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

Sign up for The Brief, our each day newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on probably the most essential Texas news.

Austin will be the first major Texas metropolis to use native tax dollars to give cash to low-income families to keep them housed as the cost of residing skyrockets in the capital city.

Below a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a key Austin City Council vote Thursday, town will send monthly checks of $1,000 to 85 needy households vulnerable to dropping their properties — an try to insulate low-income residents from Austin’s more and more costly housing market and forestall extra folks from becoming homeless.

“We are able to find individuals moments before they end up on our streets that prevent them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adler mentioned at a press convention Thursday morning. “That may be not solely fantastic for them, it would be sensible and sensible for the taxpayers in the metropolis of Austin as a result of will probably be rather a lot inexpensive to divert someone from homelessness than to assist them find a residence as soon as they’re on our streets.”

Advert

Eight Austin Metropolis Council members voted Thursday to establish the “assured income” pilot program and contract with a California nonprofit to run it.

Austin joins at the very least 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh, that have tried some type of assured income. Domestically, the idea got here out of efforts to remodel how town tackles public safety in the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.

Other Texas metro areas have experimented with assured revenue packages during the pandemic. Applications in San Antonio and El Paso County have despatched common payments to low-income households utilizing a combination of federal stimulus dollars and charitable contributions. Austin is believed to have the only program absolutely funded by local taxpayers.

Austin officials are figuring out how exactly this system will work and which households will obtain the cash. Austinites who qualify received’t have restrictions on how they will spend the cash — but the concept is that they’ll use it to pay family costs like lease, utilities, transportation and groceries.

Advert

City officers have floated some potentialities regarding who ought to qualify for assist: residents who have an eviction case filed in opposition to them or have hassle paying their utility payments, in addition to individuals already experiencing homelessness.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, some council members voiced issues concerning the relative lack of particulars about this system and questioned whether or not it was a good idea for Austin to use local tax dollars to fund this system, quite than letting the federal authorities or nonprofits take the lead.

“I consider that we do have to invest in folks and their fundamental needs, but I’m undecided that that is the right approach at this time,” council member Alison Alter stated at Thursday’s assembly earlier than voting in opposition to the measure.

Brion Oaks, the town’s chief fairness officer, advised metropolis officers in a memo that the Urban Institute, a nonprofit assume tank based in Washington, D.C., will assist measure this system’s impact by looking at factors like contributors’ monetary stability, stress levels and total wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Advert

Preliminary findings from a similar pilot program confirmed some promising results. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that can run the Austin program, ran a separate assured revenue program funded by personal dollars in Austin and Georgetown that led to March, the nonprofit stated in an announcement Thursday. That program gave 173 households $1,000 a month for a 12 months, and the nonprofit said participants used the money for bills like lease and mortgage funds, youngster care, gasoline and groceries.

Some had been in a position to increase their financial savings, greater than half of recipients slashed their debt by 75% and more than a third eliminated their family debt, the nonprofit said.

In keeping with Austin’s Ending Neighborhood Homelessness Coalition, town has greater than 3,100 folks experiencing homelessness. An area ban on most evictions throughout the pandemic stored the variety of eviction case fillings low compared with different major Texas cities, but that number has exploded for the reason that ban ended final 12 months.

Ad

Guaranteed income may be one solution to put a dent in those issues, proponents said.

“This is about preventing displacement, preventing eviction and making certain that our families are capable of keep of their house, that we now have 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 group that is funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete listing of them here.

Assist mission-driven journalism flourish in Texas. The Texas Tribune depends on reader support to continue delivering information that informs Texans and engages with them. Donate now to affix as a Texas Tribune member. Plus, give monthly or yearly now through May 5 and you’ll help unlock a $10K match. Give and double your impact at present.

Advert

Clarification, Might 6, 2022: This story has been up to date to mirror that Austin is the primary Texas city to use native tax dollars for a “assured income” program, and that other Texas cities have experimented with similar applications utilizing other forms of funding.