California city council approves guaranteed income program for transgender, nonbinary residents
PALM SPRINGS, California – A California city has approved funding to create a guaranteed income plan for transgender and nonbinary residents as part of a pilot program that is expected to roll out over the next year.
The Palm Springs City Council approved the proposal at its March 24 meeting, allotting $200,000 to fund initial research and planning.
The program, which is being developed by DAP Health and Queer Works, two local organizations, is currently in the pilot phase, and expected to roll out in three stages; the design, announcement, and launch phases, spanning from April 2022 through February 2023, and an onboarding phase beginning in March 2023.
The proposal submitted to the council requested the funding to cover capital costs to begin the initial phase of the program. Their intent is to take part in a broader effort called Mayors for a Guaranteed Income Pilots (MGIP), an initiative designed to provide “guaranteed income directly to individuals to help supplement their income (or lack thereof).”
“Our MGIP will be a monthly, cash payment given directly to individuals in Palm Springs who identify as transgender or nonbinary (TGNB),” the proposal states. “The payments will come without the conditions, both socially and physically, that are often put on to the TGNB community.”
The proposal identifies the TGNB population as “particularly vulnerable to unemployment, homelessness, assault, and discrimination.”
Applicants will be selected at random, and those who are not selected “will still be given the tools and skills to learn how to access a vast amount of safe and affirming resources throughout Palm Springs” the proposal states.
After the initial phase, the program will look to the $35 million in state funding set aside by California Gov. Gavin Newsom last May for such projects. The state’s proposal was not created to fund guaranteed income, but rather to help pay for local governments to start their own programs.
Stockton, California Mayor Michael D. Tubbs founded Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) in June 2020, and according to their 2021 annual report, since launching, 63 mayors from 26 states have signed on to the project and there are currently 15 pilot cities.
In 2020, Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang ran on a platform of universal basic income (UBI), but there is a difference between that and guaranteed income.
Guaranteed income is similar to UBI in that a set amount of money is provided to people over a period of time, usually on a monthly basis. They both function in the same way; however, UBI applies to everyone rather than a set group of people based on geography or other criteria.
PBS noted that critics of these programs claim they offer a disincentive for people to work, which we witnessed as a result of the federal government’s expanded unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Labor shortages were being blamed on the increased benefits paid out.
They also cited an independent review of a guaranteed income program initiated by Tubbs in Stockton in 2019 which says they found full-time employment increased among people who received the payments during the first year of the project. In the beginning, 28 percent of recipients had full-time jobs, and after one year, that number increased to 40 percent.
The concept of guaranteed income is gaining traction across the country but it remains to be seen whether it enables or encourages. Oakland, California just recently launched a guaranteed income program for people of color.
