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Santa Clara County is taking an innovative step toward helping young people transition out of foster homes.
The county announced Monday it is launching a pilot of a universal basic income program, which would provide 72 former foster youth with $1,000 a month.
"My worst fear is becoming homeless," said Nayeli Grano, who will participate in the pilot. She was relieved almost beyond words to know that she no longer has to worry about keeping a roof over her head. "It helps me breathe a little...I don’t have to worry about losing my rent money, even though I can only afford a room. But you know, that helps me a little bit."
It is the first program of its kind in the U.S. for former foster youth.
The county will monitor the participants for one year to see how the grant impacts their life.
The idea of universal basic income has become more mainstream in recent years. The city of Stockton recently extended its UBI experiment through January, due to the pandemic, and former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang ran on UBI as his main platform.
"I suspect that this is going to be viewed as wildly successful," said County Supervisor Dave Cortese, who expects the program to continue beyond the pilot. "It’ll be very very difficult to pull the rug out from under it, of course, once you start a program that is doing something like this with some of the most vulnerable youth that we have."
Cortese says the UBI program could be expanded to other vulnerable demographics, such as the elderly or developmentally disabled.