CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago aldermen are consider a proposal to provide a guaranteed income to some of the neediest families in the city every month, for a year.
Alderman Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Economic and Capital Development, proposed the guaranteed income pilot to help those in black and brown communities who have struggled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Villegas and his co-sponsors — 4th Ward Alderwomen Sophia King and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden want to use $30 million of the $1.8 billion federal relief funds the city has coming and give it to 5,000 of the poorest families in the city — $500 a month for a year — no strings attached.
A few dozen cities and towns in the country have tried the idea, including Los Angeles.
After the first year, Villegas hopes corporations and philanthropic organizations would take up the cause and fund the program.
It’s not the first time Chicago has considered a program like this. Two years ago, a task force on universal basic income in Chicago appointed by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel suggested giving 1,000 struggling Chicagoans monthly payments of $1,000 to help break the cycle of poverty, the Sun-Times reported. The idea got lost during the change in administrations.
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