600 per month for 18 months.
• iFoster, Inc. in the amount of $4,763,010. Pilot will provide 300 former foster youth with $750 per month for 18 months.
• Los Angeles Section National Council of Jewish Women, Inc. in the amount of $3,681,949. Pilot will provide 150 pregnant individuals who have diabetes with $1,000 per month for 18 months.
• San Francisco Human Services Agency in the amount of $3,300,000. Pilot will provide 150 former foster youth with $1,200 per month for 18 months.
• McKinleyville Community Collaborative in the amount of $2,354,841. Pilot will provide 150 pregnant individuals with $1,000 per month for 18 months.
• Ventura County Human Services Agency in the amount of $1,500,000. Pilot will provide 150 youth former foster youth with $1,000 per month for 18 months.
In total, the amount comes to just above $25 million, covering 1,975 people with monthly payments of $600-$1,200 a month for 12-18 months.
$25 million in new UBI programs
“We are excited to launch these groundbreaking pilot projects throughout California and I want to thank the Governor and Legislature for yet another historic investment in the fight against poverty in California,” said CDSS Director Kim Johnson in a statement. “These pilots will serve as an important opportunity to assess the impact of an economic intervention during key life transitions, such as the birth of a child or entry into independence after extended foster care.”
Special Advisor for Economic Mobility and Opportunity and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income Founder Michael Tubbs, who, as Mayor of Stockton, had overseen the first large UBI pilot program in the state, added that “I am proud to see my home state of California ushering in the promise of a guaranteed income to build financial resilience among our residents. Just as we saw with the pilot I led as mayor of Stockton, I’m confident these funds will provide crucial support for families and strengthen our communities.”
Experts, however, had a different opinion of the Social Services agency plan.
“California Social Services is just backing programs throwing money at people for a short time, then not following through after that,” said Cheryl Keating, a law researcher who has studied UBI proposals and programs in the United States and Canada, to the Globe on Tuesday. “These are all flash-in-the-pan style UBIs that only help for a few years, then are taken away without having built the person up. Job programs, programs helping people find affordable housing, and other programs funded with the goal of helping people out in mind, as well as numerous charity and non-profit programs, have helped these people for years build a base of basic needs and a job to start or start again on life from a bad situation.”
“UBI fails to do that. UBI just gives money with no strings attached. While some use this to pay rent or get food, or use as a fund cushion to have time to get a job, or something responsible, a lot of people in UBI programs also just don’t spend it on things like that. And now the state is stepping a little bit more into that, with no boundaries. All of these statements people are putting out about how great these programs are are filled with buzzwords and read like an AI-generated speech and fail to get into the nitty gritty. We have to really keep an eye on these programs.”
Other cities are expected to unveil pilot UBI programs soon.
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FREE GOVERNMENT MONEY!!!
Get yer free government money, here!!!
Talk about buying votes, from low-information voters….
Disgusting….
Agreed! “Gimme muh free sh&t.”
If it’s private money, fine. But these people are taking that 25 million off as a state and federal tax break, thus making taxpayer have to pay more.
I guarantee you it will not go to people who need it most. A majority of people who have zero source of income and live outdoors will never see a penny of it, and many of those people need it for clothes, laundry, and hygiene items. I know someone who needs a laptop so they can conduct job interviews and no government agency or non-profit will afford even that. These programs mostly benefiting people who are pregnant or foster youth. The state regards the remainder of people living in extreme poverty (tents outdoors, vehicles on streets) as undeserving of UBI and will only assist with metal health care and substance abuse treatment disorders. Meanwhile, if you are at risk of losing your apartment or home agencies are lined up with $10000s of assistance. There are no standards here and the headline is misleading. The $25 million is mostly for mothers and youth.
Your half right. The city I live in use that money to pay themselves for implementing these programs however these programs don’t exists and the ones that do good luck trying to receive what you qualify for without having to ask for a state hearing I’ve been waiting for 7 months now just to get paid for work I’ve done and continue to do for free I guess who knows how much longer I’m going to have to wait now. The city I live in gets a lot of grants from the government for helping people in need. However when you ask for it there’s no money left to help. Why where’s that money going ? The real question you need to ask yourself is. If all this money that the government receives from it’s hard working under paid citizens are going to and being used to help the needy, then why is the needy increasing in numbers instead of declining? This is the truth about the situation. Through the grant system the government will grant cities , counties, organizations, businesses, and so on. This Grant system is where your hard working money is disappearing. Through fraudulent applications, cities fraudulent applications, fraudulent organizations, and whoever else that knows how to manipulate the grant system. So to be upset with the people in need for needing help that they shouldn’t be needing is ridiculous because it’s loud and clear that they aren’t receiving the help. The people asking for these grants to help the needy then lie about helping I don’t know what they do with all that money all I know is that all the money the government takes from you isn’t going where it needs to go and it’s not going to or being used in the way you were told. Your money is being exchanged by too many hands by the time it reaches where it was supposed to go most of it has been stolen, lost, and missused to the point there’s nothing left to help those who need it. The people responsible for making sure it’s used properly is in the hands of whoever is running the cities you live in. With that said who should we be questioning about this? No one questions these people so they continue to steal from you and the people in need. The solution is what? The government is the one taking it from you right well the government needs to crack down on those they put in charge and make them pay for their crimes. This is where the majority of the drain on society is coming from. Here’s the kicker the people in charge of helping the people in need miss treat them and force them to live in 3rd world conditions, in the city I live in the homeless is directed to living on Homeless Hill and it’s located across the street from the behavioral health center which is one of two buildings in the whole town that health and human services are controlled. These people go to work every day and see these people living in those conditions and they don’t care it doesn’t bother them one bit. To know these people are suffering from them stealing money to help them. These people have no conscience no remorse and it’s sad.