Austin becomes the primary Texas city to experiment with ‘assured earnings’

Sign up for The Brief, our every day e-newsletter that keeps readers in control on the most essential Texas information.

Austin would be the first main Texas metropolis to use native tax dollars to give cash to low-income households to keep them housed as the cost of dwelling skyrockets within the capital city.

Beneath a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a key Austin City Council vote Thursday, the town will ship monthly checks of $1,000 to 85 needy households vulnerable to losing their houses — an try and insulate low-income residents from Austin’s increasingly expensive housing market and prevent more individuals from becoming homeless.

“We will discover people moments earlier than they find yourself on our streets that forestall them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adler stated at a press conference Thursday morning. “That might be not solely wonderful for them, it would be wise and smart for the taxpayers in the metropolis of Austin as a result of it will be quite a bit less expensive to divert somebody from homelessness than to assist them discover a house once they’re on our streets.”

Advert

Eight Austin Metropolis Council members voted Thursday to ascertain 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, which have tried some form of guaranteed income. Regionally, the thought got here out of efforts to rework how the town tackles public safety within the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.

Other Texas metro areas have experimented with assured earnings applications during the pandemic. Programs in San Antonio and El Paso County have sent regular funds to low-income households using a mix of federal stimulus dollars and charitable contributions. Austin is believed to have the one program fully funded by local taxpayers.

Austin officers are figuring out how precisely the program will work and which households will receive the money. Austinites who qualify gained’t have restrictions on how they'll spend the money — however the idea is that they’ll use it to pay family prices like hire, utilities, transportation and groceries.

Ad

City officers have floated some potentialities regarding who ought to qualify for assist: residents who have an eviction case filed against them or have hassle paying their utility bills, as well as individuals already experiencing homelessness.

Forward of Thursday’s vote, some council members voiced issues in regards to the relative lack of particulars about this system and questioned whether or not it was a good suggestion for Austin to make use of native tax dollars to fund the program, somewhat than letting the federal authorities or nonprofits take the lead.

“I imagine that we do need to spend money on individuals and their primary needs, however I’m undecided that this is the best means at present,” council member Alison Alter mentioned at Thursday’s meeting earlier than voting in opposition to the measure.

Brion Oaks, the city’s chief fairness officer, instructed city officials in a memo that the City Institute, a nonprofit think tank based mostly in Washington, D.C., will help measure the program’s influence by taking a look at factors like members’ financial stability, stress levels and general wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Advert

Preliminary findings from a similar pilot program confirmed some promising outcomes. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that can run the Austin program, ran a separate assured earnings program funded by personal dollars in Austin and Georgetown that led to March, the nonprofit mentioned in an announcement Thursday. That program gave 173 families $1,000 a month for a year, and the nonprofit said contributors used the money for expenses like rent and mortgage funds, child care, fuel and groceries.

Some had been able to boost their savings, more than half of recipients slashed their debt by 75% and more than a third eliminated their household debt, the nonprofit stated.

In accordance with Austin’s Ending Neighborhood Homelessness Coalition, the town has greater than 3,100 individuals experiencing homelessness. A local ban on most evictions through the pandemic kept the number of eviction case fillings low compared with different main Texas cities, however that number has exploded for the reason that ban ended final yr.

Ad

Assured revenue may be one strategy to put a dent in those issues, proponents mentioned.

“That is about stopping displacement, stopping eviction and guaranteeing that our households are in a position to keep in their dwelling, that we've 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 organization that is funded partially by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a full list of them right here.

Help mission-driven journalism flourish in Texas. The Texas Tribune relies on reader help to continue delivering information that informs Texans and engages with them. Donate now to join as a Texas Tribune member. Plus, give monthly or yearly now by Could 5 and you’ll help unlock a $10K match. Give and double your impression right now.

Ad

Clarification, Might 6, 2022: This story has been up to date to reflect that Austin is the first Texas metropolis to make use of native tax dollars for a “guaranteed income” program, and that different Texas cities have experimented with comparable packages utilizing other sorts of funding.