
MTLB
Long Beach Becomes Latest City to Launch a Universal Basic Income Program

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia announced a one-year pilot program this week that will eventually provide cash payments to some 500 low-income residents who live under the poverty line.
How it works:
The program will focus direct payments on the neighborhoods in the 90813 ZIP code with a median income that is 25% lower than the rest of Long Beach.
The city will provide up to 250 single-parent homes with $500 payments each month for a year, and the state will provide matching funds to support another 250 more families, also receiving a $500 monthly stipend.
Participants will also receive free child care, job training, transportation assistance, access to cell phones and the internet.
This summer, the city's Economic Development Department will begin taking applications with payouts due by the end of the year.
More: Cal State Long Beach's Office of Economic Research will analyze the program's effects and provide a report.
What they're saying:
"Our guaranteed income program will help single parents and families with direct assistance and basic needs in a community that has long struggled with poverty," Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement. "The research collected from this pilot will help us build a national case for these programs across the country and our city.''
Quick refresher:
Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, formed by former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, is the main driving force for the universal basic income movement made famous by former presidential & New York Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.
The group has 34 mayors, including Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.
The City of Compton is running the largest universal basic income program in the country, offering $600 a month to up to 800 residents.
In 2017 Finland ran a two-year basic income trial program that gave monthly stipends to 2,000 unemployed citizens and was considered a failure because many remained jobless.
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