Austin becomes the first Texas city to experiment with ‘assured income’

Sign up for The Brief, our each day publication that retains readers up to the mark on essentially the most essential Texas information.

Austin will be the first main Texas metropolis to make use of local tax dollars to offer money to low-income families to keep them housed as the cost of living skyrockets in the capital city.

Underneath a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a key Austin Metropolis Council vote Thursday, town will ship monthly checks of $1,000 to 85 needy households vulnerable to shedding their properties — an try to insulate low-income residents from Austin’s more and more expensive housing market and stop more folks from becoming homeless.

“We can find individuals moments before they find yourself on our streets that prevent them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adler said at a press convention Thursday morning. “That might be not solely fantastic for them, it might be sensible and sensible for the taxpayers within the metropolis of Austin because will probably be a lot inexpensive to divert somebody from homelessness than to help them find a dwelling once they’re on our streets.”

Ad

Eight Austin City Council members voted Thursday to determine the “assured earnings” pilot program and contract with a California nonprofit to run it.

Austin joins no less than 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh, that have tried some type of guaranteed earnings. Domestically, the concept got here out of efforts to rework how the town tackles public safety in the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.

Different Texas metro areas have experimented with guaranteed income programs throughout the pandemic. Packages in San Antonio and El Paso County have sent regular funds to low-income households using a combination of federal stimulus dollars and charitable contributions. Austin is believed to have the only program totally funded by local taxpayers.

Austin officers are working out how precisely this system will work and which families will receive the money. Austinites who qualify gained’t have restrictions on how they will spend the cash — but the concept is that they’ll use it to pay household prices like rent, utilities, transportation and groceries.

Ad

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

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

“I believe that we do need to put money into folks and their fundamental wants, however I’m unsure that this is the proper way immediately,” council member Alison Alter said at Thursday’s assembly earlier than voting in opposition to the measure.

Brion Oaks, the town’s chief equity officer, informed metropolis officials in a memo that the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., will help measure this system’s impact by factors like contributors’ monetary stability, stress levels and general wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Advert

Preliminary findings from an analogous pilot program confirmed some promising outcomes. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that can run the Austin program, ran a separate guaranteed earnings program funded by non-public dollars in Austin and Georgetown that resulted in March, the nonprofit stated in an announcement Thursday. That program gave 173 families $1,000 a month for a yr, and the nonprofit stated individuals used the money for bills like lease and mortgage payments, little one care, gasoline and groceries.

Some were able to increase their savings, greater than half of recipients slashed their debt by 75% and greater than a third eradicated their household debt, the nonprofit said.

According to Austin’s Ending Group Homelessness Coalition, the city has more than 3,100 people experiencing homelessness. An area ban on most evictions through the pandemic stored the number of eviction case fillings low compared with other major Texas cities, but that number has exploded for the reason that ban ended last yr.

Ad

Guaranteed income may be one technique to put a dent in those problems, proponents mentioned.

“This is about preventing displacement, preventing eviction and ensuring that our families are capable of stay in their house, that we have now that stability,” council member Vanessa Fuentes stated.

Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chair, has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information organization that's funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete record of them here.

Help mission-driven journalism flourish in Texas. The Texas Tribune depends on reader assist to proceed delivering news that informs Texans and engages with them. Donate now to join as a Texas Tribune member. Plus, give month-to-month or yearly now by means of Might 5 and also you’ll assist unlock a $10K match. Give and double your affect as we speak.

Advert

Clarification, Could 6, 2022: This story has been up to date to replicate that Austin is the primary Texas city to make use of native tax dollars for a “assured earnings” program, and that different Texas cities have experimented with similar packages using different types of funding.