Austin becomes the first Texas metropolis to experiment with ‘guaranteed income’

Sign up for The Brief, our each day e-newsletter that retains readers up to speed on the most essential Texas information.

Austin would be the first main Texas city to use local tax dollars to provide cash to low-income families to maintain them housed as the price of residing skyrockets within the capital metropolis.

Under a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a key Austin City Council vote Thursday, town will ship month-to-month checks of $1,000 to 85 needy households at risk of dropping their properties — an try to insulate low-income residents from Austin’s more and more costly housing market and stop extra folks from turning into homeless.

“We will discover individuals moments before they end up on our streets that stop them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adler said at a press conference Thursday morning. “That will be not solely wonderful for them, it might be wise and smart for the taxpayers in the metropolis of Austin because will probably be rather a lot cheaper to divert somebody from homelessness than to help them find a house as soon as they’re on our streets.”

Advert

Eight Austin City Council members voted Thursday to establish the “guaranteed earnings” pilot program and contract with a California nonprofit to run it.

Austin joins a minimum of 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh, that have tried some type of guaranteed earnings. Locally, the thought came out of efforts to transform how town tackles public safety in the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.

Different Texas metro areas have experimented with guaranteed income programs through the pandemic. Programs in San Antonio and El Paso County have sent common funds to low-income households using a mixture of federal stimulus dollars and charitable contributions. Austin is believed to have the one program totally funded by native taxpayers.

Austin officials are figuring out how exactly this system will work and which households will obtain the cash. Austinites who qualify gained’t have restrictions on how they can spend the money — however the thought is that they’ll use it to pay family costs like rent, utilities, transportation and groceries.

Ad

City officers have floated some prospects regarding who should qualify for help: residents who've an eviction case filed in opposition to them or have hassle paying their utility bills, as well as people already experiencing homelessness.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, some council members voiced concerns concerning the relative lack of particulars about the program and questioned whether or not it was a good suggestion for Austin to use local tax dollars to fund this system, slightly than letting the federal authorities or nonprofits take the lead.

“I believe that we do have to spend money on folks and their primary wants, but I’m undecided that this is the appropriate way right now,” council member Alison Alter stated at Thursday’s meeting earlier than voting against the measure.

Brion Oaks, the city’s chief equity officer, instructed city officers in a memo that the Urban Institute, a nonprofit suppose tank based in Washington, D.C., will help measure the program’s influence by taking a look at factors like contributors’ financial stability, stress levels and total wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Advert

Preliminary findings from an identical pilot program confirmed some promising results. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that will run the Austin program, ran a separate assured income program funded by private dollars in Austin and Georgetown that ended in March, the nonprofit mentioned in a statement Thursday. That program gave 173 families $1,000 a month for a yr, and the nonprofit stated individuals used the money for bills like rent and mortgage payments, child care, fuel and groceries.

Some had been capable of enhance their financial savings, greater than half of recipients slashed their debt by 75% and greater than a 3rd eliminated their family debt, the nonprofit said.

According to Austin’s Ending Group Homelessness Coalition, the town has greater than 3,100 people experiencing homelessness. A local ban on most evictions in the course of the pandemic stored the variety of eviction case fillings low in contrast with other major Texas cities, but that quantity has exploded since the ban ended last year.

Ad

Assured earnings may be one method to put a dent in these issues, proponents said.

“That is about preventing displacement, stopping eviction and ensuring that our households are able to stay in their home, that we have that stability,” council member Vanessa Fuentes stated.

Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chair, has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that is funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Help mission-driven journalism flourish in Texas. The Texas Tribune depends on reader help to proceed delivering information that informs Texans and engages with them. Donate now to join as a Texas Tribune member. Plus, give month-to-month or yearly now by means of Might 5 and you’ll help unlock a $10K match. Give and double your influence in the present day.

Advert

Clarification, Could 6, 2022: This story has been updated to reflect that Austin is the primary Texas city to use local tax dollars for a “guaranteed income” program, and that different Texas cities have experimented with similar packages using other forms of funding.