09 Jul Supervisors Sign Off on Guaranteed Income Pilot Program

(Image courtesy of Contra Costa County via Bay City News)

By Tony Hicks
Bay City News

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a guaranteed income pilot program aiding 178 people over 18 months.

Contra Costa Thrives will provide unconditional cash payments to help participants’ ability to meet basic needs.

In October, the board allocated $3.25 million in county funds and another $1 million in state funds for the program to be developed and administered by the county’s Employment and Human Services Department.

The funds will target four specific populations: youth transitioning out of foster care, families with young children experiencing financial hardship, low-income seniors, and people on probation returning to the community after incarceration.

Participants will need to already be enrolled in county-sponsored programs to be eligible, such as CalWORKs or Welfare-to-Work or others (or be on probation). It’s a point with which at least a dozen public speakers — many from community assistance groups — took issue at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Supervisor John Gioia pointed out counties like Sonoma, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, and Sacramento with GI programs don’t require prior enrollment in county aid programs to include people in GI programs.

Marla Stuart, the director of the county’s Employment and Human Services Department, said staff looked at those examples and decided to focus on people already in the system.

“I think you can provide the most, the largest percent of the budget, to the benefits themselves if you don’t have to invest in administrative overhead, advertising, applications, determining eligibility and then managing the case throughout the period,” Stuart said.

Some speakers said local community groups were left out of the decision-making process, something Stuart denied. They also wondered why the county was excluding people who may be less fortunate than those enrolled in county programs.

National Alliance on Mental Illness Contra Costa CEO Gigi Crowder said the African-American community has a lack of trust in existing programs that keeps many from enrolling.

“There’s a lack of trust in this county from that community, because you do not really need to be a part of a system that continuously harms you,” Crowder said. “But we do pay taxes, so we would love the funding made available, but we want to get it in a way that doesn’t dehumanize us.”

Board chair Candace Andersen emphasized that it’s a pilot program that can only help a very small percentage of those in need countywide. Stuart said there’s more than 300,000 people in Contra Costa County on some form of assistance.

“Most pilots are put in place to say, ‘Hey, does this work? Should we then expand it into a bigger program that might help even more people?'” Andersen said. “And that’s what this is.”

County caseworkers will identify eligible candidates, who a manager will invite to mandatory orientation. There will also be a control group of 356 candidates who won’t receive GI but will be compensated for their time. The county will work with University of California, Davis on a five-year follow-up study with participants to evaluate how well it worked.

Stuart said staff will try being equitable in how many participants are chosen across all five county supervisorial districts.

After preparation is done, the first GI payment will arrive Jan. 15. Participants will have three options as to how much money to receive and when, with most of the options involving monthly payments of $1,250.

In the meeting’s staff report, there were numbers showing benefits of similar GI programs. The report said GI reduces recidivism among formerly incarcerated people and promotes a growing interest in serving older people.

The report called the payments “effective poverty alleviation strategy internationally.” It also said case management support is essential and that the programs benefit people’s economic well-being while enrolled, though there’s a lack of studies in the U.S. on long-term effects.

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