SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The mayor of Oakland, California, on Tuesday announced a privately funded program that will give low-income families of color $500 per month with no rules on how they can spend it.
The program is the latest example of “guaranteed income,” an idea that giving poor people a set amount of money each month helps ease the stresses of poverty that contribute to poor health and hinder their ability to find full-time work.
The idea isn’t new, but it has received a lot of attention lately after some mayors have launched small, temporary programs across the country in a co-ordinated effort to convince Congress to adopt the program nationally.
The first program launched in 2019 in Stockton, California, led by former Mayor Michael Tubbs. Tubbs has said about six similar programs in other cities should be up and running by the summer.
“We have designed this demonstration project to add the body of evidence, and to begin this relentless campaign to adopt a guaranteed income federally,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said.
The Oakland Resilient Families program has so far raised $6.75 million from private donors including Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropy group.
Across the San Francisco Bay, the Marin County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to participate in its own two-year guaranteed income project.
Oakland’s project is significant because it is one of the largest efforts in the U.S. so far, targeting up to 600 families. And it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.
The reason: White households in Oakland on average make about three times as much annually than black households, according to the Oakland Equity Index. It’s also a nod to the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the political movement that was founded in Oakland in the 1960s.
“Guaranteed income has been a goal of the Black Panther platform since its founding,” said Jesús Gerena, CEO of Family Independence Initiative, which is partnering with the program in Oakland. “Direct investment in the community in response to systemic injustices isn’t new.”
The idea of a guaranteed income dates to the 18th century. The U.S. government experimented with it in the 1960s and 1970s when Republicans Donald Rumsfeld, later a defense secretary, and Dick Cheney, the future vice-president, oversaw four programs across the country during the Nixon administration.
Those studies concluded the money did not stop people from working, causing Nixon to recommend expanding the program. But it never got through Congress.
Decades later, proponents are trying again, only this time it’s led by progressive mayors. An independent review found that after one year of getting the money, 40% of recipients had full-time jobs compared with 28% before the program started.
“The fact that mayors are piloting (guaranteed income programs), using political capital to raise capital to allow their constituents to have basic necessities, is a policy failure,” Tubbs said. “It’s an admission that we need to do more.”
It’s unclear what a national guaranteed income program would look like. A proposal by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang could have cost $2.8 trillion per year.
A form of guaranteed income could take effect for many parents this year as part of the latest federal stimulus package. Congress expanded the child tax credit, with the goal of giving many parents monthly payments of up to $300 per month. Those payments are temporary.
In California, a proposal by Assemblyman Evan Low to give $1,000 a month to adults with certain incomes could cost up to $129 billion annually — more than half the state’s general fund budget — paid for by a new 1% tax on incomes above $2 million.
Critics, including labour unions, worry such expensive programs could force the elimination of other safety net programs, like Social Security and food stamps. But Schaaf said she is unapologetic that “the social safety net programs must remain.”
“We believe that those safety net programs should not go away, but should be supplemented with unconditional cash that gives families the dignity and flexibility to meet their needs,” she said.
To be eligible, people must have at least one child under 18 and income at or below 50% of the area median income — about $59,000 per year for a family of three.
Half the spots are reserved for people who earn below 138% of the federal poverty level, or about $30,000 per year for a family of three.
Participants will be randomly selected from a pool of applicants who meet the eligibility requirements.
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
San Francisco has the biggest homeless population in the country.
Now Oakland, CA is trying to have the biggest low-income colored population.
“it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.”
#1. This is racism, a racist program and descriminatory and against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
#2. The Democrat Party is Racist when it fits its objectives,
and will accuse others of being racists when it fits their objectives.
#3. This is also geared up to to supporting the illegal immigrant invasion.
* The most degrading and offensive insult one can give another is to call them a “Democrat”.
The Democrats were and are a racist party by legislation. They have doctors and nurses killing people, and mutilating children and calling it Gender Medicine. They have legislated the normalization of this from Kindergarten to University, and therefore today Gender Medicine mutilates boys and girls so they can be of the gender of their choice. This mutilation cannot be reversed, and parents who object to this the so-called Liberal Judges put in jail. This is going on in Vancouver Canada today and YouTube agree with Gender Medicine, and the Doctors who make their living changing the gender of children. Thus they have banned Rebel News Canada and International from YouTube because Ezra reports the truth.
Bidens Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health He-She Rachel Levine also believes in the Genital Mutilation of children by calling it the normalized by Democrat Legislation Gender Medicine .
