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Philly to pilot a guaranteed income experiment, giving cash to some needy residents
I just saw an email from my Congressman (PA-3) Dwight Evans about this pilot here in Philly. Have heard about other cities doing it but this came as a surprise for me to happen here.
Philly to pilot a guaranteed income experiment, giving cash to some needy residents
By Laura BenshoffJanuary 31, 2022
The skyline of Center City, Philadelphia, can be seen from the banks of the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek, file)
Cash is king. That’s the takeaway as Philadelphia is set to soon join other U.S. cities in attempting an experimental economic mobility pilot that will give recipients cash payments, no strings attached. As early as March, Philadelphia will start giving up to 60 people $500 a month, for at least 12 months. Recipients will be selected from a pool of 1,100 people who have received federal support through TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, for five years. A total of $322,000 will cover the costs, drawing from existing TANF funds.
The key distinction from traditional social programs, such as TANF, said Dr. Nikia Owens, Philadelphia’s deputy executive director of family supports & basic needs, is “they don’t have to do anything extra for this money.” In recent years, universal basic income or guaranteed income programs, popular in other parts of the world, have gained traction in the United States. Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang campaigned on the concept, and Stockton, California has been experimenting with giving some residents monthly cash stipends since 2019.
Preliminary findings from that experiment showed recipients’ mental health and prospects for finding full-time work improved. The thesis is simple: traditional welfare programs with stringent eligibility rules do not actually move people out of poverty, but unrestricted cash can. “When you invest directly into the individual, those individuals are more likely to succeed,” said Owens. Critics of unrestricted cash, such as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), argue that it disincentivizes work and has the potential to be squandered.
However, research shows it has a neutral effect on whether or not people work and that most people spend it on basic needs. Cities from Chicago to Cambridge, Massachusetts, are also dipping a toe in with programs that tweak traditional welfare payments in order to give recipients unrestricted funds, attempting to test that thesis in the United States further. Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney is a member of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of Democratic elected officials around the country committed to trying out such programs.
More: https://whyy.org/articles/philly-to-pilot-a-guaranteed-income-experiment-giving-cash-to-some-needy-residents/
By Laura BenshoffJanuary 31, 2022
The skyline of Center City, Philadelphia, can be seen from the banks of the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek, file)
Cash is king. That’s the takeaway as Philadelphia is set to soon join other U.S. cities in attempting an experimental economic mobility pilot that will give recipients cash payments, no strings attached. As early as March, Philadelphia will start giving up to 60 people $500 a month, for at least 12 months. Recipients will be selected from a pool of 1,100 people who have received federal support through TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, for five years. A total of $322,000 will cover the costs, drawing from existing TANF funds.
The key distinction from traditional social programs, such as TANF, said Dr. Nikia Owens, Philadelphia’s deputy executive director of family supports & basic needs, is “they don’t have to do anything extra for this money.” In recent years, universal basic income or guaranteed income programs, popular in other parts of the world, have gained traction in the United States. Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang campaigned on the concept, and Stockton, California has been experimenting with giving some residents monthly cash stipends since 2019.
Preliminary findings from that experiment showed recipients’ mental health and prospects for finding full-time work improved. The thesis is simple: traditional welfare programs with stringent eligibility rules do not actually move people out of poverty, but unrestricted cash can. “When you invest directly into the individual, those individuals are more likely to succeed,” said Owens. Critics of unrestricted cash, such as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), argue that it disincentivizes work and has the potential to be squandered.
However, research shows it has a neutral effect on whether or not people work and that most people spend it on basic needs. Cities from Chicago to Cambridge, Massachusetts, are also dipping a toe in with programs that tweak traditional welfare payments in order to give recipients unrestricted funds, attempting to test that thesis in the United States further. Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney is a member of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of Democratic elected officials around the country committed to trying out such programs.
More: https://whyy.org/articles/philly-to-pilot-a-guaranteed-income-experiment-giving-cash-to-some-needy-residents/
I think the past year with the now-suspended Advance Child tax credits payments (as cash monthly), pretty much showed what families (particularly the neediest) can and will do with that money when provided up front throughout a year (vs having to wait a year for a lump sum with their refund after filing taxes) - they pay for housing and food and other things needed to maintain a family.
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They need to choose people who are not the neediest - but the most likely to follow the guidelines and learn how to manage their cash. The participants will most likely need some coaching, but the payoff comes when the experiment works and it gets expanded to other needy folks. We all know that not everyone can manage their cash. Even some wealthy people are like that, but some of the homeless/ jobless/ destititute folks COULD manage cash IF someone gave them a chance. And showed them how to do it.
