Austin becomes the first Texas metropolis to experiment with ‘assured income’

Join The Transient, our daily e-newsletter that retains readers up to the mark on probably the most important Texas news.

Austin will be the first major Texas city to use native tax dollars to offer cash to low-income households to keep them housed as the cost of residing skyrockets within the capital metropolis.

Beneath a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a key Austin City Council vote Thursday, town will send month-to-month checks of $1,000 to 85 needy households susceptible to dropping their homes — an attempt to insulate low-income residents from Austin’s more and more expensive housing market and forestall extra folks from changing into homeless.

“We can find individuals moments earlier than they end up on our streets that stop them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adler mentioned at a press convention Thursday morning. “That would be not only wonderful for them, it would be smart and good for the taxpayers within the city of Austin because will probably be loads less expensive to divert somebody from homelessness than to assist them discover a house as soon as they’re on our streets.”

Advert

Eight Austin City Council members voted Thursday to ascertain the “assured revenue” pilot program and contract with a California nonprofit to run it.

Austin joins at the least 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh, which have tried some form of guaranteed revenue. Domestically, the concept came out of efforts to transform how the town tackles public safety within the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.

Other Texas metro areas have experimented with assured revenue packages throughout the pandemic. Programs in San Antonio and El Paso County have despatched common funds to low-income households utilizing a combination of federal stimulus dollars and charitable contributions. Austin is believed to have the one program fully funded by local taxpayers.

Austin officials are understanding how precisely this system will work and which families will receive the cash. Austinites who qualify won’t have restrictions on how they can spend the money — but the thought is that they’ll use it to pay family prices like hire, utilities, transportation and groceries.

Advert

Metropolis officers have floated some possibilities concerning who ought to qualify for help: residents who've an eviction case filed in opposition to them or have hassle paying their utility payments, as well as individuals already experiencing homelessness.

Forward of Thursday’s vote, some council members voiced concerns in regards to the relative lack of details about this system and questioned whether it was a good suggestion for Austin to make use of local tax dollars to fund the program, rather than letting the federal government or nonprofits take the lead.

“I consider that we do need to spend money on individuals and their primary needs, but I’m not sure that this is the proper method right this moment,” council member Alison Alter stated at Thursday’s meeting earlier than voting in opposition to the measure.

Brion Oaks, town’s chief equity officer, advised city officers in a memo that the Urban Institute, a nonprofit suppose tank primarily based in Washington, D.C., will assist measure the program’s affect by taking a look at components like members’ financial stability, stress ranges and general wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Ad

Preliminary findings from the same pilot program confirmed some promising outcomes. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that can run the Austin program, ran a separate assured revenue program funded by personal dollars in Austin and Georgetown that resulted in March, the nonprofit stated in a press release Thursday. That program gave 173 families $1,000 a month for a year, and the nonprofit stated participants used the money for expenses like lease and mortgage payments, baby care, gasoline and groceries.

Some have been in a position to boost their financial savings, more than half of recipients slashed their debt by 75% and more than a 3rd eradicated their household debt, the nonprofit said.

According to Austin’s Ending Group Homelessness Coalition, town has more than 3,100 people experiencing homelessness. A neighborhood ban on most evictions through the pandemic kept the number of eviction case fillings low in contrast with different main Texas cities, but that quantity has exploded since the ban ended final 12 months.

Ad

Guaranteed revenue may be one option to put a dent in those issues, proponents stated.

“This is about preventing displacement, preventing eviction and making certain that our households are in a position to keep of their home, that we have that stability,” council member Vanessa Fuentes mentioned.

Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chair, has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that's funded in part by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position in the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.

Help mission-driven journalism flourish in Texas. The Texas Tribune depends on reader assist to continue delivering news that informs Texans and engages with them. Donate now to affix as a Texas Tribune member. Plus, give month-to-month or yearly now by means of Might 5 and also you’ll assist unlock a $10K match. Give and double your affect at present.

Ad

Clarification, Could 6, 2022: This story has been updated to replicate that Austin is the first Texas metropolis to use local tax dollars for a “assured revenue” program, and that different Texas cities have experimented with comparable applications using other sorts of funding.