Colored people like myself know that white people gave us the right to vote. My Grandfather showed me science textbooks stating colored people and women have smaller brains than whites, thus they are inferior. The racist Democrat Party buys the colored vote. Millions are flooding the southern border and welcomed by Democrats because they know they can buy their majorities votes.
Private charity can be distributed however the organization chooses.
Not if it is distributed by the government.
Can a privately owned business discriminate against hiring strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities?
Alabama.. COULD a private charity say “WE ONLY SERVE WHITES??”
Could they give to only men?
IF NOT< then how can THIS CHARITY, VIA THE CITY, give to only blacks, and IT NOT BE ILLEGAL??
To leave out any needy racial group is inherently racist no matter the source of the funding if the stated purpose is to aid the needy.
Also, what is the difference between black and poc? A black video maker recently stated that poc is just “colored people” backward with an”of” in the middle. He did not want to be called a poc. In reality, even albinos have color, so everyone basically could fall under the people of color category.
It is time to stop the Dems continued onslaught on unity and security in this country. Currently, our Texas border cities are overrun with illegals even though there is no room and, definitely, no money for food or supplies in the poorer communities. A Dem mayor from Arizona has appealed to Biden to no avail. That drooling old man has no idea what is going on in our country.
ITs inherently racist, ONLY SO LONG as its not whites being shanked over. THEN ITS “Restorative justice”!
“unconditional cash that gives families the dignity and flexibility to meet their needs,” ,,,,,SO where the hell is the dignity in THAT, to accept the handouts unearned and the path of least resistence that destroys your ability to individually SELF-Govern that collectively robs America of the capacity for Self-Government? Theives by any other name that destroy American strength and edifies and enables the American weak. They are society killers of the first rank. Mark them as the enemy of all that America stands for and will only lead to the down fall of all that previous American generations have sacrificed to build, making us slaves of those who do and WILL seek to excel.
It’s a different kind of a slave plantation … but it’s a poverty stricken, squalor infested plantation with no hope of advancement … never the less!
AND wasn’t the SAME “we need to give them back dignity” excuse, used to SHIFT Food stamps from being actual books of what you could buy, to ‘give them the money on a Credit card??
AND HAS THAT DONE a single thing, to ;enhance folks dignity’?
There is no dignity in always whining with your hand out. If its free its not earned or respected.
Being born 6th generation here, doesn’t that make me indigenous?
What the heck are these people thinking?
Well first off… they don’t think… to these morons only Sasquatch is indigenous.
This is paid for racism.
YOU expect libtards to think??
“a set amount of money each month helps ease the stresses of poverty that contribute to poor health and hinder their ability to find full-time work”. Why would anyone of these people of “color” want to find work if they are handed money??????? Not only that, just giving money to people of “color”, violates the Constitution, based on “equality for all. Where are the courts??? Oh, I forgot the courts, when it comes to abiding by our Constitution is worthless, right John Roberts??
That’s a quote from ole’ Ben Franklin… “the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty”
Did someone forget about all the people NOT of color that are also poor? A policy that discriminates on race, creed or religion is racist!
Poor whites don’t matter… THEY NEVER DO.
Again whites need not apply. But what about poor whites ?? I guess poor whites can just starve and die in California.
Just to be clear: Poor white people aren’t your concern or, there are no poor white people? Asking the obvious for a friend.
I am poor and I am white. I see my people do without. There are a lot of poor white people.
Wonderful. Now they make these “low income “ people of color more dependent on the government and subsidize the income of the local drug dealer.
When all the special programs for the “low income” are added up, they, in total, are suddenly having more “income” than a lot of people working for a living.
I guess Oakland doesn’t have any low income white people. More government programs to drive a wedge between races and classes.
Hopefully some constitutionally conscious group will challenge this.
My neighbor has more income than me. Shouldn’t somebody come along and protect me by taking his money and giving it to me?
As i showed (with figures from official sites) a while back. When you take all these handouts and ‘credits’ etc, the “POOR” earn, they can in many cases, CLEAR over 60k a year.. NOW just think how much pay a NORMAL PERSON would have to earn, to CLEAR 60k a year AFTER TAXES…
And so two years from now, when none of the stated goals and intents has been met….(and subsequently discover that 95% of the the money was spent on drugs, alcohol, lottery tickets and cigarettes, but will never admit that)….they’ll blame someone or something else for the failure, and claim that the amount given was just too little, and that they need to increase the amount.
IT will all be blamed on white privilege… Trump.. And toxic masculinity.
