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Maureen Gardner is proud of her 5-month-old son Garrett, who she says can already identify the color red and is growing so fast that he fits into clothes for a 1-year-old. Last July in New York City, a month before Garrett was born, Gardner began receiving $1,000 in cash monthly from as part of a guaranteed income program intended to reduce poverty among women of color in the city.

鈥淭his was really a godsend for me,鈥� she says from her apartment in Harlem, speaking in hushed tones while Garrett naps.

are distinct from presidential candidate Andrew Yang鈥檚 idea of a , which is premised on cash payments to everyone, not just the most vulnerable. A prominent example of a guaranteed income project is the , which put $500 a month into the hands of 125 low-income residents of Stockton, California, for 24 months. Data gathered from the SEED project found that the cash significantly helped recipients stabilize their finances, acquire jobs, and improve their mental health, compared with a control group.

Can Guaranteed Incomes Benefit Low-Income Women and Children of Color?

Buoyed by the success of the Stockton experiment, guaranteed income projects, like the one Gardner is part of, are cropping up in major cities around the country. With the understanding that systemic economic racism results in within Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, many projects are specifically targeting low-income people of color, and primarily women and mothers.

Megha Agarwal, the executive director of The Bridge Project and of , which funds the program, explains that it 鈥渨as formed out of our desire to support the babies and mothers in New York and beyond who are suffering devastating effects from poverty.鈥� According to Agarwal, of the 100 mothers currently enrolled in the program, 74% identify as Hispanic or Latino, and 40% identify as Black; 20% are undocumented. 鈥淕uaranteed income has long been on the list of demands to receive racial and economic liberation,鈥� she says.

A similar program, run by the , also focuses on women of color鈥攕pecifically Black women鈥攊n Atlanta. Hope Wollensack, the executive director of the GRO Fund and co-director of the Guaranteed Income Initiative based in Atlanta鈥檚 Old 4th Ward, says it is 鈥渢he largest program focusing on Black women in the country.鈥�

鈥淐entering Black women is really important,鈥� Wollensack explains, because 鈥渢hey are one of the groups experiencing the most acute and sharpest impacts of economic insecurity that exists.鈥�

鈥淗e鈥檚 already very smart,鈥� says Gardner of her son Garrett, beaming with pride. 鈥淚鈥檓 thinking, like, 鈥楲et鈥檚 buy some flash cards, let鈥檚 buy sensory toys.鈥欌�� Now that she has a modest but steady flow of cash, Gardner has the freedom and means to focus on her son鈥檚 development鈥攕omething that may be an unaffordable luxury for children born into low-income households.

鈥淚 do think that his brain development is higher than those who might not have access to the funds to be able to buy things for their children,鈥� says Gardner.

Underscoring the importance of such monthly payments, neuroscientists recently concluded in a published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that cash aid to low-income mothers improves the cognitive functioning of their newborn babies. Agarwal, whose program gives exclusively to mothers, says The Bridge Project is premised on the fact that 鈥渢he first 1,000 days of a child鈥檚 life are really a crucial period of development physically, mentally, and cognitively.鈥�

The Dignity Afforded by Money With No Strings Attached

Aside from helping to foster the cognitive development of newborns, cash aid to mothers affords them basic necessities. When Gardner was about to have her baby, she realized that something as simple as doing laundry was going to be a problem. Although her apartment building has a common laundry room for residents, it presented a serious challenge for a mother living alone with a newborn during a pandemic. 鈥淢y thoughts were like, 鈥業 can鈥檛 go to the laundry room with my baby,鈥欌�� she explains. 鈥�I can wear a mask, but my baby doesn鈥檛 even have shots. I have no help with him. It鈥檚 just me.鈥�

It was a conundrum that neither she nor a caseworker at a welfare office were likely to have anticipated until the need arose. But with discretionary cash on hand, Gardner had the freedom to solve her problem when it cropped up without having to prove her need to an aid officer, fill out paperwork, or track receipts. She simply purchased a compact $500 washing machine for her apartment so she and her newborn could remain safe. 鈥淏uying the washing machine had me feeling a sense of relief,鈥� she says.

