A new guaranteed basic income program is set to launch in the US, handing out $900,000 in no-strings-attached money to its participants.
California’s Fresno County has selected Huron and the 93706 zip code, two communities that struggle with relatively high poverty rates, to participate in a program that will see its citizens receive $500 a month for one year.
According to the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, the non-profit “Community Action Agency” organizing the program, the pilot aims to help struggling, low-income families with basic necessities.
To be eligible to receive the monthly $500 checks, you must earn $35,000 or less in Huron, or $30,000 or less in the 93706 zip code. You also must be over 18 and either be pregnant or have at least one child five years old or younger.
Says the Fresno EOC CEO Emilia Reyes,
“It provides the basic essentials that most of our families are just hardworking families that are struggling and can provide a little additional support to pay for water, PG&E, food, but just to meet the basic needs.”
In total, the program will support 150 households, with no restrictions or limitations on how they spend the money.
Applications for the program will begin March 15th and payments will commence in the summer.
Huron Mayor tells ABC30 that the program would be a “huge opportunity for hardworking farm working families to get a little support in their daily struggle in dealing with their monthly financial burdens.”
The program in Fresno is one of now countless guaranteed basic income pilots that have kicked off across the US over the last one to two years.
Similar programs have arisen in Washington, Texas, Michigan, New Jersey and others. In New York, a controversial program to hand out $53 million to 150,000 illegal migrants seeking asylum via prepaid credit cards has also kicked off.
Each recipient in New York gets about $350 a month to spend on food and baby supplies, which is more money than low-income residents are given through the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), reports Newsweek.
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