Of course it’s racist but is it illegal? The money is from private donations but the city is involved in dispersing it. Sounds like it would be a great test case for the courts, or it would be if we still had constitutional courts.
LEO. IF i owned a private charity, could i serve only WHITES? Or only males, without getting brought into court and SUED INTO obscurity for ‘racism/sexism’???
HELL NO.
SO why should this ‘private charity’ Be able to do it??
And people say slavery is dead, well this broad just enslaved anyone dumb enough to go for it, when you depend on someone else for something, they own you. 600K white people died to free these pawns, and now many will “voluntarily” submit to slavery once again. We have gone from keeping them down on the plantation, to getting them on the program, result is the same, you are enslaved and beholding to someone else.
Another Dem vote scheme. Nixon tried to get this through congress in the 70’s and it didn’t pass. I wonder who was in charge of the congress back then. Nixon was a RINO. Not sure why Democrats didn’t like him. He grew the size of government, created tons of federal programs including the EPA. Climate changers should love him. Took us off the gold standard and started the slippery economic slope that led to trillions in debt today. I’m all for helping anyone but the government needs to get out of the way!
Looks like these are private funds. No way Dick Cheney was a liberal. This is how far right the country has moved.
How “Far right” we’ve moved?? Sorry, but we’ve moved FURTHER LEFT year afte year..
NOT RIGHT!
Wish there was a way to leave a “thumbs down” vote for Mom.
He was anti-communist. They never forgave him for ending our involvement in Vietnam. Naturally they refused to provide military aid to the South Vietnamese Government.
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
Benjamin Franklin
On the Price of Corn and Management of the poor. 1766
My thoughts exactly.. MAKE IT HARD To be poor.. And you will encourage more folks to get OUT OF BEING POOR.
How is limiting this benefit to “people of color” not racist? Are there not low-income white people too?
Coming soon: Oakland declares bankruptcy, California bails out and assumes direct control
Coming soon: California declares bankruptcy, DC bails out and assumes direct control
Coming soon: USA declares bankruptcy, China bails out and assumes control
WOW!
“privately funded program that will give low-income families of color $500 per month”!
The first paragraph shows that this is a 100% Racist program. The article states that “Whites” are not included because the average White family (how is that defined?) earns 3 times as much as the included families, so therefore ALL White families are not eligible.
But what about the White families that would fit into the guidelines. I’m sure there are many that would, but this program simply dismisses that idea.
The reason (White Families are not included in this racist project): White households in Oakland on average make about three times as much annually than black households, according to the Oakland Equity Index. It’s also a nod to the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the political movement that was founded in Oakland in the 1960s.
Sheesh People. And they still say Trump was Racist. Nope, it’s Demorats, all Demorats evidently are the Racists bunch… Lumping them all together as this project has lumped all Whites together as earning 3X Black families.
AND note, NOT ONE MENTION of what ‘private entity’, is FUNDING THIS… Let lone how much is being put into it..
I grew up in a poor white area. In “the valley” where I lived in a single wide trailer, there are no public housing. Poor whites just do without. This has been going on for a long time. But the democrats are more open about it now
Which is why i’ve never understood, WHY WHITES VOTE for democrats..
women in politics folks i am sorry but they need not apply.
This is a violation of the 14th Amendment, i.e., the Equal Protection Clause.
Didn’t you get the memo.. That only applies to illegal alien and criminals.. NOT WHITE Citizens..
Is this country headed for a racial civil war not seen since the ethnic cleansing of WWII? This is all being promoted and exploited by the MEDIA and Democrat party. If its privately funded why is the mayor involved? Private or public its 100% racist.
Special privileges indicate racism just as deprivation of privileges indicates racism. Only equality assures freedom.
I can’t believe that ANYONE would read this and think it was OK. It’s like I woke up and common sense had been canceled.
THIS is commiefornia. COMMON SENSE was eradicated late in the 80s..
Common sense has been canceled. Only hateful bigoted morons need apply if you want to be a Democrap.
When I had Crayola crayons the colors were white, black, red, yellow, brown, and many others. And this hag did say people of color, I guess every one gets a check. That’s the dummycrat plan, equal opportunity laziness.
Maybe we should all claim we are people of color. Make them prove we’re not. I’ve seen and heard of a lot of “white people” claiming they are black or Indian. Just ask pale face Elizabeth Warren
So discounted housing, food stamps, money for college and who knows what else is not enough. And there are 1000s more coming over the border for the same.
So, isn’t this discrimination against the white population? Where did this clown come from? Probably Bezerkly…