Enterprise article dated February 12, 2021
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy
Some of Yolo County’s poorest families with young children will receive a hand up and out of poverty through a universal basic income pilot project approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The 31 families in the CalWORKS Housing Support Program who have children under the age of 2 will receive monthly payments for a year, up to a maximum of $12,155.
That cash assistance, combined with the CalWORKS grant they already receive to help with housing and other costs, would bring these families’ incomes above California’s minimum poverty threshold ($25,658 for a family of four), according to Nolan Sullivan of the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency.
The CalWORKS Housing Support Program provides a state grant to assist families who are homeless or about to be homeless.
“Those kids are in the deepest poverty, the most at risk, the most needing of our help across the county,” Sullivan told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Yolo County, he said, has the third highest poverty rate in the state, behind only Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, and the children that will be aided by the universal basic income program “are some of the hardest hit in Yolo County.”
The 31 families include five in Davis, he said.
Covering the cost of the $400,000 pilot project will be several different sources, including $100,000 from the county’s cannabis tax revenue; $100,000 from First 5 Yolo; and $75,000 from the state’s Office of Child Abuse Prevention.
Fundraising would bring in the remaining $125,000 needed.
Yolo County’s supervisors were unanimously in support, but several expressed interest in expanding the pilot project from one year to two, if additional funding can be secured, and possibly expanding to families with older children.
“One year, by the time you get started and finished, you’ve hardly had a chance to make anything happen that you can measure or assess,” said Supervisor Don Saylor of Davis. “I encourage us to look at a two-year window if we can.”
Supervisor Jim Provenza of Davis said, “if we can get the money to make it up to age five and (extend the pilot for another year), that would be great.”
Evaluation of the pilot project will include measuring parents’ education and/or career attainment during the pilot as well as the physical and mental health of parents and children.
“We have a couple UC Davis instructors that are very interested in maybe providing the evaluation tools for this,” Sullivan said.
Other organizations are also interested in evaluating the program as well, he added.
Universal basic income — also known as UBI — essentially provides individuals with a monthly cash payment without a work requirement or strings attached.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang (now a candidate for New York City mayor) touted UBI during his 2020 campaign. But small jurisdictions have also implemented UBI in different forms, including the city of Stockton.
The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration began in early 2019, providing about 130 residents making less than the city’s median income with $500 a month with no strings attached.
University researchers who evaluated the program found that nearly 40 percent of tracked spending went to food, but the money also covered transportation, utilities, healthcare, debt and more.
Meanwhile, the city of Compton is home to Compton Pledge, which is providing around 800 residents with between $300 and $600 per month with no strings attached. No public funds are being used in that program; rather private donors are financing the program.
In implementing its own program, Yolo County will be on the cutting edge, said Nolan.
“We’re not the first ones through the door, but maybe third of fourth.”
— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy.
Comments (0)