Los Angeles County has announced a guaranteed basic income program for adults living in select neighborhoods.
The program is called Breathe. It's open to 1,000 residents who've taken a financial hit due to the pandemic and:
Of eligible applicants, 1,000 will be randomly selected to receive $1,000 a month for three years, with a limit of one pilot participant per household. Researchers will study the long-term impacts a guaranteed basic income has on residents' economic well being.
The deadline to apply is April 13.
L.A. County Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl introduced the motion to create the program last year. Poverty and access to economic opportunity, they said, are both public health matters.
With Breathe, Mitchell is hoping for "life-changing" results.
"People who unfortunately kind of live on the edge of a financial cliff every day, don't often have the luxury to do to save and plan for their future, or really invest in themselves," Mitchell said. "Because that's what it takes to really pull your family out of multi generational poverty."
Assessing the effectiveness of the the pilot program will be done in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research. The idea is to give participants a "chance to 'breathe' easier knowing they are more financially secure."
The group that gets the $1,000 a month will be compared to another group of 1,200 residents who do not get that guaranteed income.
Breathe comes on the heels of a few universal basic income programs launched late last year in South L.A. and another in the summer of 2021 in Long Beach. Mitchell said Breathe's timeline of three years makes it the longest pilot program in the country.
She says the research aims to figure out how much money it takes for people to change the trajectory of their lives.
In 2019, Stockton was one of two U.S. cities testing a basic income program for its residents. Two years later, results show the extra $500 monthly payments — over a span of two years — improved residents' jobs prospects, health and economic wellbeing.
To see if you qualify or for more information, visit Breathe.LACounty.gov
or call (213) 342-1003.
