Applications open next week for a state-funded program that will provide unconditional cash payments to a small group of Black and Indigenous families in Sacramento County with children age 5 and under.
Altogether, 200 low-income families will receive $725 a month for a year to help them afford basic needs and reduce the likelihood they enter foster care.
Black and Indigenous children were 4.5 times and 1.8 times, respectively, as likely to be removed to their families compared to white children between July 2021 and June 2022, according to county data. Poverty can lead to neglect and cause child protective services to investigate, said county spokesperson Macy Obernuefemann.
“The goal is to prevent them from ever coming into contact with the child welfare system or if they’ve had that contact early on in their life to prevent it from happening again as they get older,” Obernuefemann explained.
Some Republican lawmakers in other states, including Arizona and Wisconsin, have passed bills seeking to ban guaranteed income programs. They argue people could become dependent on the program or less likely to work, the outlet Stateline reported. A study on Stockton’s guaranteed income program — which was the first of its kind when it began in 2019 — found the pilot improved participants’ health and helped them find new job opportunities.
To qualify for the upcoming local program, families must live in one of six zip codes covering parts of Valley Hi, Florin, North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights and Arden Arcade: 95815, 95821, 95823, 95825, 95828, 95838. Applicants have to be the parent or legal guardian of a Black, American Indian or Alaska Native child up to age five.
Families must also make less than 200% of the federal poverty line. A four-person household needs to make less than $62,400 a year to be eligible for the Family First Economic Support Pilot.
Sacramento County received most of the funding for the guaranteed income program from the state, which is funding other pilots including ones for former foster youth in San Francisco and pregnant people in Humboldt County. The county contracted the local United Way to distribute $1.74 million to participants and hired a research firm to evaluate the program, according to a March staff report for the Board of Supervisors.
United Way California Capital Region has partnered with the city and county of Sacramento on two other guaranteed income programs using federal COVID-19 funding. Those pilots came after United Way used part of a $10 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to start a direct investment program for Sacramento County residents in July 2021.
A report on the city program found three-quarters of the 80 participants said the program made them confident they could meet their financial goals.
Kristi Baumbach, a program planner in the county’s Department of Child, Family and Adult Services, said the county began working on a proposal for the upcoming pilot about two years ago.
“Overwhelmingly, when families have the dignity of choice over how to best meet their needs, the impacts can go really directly to their specific family situation,” Baumbach said.
Baumbach estimated at least a thousand children are eligible for the program through their parent or guardian, but only 200 households will be selected through a lottery process out of the applicant pool.
The deadline to apply online is October 13. More information is available on the program’s website.
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