A new report focused on a pilot program offering guaranteed income to families in Oakland, Calif., found that it had several positive outcomes, offering new insight regarding ways to address structural inequalities across the nation. This week, Jesus Gerena, CEO of UpTogether joined KBCS Radio’s Doug Sovern to discuss the program.
“We got over 2,000 applications that then were verified to meet the minimum threshold that we were looking for,” Gerena told Sovern.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in Oakland is at around 14%. That exceeds the official 11.1% poverty rate across the nation as of 2023.
UpTogether worked with Libby Schaff, the former mayor of Oakland, to run the Oakland Resilient Families program. It eventually provided 600 participants with $500 monthly payments over a two-year period, from 2021 to 2023. Some of the participants needed to live in a square mile area of East Oakland with income below 50% of the Area Median Income and at least one child under 18, while others were Oakland households living at 138% of the federal poverty level with at least one child under 18.
“The $500 monthly GI offered some breathing room, helping participants cover groceries, transportation, and occasional childcare expenses that were often out of reach in a city where living costs continued to soar while wages stayed stagnant,” said the report published this month by the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania. “Yet this amount, though meaningful, allowed only temporary respite in a rapidly gentrifying city.”
Still, the positive impacts were notable. Per the report, income volatility for the treatment group remained consistently lower and more stable. That group also showed a steady rise in extending help to family (10% to 15%) and had eldest children who received more A grades in school (a 24% to 27% increase), whereas that percentage fell in the control group from 24% to 17%. Full-time employment increased at a higher rate for the treatment group (15% to 26%) throughout the study than for the control group (14% to 18%).
“The unconditional cash led to an increased sense of mattering for many in the treatment group, spilling over into their investment of time in their families and communities,” said the report.
Sovern noted that some believe universal or guaranteed income programs will dissuade people from trying to find work. However, Gerena said the results of Oakland’s program showed the opposite.
“There was actually a drastic change… that it not only got people back into the workforce, but even in some cases, people were able to find promotions and get higher income as a result,” he said.
Gerena also said that participants used the $500 monthly payments to meet basic needs, such as securing housing stability, grocery shopping and paying utility bills.
“As things are getting tighter, I think more and more Americans are understanding what those financial pressures are. And so, when you get that relief, it helps people start thinking: ‘Okay, I have the relief, now I can take more action to be able to better support my household,’” he explained.
Along with making individual households more stable, Gerena said they saw the program foster increased support throughout the community.
“I think about the story of Aisha, who was one of the participants, who’s been really good about sharing her story,” Gerena said. “And she talks about once she got these dollars and was able to not only help support her grandchild who she had custody of, but also community members. And we saw that across the study.”
Oakland’s pilot program wasn’t the first in the nation. Sovern mentioned a 2019 guaranteed income program in Stockton, Calif. The state also runs a guaranteed income program, and the Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard provides information about other programs around the U.S.
“I think for us, it’s really critical to take these lessons and come back and say, all right, so if we know if we invest more in people who are struggling with financial hardship, they do more, what are the levers and policy that we can do to best reward them?” said Gerena.