New Orleans launches guaranteed income program for at-risk youths
9th May 2022 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Dozens of young adults in New Orleans will receive $350 payments each month under a program launched last week by Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Office of Youth and Families.
The new program, called the New Orleans Guaranteed Income Program, will provide 10 months of such payments to 125 local residents between the ages of 16 and 24 who are disconnected from work or school and who were selected for the pilot program because of their status as at-risk and vulnerable youths.
The GIP is being funded by a $500,000 grant from the organization Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. According to a May 4 city press release, the monthly $350 cash payments “will increase participants’ financial stability, connect them back to supportive services such as education or job programs, and decrease stress and other risk factors associated with economic insecurity.”
New Orleans is the first recipient of the MGI’s funding through the national pilot program, which is being viewed as a test for the idea of a national guaranteed income, a notion that has gained steam over the last several years as the COVID pandemic triggered sharp downturns in the national economy and placed a spotlight on the challenges facing middle-class and working-class Americans.
“The launch of the New Orleans Guaranteed Income Program is an exciting moment for our city,” said Mayor Cantrell. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the number of disconnected youth significantly increase. We launched this program as an opportunity to get much-needed, unrestricted cash in people’s pockets at a time where we know our people need it the most. This program builds on my administration’s efforts to invest directly in the lives of our youth and my priority to improve quality of life for all residents.”
The city’s OYF worked with nine community organizations to refer eligible young adults for the new pilot program, and it also joined with United Way of Southeast Louisiana to provide all participants with financial counseling with their new monthly benefits.
The Mayors for a Guaranteed Income organization is a leading organization in the growing movement in favor of providing Americans with a basic, livable income level. In the agency’s 2021 year-end report, the MGI leadership stressed the importance of the type of pilot programs now being undertaken in New Orleans.
However, the report added that such pilots are just an initial step in the movement.
“It’s important for us to be clear that no number of pilots will ever address the deep, structural issues that lead to people living in poverty or struggling to cling to the middle class,” the report stated. “While we understand the value MGI pilots will have in offering the world an unparalleled amount of data on the efficacy of guaranteed income, our goal remains passing a national policy to offer the dignity and self-determination financial security affords to all who need it.”
In a statement, MGI executive director Sukhi Samra said the organization is eager to see the New Orleans Guaranteed Income Program succeed.
“Mayors for a Guaranteed Income is incredibly excited that the City of New Orleans is launching its guaranteed income program,” Samra said. “As one of the first MGI pilot cities to focus its cash payments on young people, New Orleans is helping to expand guaranteed income opportunities for young people across the country. We look forward to working in partnership with the City of New Orleans and their community over the next ten months.”
Other non-profit organizations are pushing for the establishment of guaranteed income as a method for raising the welfare of all.
“Guaranteed income offers the best hope to provide people with resources to make important life choices that everyone wants the ability to make – where to live, how to invest in a better future through education or starting a business, and how to best support children,” wrote Jeremy Rosen, director of economic justice for the Shriver Center on Poverty on that group’s website.
“Where properly targeted, guaranteed income specifically gives this opportunity to people who have been systematically excluded from the financial resources to make these decisions, without imposing a massive administrative burden either to qualify or stay eligible. This is a program everyone should support,” he added.
This article originally published in the May 9, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
