In the first stop of the Guaranteed Income Works national tour, elected officials, nonprofit leaders, and guaranteed income pilot participants came together on June 30, to show how guaranteed income pilots have succeeded and how an income floor can work for the country.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion authored by Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and co-authored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, to create a first of its kind countywide Poverty Alleviation Policy Agenda and Guaranteed Income Pilot Program. This pilot will provide at minimum of 1000 residents up to $1,000 a month for three years.
In 2012, Stockton, California, elected 22-year-old Michael Tubbs to his hometown’s city council. From that celebrated victory, to his 2017 rise to mayor of the Central Valley city, media pundits and Democratic Party insiders have hailed Tubbs, calling him one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars.
Tubbs’ future as a force in the Democratic party still remains almost certain, but on Nov. 3, the 30-year-old Stanford grad suffered an unexpected blow. As of Friday, Nov. 13, Tubbs was trailing Republican challenger, Kevin Lincoln in his reelection bid.
Compton Mayor Aja Brown announced The Compton Pledge, a landmark guaranteed income initiative that will distribute recurring, direct cash relief to approximately 800 low-income residents for two years, starting in late 2020. Among city-led guaranteed income initiatives in the United States, the Compton Pledge will be the largest pilot, and is intentionally designed to challenge the racial and economic injustice plaguing both welfare programs and economic systems. It plans to reach irregularly or informally employed residents, immigrants of varied legal status, and the formerly incarcerated.