Oakland, California Mayor Libby Schaaf stood tall at the microphone. What was it that was giving Black low income families in her city a resurgence of hope?
Launching this spring, the Oakland Resilient Families program is a universal basic income (UBI) experiment that will provide $500 a month in guaranteed income to 600 families of color for 18 months. But what’s the catch?
There is none. Income recipients can do as they please with the funds – however, they must first apply for the program, make under $59,000 annually, and have at least one minor child at home.
By addressing income disparities between white and non-white households, city leadership hopes recipients will seek out opportunities for economic self-sufficiency. That’s actually what happened in another California city that tried something similar – Stockton.
According to Complex’s analysis of Stockton’s similar UBI program, “at the beginning of the initiative, 28 percent of the participants had full-time jobs; that number rose to 40 percent of those people at the end of the first year.”
Ultimately, by targeting households of color specifically, Oakland’s program hopes to further narrow the racial wealth gap.
“We have to recognize that poverty is not a personal failure,” says Schaaf. “It's been a failure of our policies and our systems … repairing those systems is an important part of our journey to justice for all Americans.”