This is how the best intentions of us liberals of America can really make a difference. We need to help these people, show patience and teach them, and they will become better citizens and contributing members of our society. I really believe it. The program will get shit-canned if the pilot group doesn't succeed. That's the issue, making the pilot program work.
(probably should have sniped a part and added the excerpt) -
In addition to the funds, Philadelphia’s WorkReady initiative, in partnership between the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity and JEVS Human Services, will also provide “case management, coaching, licensed counseling, and peer to peer experiences to develop a career pathway,” according to an executive summary shared by the City of Philadelphia. Owens said one main measure of success will be how many people are able to find full-time employment and stop using TANF by the end of the pilot
So the selectees will be participating in multiple programs - WorkReady Initiative, Community Empowerment and Opportunity, and JEVS Human Services, who will help them navigate those issues of applying for jobs, how to obtain training for better ones, etc. IMHO, those are the types of services that needed to have happened in the high schools to provide some sort of foundation after graduation.
In addition, one of things they found out last February when the stimulus checks were being sent out, there were whole swaths of the neediest who were literally off the grid and unable to get any of it -
Can Free Cash Solve Philly’s Poverty Problem?
BY Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
Feb. 04, 2021
Last spring, after Congress passed the historic CARES Act, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief: With a $1,200 check from the federal government, they could (for now, at least) pay for rent, and medicine, and food to sustain them during the Covid-19 quarantine.
But for thousands of Philadelphians left out of the program—like undocumented immigrants or those who file taxes with them—there was no relief. As that realization set in, Maari Porter, Mayor Kenney’s deputy chief of staff for policy and strategic initiatives, worked to find an answer to the nagging question: What could we do for these vulnerable populations?
The answer was the City’s first experiment in unrestricted cash assistance, the $1.7 million Worker Relief Fund, which gave $800 last summer to 2,162 Philadelphians left out of federal and state pandemic relief programs, most of whom were women of color in low-income households, many with low-wage essential jobs like domestic workers, home health aides and food delivery people. The money came from donations from The Mayors Fund for Philadelphia, Open Society Foundations and William Penn Foundation, among others.
According to data from the distributed debit cards and follow up surveys with recipients, most of the money was spent for survival—groceries, rent, household items—the kinds of things that even in normal times can be a struggle for poor Philadelphians. (More than half the funds were taken in cash—untraceable, but anecdotally a reflection of cash-only businesses in the community, and of rent payments that can’t be put on cards.) Admittedly, $800 was not enough to last throughout the pandemic, or to lift families out of poverty. But it was, for many, a stop gap that kept them going until they could figure out next steps.
(snip)
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/can-free-cash-solve-philly-poverty-problem/
BY Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
Feb. 04, 2021
Last spring, after Congress passed the historic CARES Act, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief: With a $1,200 check from the federal government, they could (for now, at least) pay for rent, and medicine, and food to sustain them during the Covid-19 quarantine.
But for thousands of Philadelphians left out of the program—like undocumented immigrants or those who file taxes with them—there was no relief. As that realization set in, Maari Porter, Mayor Kenney’s deputy chief of staff for policy and strategic initiatives, worked to find an answer to the nagging question: What could we do for these vulnerable populations?
The answer was the City’s first experiment in unrestricted cash assistance, the $1.7 million Worker Relief Fund, which gave $800 last summer to 2,162 Philadelphians left out of federal and state pandemic relief programs, most of whom were women of color in low-income households, many with low-wage essential jobs like domestic workers, home health aides and food delivery people. The money came from donations from The Mayors Fund for Philadelphia, Open Society Foundations and William Penn Foundation, among others.
According to data from the distributed debit cards and follow up surveys with recipients, most of the money was spent for survival—groceries, rent, household items—the kinds of things that even in normal times can be a struggle for poor Philadelphians. (More than half the funds were taken in cash—untraceable, but anecdotally a reflection of cash-only businesses in the community, and of rent payments that can’t be put on cards.) Admittedly, $800 was not enough to last throughout the pandemic, or to lift families out of poverty. But it was, for many, a stop gap that kept them going until they could figure out next steps.
(snip)
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/can-free-cash-solve-philly-poverty-problem/
And as you probably know, when you have an idiotic state like this one, whose minimum wage is STILL $7.25/hr and the jackass GOP legislature refuses to raise it, then it continues to literally strangle people who are working in those lowest-paying service jobs - and these are actually jobs that are needed (housekeeping, home healthcare, childcare, etc), but the income from them are slave wages.
