LA considering guaranteed basic income program for domestic violence victims, foster youth

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles City Council advanced a proposal Tuesday intended to establish a guaranteed basic income program for victims of intimate partner violence and foster youth.

In a 10-0 vote, council members instructed the Community Investment for Families Department to work on guidelines for a $4 million to $5 million program. The report will examine programs in other cities, such as one in Chicago that pairs guaranteed income with housing resources.

Additionally, city staff will review potential funding sources for the program, and may consider discretionary money or dollars specifically for homeless housing assistance and prevention.

Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Imelda Padilla, Curren Price, Monica Rodriguez and Hugo Soto-Martinez were absent during the vote.

In July, Price, Soto-Martinez and Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced the motion to establish a guaranteed income pilot program. Price and Soto-Martinez previously said they would provide $1 million each to support such a program.

Three years ago, Price proposed a pilot guaranteed income program, which was later implemented from January 2022 to March 2023. The initiative, known as The Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot, or BIG:LEAP, provided 3,200 households living below the poverty level with $1,000 in cash each month for 12 months.

Results of the program showed it helped families cover emergency expenses and reduced food insecurity. Participants also reported that the unrestricted funds helped them pay school tuition, start a small business and cover expenses such as clothes and shoes for children.

Representatives of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at Penn's School of Social Policy & Practice and UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health provided additional insights into data about the program.

"This is the first large-scale randomized controlled trial in North America studying intimate partner violence, guaranteed income, and community violence since the late 1970s," Amy Castro, associate professor at Penn's School of Social Policy and Practice, said in July during a new conference highlighting the impacts of BIG:LEAP.

According to Castro, the results showed, for the first time, a positive link in reducing domestic violence by giving individuals experiencing such violence a guaranteed income.

"What we saw within the pilot was exactly how much change could take place," Castro added.

The council members hope to use an expanded program to further assist individuals experiencing intimate partner violence and transitional age youth, who are current or former foster youth between the ages of 16 and 24.

While the program has received some support, it's not without its critics.

A paper by Liesel Crocker, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability -- a Naples, Florida-based think tank -- cited what the group called a clear relationship between increased welfare benefits and decreased workforce participation.

Universal basic income programs could discourage work and trap people in a cycle of dependency that would cost taxpayers, Crocker wrote.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has criticized universal basic income programs, describing them as "unsustainable, unaffordable and inappropriate."

"It's simply wrong for the city government to take tax dollars earned and paid by people who are trying to pay their own bills and transfer that money to other people chosen by the government to receive it," the association said in a statement to City News Service in July. "Guaranteed income programs are appropriately funded voluntarily by charitable organizations and foundations, not forcibly through the tax code."

Other areas in California that have implemented such programs include Oakland, Marin County, San Francisco and Santa Clara County.

In August, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a similar motion to expand its "Breathe" guaranteed-income program to help more than 2,000 non-minor dependents in the foster care system.

The Breathe program began as a pilot project in March 2022, providing regular payments to 1,000 in-need residents. In 2023, the board agreed to expand the program to include 200 former foster care youth adjusting to life outside the system.

Approximately $19 million will be allocated for the expansion, according to the county's motion.

Are you or someone you know a recent survivor of domestic violence? Help is available. Los Angeles County has a hotline, which can be reached at 1-800-978-3600. A national hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233.