For Agarwal, it is crucial that such projects guarantee incomes 鈥渨ith dignity, respect, and trust. That鈥檚 something that you don鈥檛 see with a lot of our welfare system right now.鈥�

Wollensack agrees that giving cash without any requirements is critical, saying, 鈥淲e really think it鈥檚 important that folks have the choice and agency to make decisions about their lives and what they need.鈥�

Existing government welfare programs鈥攊ncreasingly dubbed 鈥溾�� by conservatives seeking to cast them in a negative light鈥攚hether at a local, state, or federal level, require onerous amounts of paperwork to recipients are deserving of aid. Those receiving food stamps can only spend them on . Additionally, many programs now have and may require . Guaranteed income projects, in contrast, impose no requirements on how the money can be spent and no judgments on what recipients choose to spend on.

鈥淚n the United States, we鈥檝e been trained to believe that the only reason people are on welfare is because there鈥檚 something wrong with their character,鈥� says Agarwal. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just not true.鈥�

According to Sarah Moran, the U.S. country director at , which funds the In Her Hands program in Atlanta, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 trust people who are living in poverty in the United States. That is the way our social safety net is built, and we鈥檙e trying to flip the script on that.鈥�

Gardner concurs, referring to her own experience: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great feeling to feel freedom in the way that I spend it.鈥�

Can the Government Guarantee Incomes?

鈥淲hile we鈥檙e excited about the scope and scale of this project, we know it鈥檚 not enough,鈥� says Wollensack of the Atlanta-based In Her Hands project. The guaranteed income projects in Atlanta, New York, and Stockton are all privately funded experiments aimed at generating real-world data for social scientists to analyze and at informing broader government-funded programs in the future.

In the last years of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became a proponent of the idea that the government ought to ensure all people had access to a basic income. In his Where Do We Go From Here, he said, 鈥淲e must develop progress, or rather, a program 鈥� that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income.鈥� Dr. King added, 鈥淭he dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain.鈥�

Now, the city of Los Angeles has launched the nation鈥檚 , giving $1,000 a month to 3,000 families for a year. The Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot, whose acronym is fittingly , accepted applicants in 2021 whose household income fell below the poverty line and is slated to begin payments soon. The cash will not replace existing government assistance but will instead supplement it.

is planning a similarly sized project with a larger pool of people receiving smaller monthly payments. And momentum is building for publicly funded programs in cities across the country as leaders organize under the network .

The closest the federal government recently came to a guaranteed income project was the monthly program that sent payments to low-income parents as part of the . But amid claims that such payments could , Congress chose to let that program expire in 2022.

Do Cash Transfers Work?

Wollensack dismisses the naysayers, saying, 鈥淚f $850 a month is compelling enough against labor market wages that people are no longer incentivized to work, I think that鈥檚 more of an indictment on [how] current wages [compare] to the cost of living than it is about our program.鈥�

Moran says, 鈥淓mpirically, there is just no evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work.鈥� According to her organization鈥檚 website, 鈥渋s currently running the largest universal basic income experiment in history,鈥� and has 鈥渃onducted more than 10 randomized control trials.鈥�

In addition to labor concerns, critics of government aid say it causes . 鈥淚f large swaths of Americans have to live in poverty so that inflation stays below 2%, then something fundamentally about our economy isn鈥檛 working,鈥� contends Wollensack.

Over the brief six-month duration of the child tax credit program, the modest monthly payments of a few hundred dollars by almost 30%. According to the , more than 90% of low-income families receiving the payments used the money 鈥渇or the most basic household expenses鈥攆ood, clothing, shelter, and utilities鈥攐r education.鈥�

鈥淥ur national social safety net is predicated on the idea that poverty is a personal choice and not structural or a policy choice,鈥� says Moran.

In reality, Agarwal says the choice to maintain poverty is an external one鈥攎ade by our government. Through the child tax credit, 鈥淲e were able to alleviate poverty at massive scales.鈥� In letting the program expire, she adds, 鈥淲e鈥檝e said it鈥檚 OK to let those people fall back into poverty.鈥�

For women like Gardner, a modest amount of available cash is making a world of difference. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what I would be doing if I didn鈥檛 have it,鈥� she says.