Google is giving $1,000 a month to a whole bunch of recently homeless families across the Bay Area to see if the no-strings-attached payments might help keep a roof over their heads.
The program is a component of the tech giant's $1 billion commitment to combat the region's housing crisis and is amongst a growing variety of “guaranteed income” pilot projects launched in recent times to find out whether unconditional payments might help can alleviate enormous wealth inequality within the Bay Area.
Google's Mountain View-based philanthropic arm — together with other Silicon Valley nonprofits similar to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Sobrato Philanthropies — has also poured tens of millions of dollars into similar money programs, including a recent pilot that gave 750 Dollars monthly were donated to 100 homeless residents within the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
“Direct monetary donations are a promising new approach to combating homelessness, and we are pleased to support this pilot as part of our broader commitment to increasing housing in the Bay Area,” said Justin Steele, Google’s director of philanthropy, in an announcement Opinion.
The latest program will likely be synchronized over the subsequent five years It all adds upwill provide 225 families with $1,000 payments each for 12 months on an ongoing basis. An additional 225 families, a control group within the study, will receive $50 a month over the identical period.
New York University's Housing Solutions Lab will study this system to find out whether the payments help house people long-term and improve mental health and financial outcomes.
Families chosen for the pilot should have previously participated in housing programs administered by San Francisco nonprofits Compass Family Services or Hamilton Families, that are also helping to manage the pilot. Some families have already began receiving payments, while others will enroll in the approaching years. The majority of participants will come from San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Proponents of guaranteed income programs say that giving low-income earners money to make use of as they see fit — moderately than specific vouchers like food stamps — provides true financial independence and allows recipients to afford their most pressing needs and avoid debt and find higher jobs.
Still, conservative critics argue that such programs undermine people's independence and incentive to work. Others worry that large-scale guaranteed income efforts on the federal level could divert resources from other safety net programs similar to Medicare or Social Security.
Results from this system, which distributed the $750 payments within the Bay Area and Los Angeles, showed that homeless participants mostly used the cash to cover day by day needs — food, shelter and transportation. The assistance helped some recipients get off the streets once they may afford rent or the fee of moving into an apartment. And there was no evidence that the cash was used for drugs and alcohol, in line with researchers on the University of Southern California study this system called Miracle Money.
Across the Bay Area, local governments have also begun experimenting with guaranteed income.
In 2020, a program in Santa Clara County provided $1,000 monthly payments to 72 young adults exiting foster care. That same yr, Oakland began deploying it $500 monthly payments to 300 low-income families and expanded this system to 600 families. South San Francisco recently began sending $500 a month in assistance to greater than 150 low-income families. Alameda and Mountain View have approved similar programs.
One of the primary pilot projects with guaranteed income, launched by the City of Stocktonpaid greater than 100 residents $500 monthly as of 2019. Researchers found the payments likely improved recipients' financial stability and health, but said the impact appeared to have been blunted by the economic turmoil of the pandemic.
“Behind the numbers are real people who can breathe easier, experience stability and have access to more opportunities than they previously thought possible,” said Michael D. Tubbs, former mayor of Stockton and founding father of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, in an announcement. “Guaranteed Income is a smart policy that will give us a poverty-free America.”
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