As a coalition of city leaders around the U.S. gathers to support a guaranteed income, various communities are evaluating how it might work in their hometowns.
A guaranteed income is a monthly cash payment made directly to any citizen who qualifies with no strings attached. Though it is similar in concept to a universal basic income, it is normally targeted to low-income residents, rather than all residents.
Since June, 25 mayors from across the country have united to call for a guaranteed income at the federal level and have begun studying programs in their cities through Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI). Following the success of Stockton, Calif.'s guaranteed income program, its mayor, Michael Tubbs, founded the organization and began recruiting fellow mayors to support similar models.
“The beginning and end of this for me is that the impacts of poverty in my community and across the country are so devastating to our communities and to our residents that we have to find some way to lift people up and provide them with the income that they need,” said Satya Rhodes-Conway, mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, at a virtual event held by MGI and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Madison is currently exploring starting its first guaranteed income pilot program.
The 25-member coalition's West Coast representatives include Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan; Tacoma, Wash., Mayor Victoria Woodwards; and mayors from several California cities.
The coalition argues a targeted program can be a tool for economic, racial, and gender equality as it will protect a city’s most vulnerable residents. The money, they say, can supplement current social safety programs and earned income and guarantees an income floor for everyone. Unlike other social programs, it allows residents to choose what they need to spend the money on.
“During COVID-19 it became incredibly clear that a guaranteed income was a lifeline for so many of our residents,” Tubbs said at the virtual event, pointing out that unemployment and other assistance programs can often take two or three months to distribute benefits. “You have to wait, and your bills don’t wait with that waiting period.”
Though the details of a guaranteed income, including how much it is monthly, differ, most current or proposed programs follow the same model as the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), where an amount of cash, in this case $500, is given to individuals or families monthly. According to Tubbs, the money they receive is spent on necessities, and nearly 50 per cent is spent on food.
“I am able to buy better things, like fruit, which is very high in cost,” one resident, Laura Kidd Plummer, said in a press release from SEED.
The concept of a guaranteed income is picking up speed. In 2016, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton almost ran on a platform including UBI, though she said later “we couldn’t make the numbers work.” This election cycle, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s campaign was defined by his support of UBI. Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, was against the concept in 2017, but recently put out a plan for a guaranteed income of $3,000 annually for parents with children. However, most of the discussion on a national level has examined universal programs, rather than the targeted ones MGI supports.
The idea of a guaranteed income in the District of Columbia was floated in a 2018 D.C. Council report on the feasibility of providing a minimum income for residents. The report found that most low-income households in the District struggle to make ends meet without any additional programs.
“Fifteen dollars an hour is clearly not enough to even make your basic needs met in the District of Columbia,” At-large Councilmember David Grosso said of the findings.
Though the minimum wage in the District is currently $15 per hour, a single adult would need to make at least $17.78 to meet all basic needs, the report concluded, and an adult with one child would need to make $31.79. The report also found that while a single adult with a child, if they received all benefits they were eligible for, could meet all their basic needs, eligibility did not mean they were guaranteed that benefit. Single adults who receive all the benefits they are eligible for are still not able to meet their basic needs.
In Oregon, the minimum hourly wage rages from $11.50 in rural areas up to $13.25 in the Portland metro area. However, studies by the National Low Income Housing Coalition conclude a household needs to earn at least $24.37 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental home in Oregon.