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Los Angeles found success with its guaranteed basic income pilot program, one of the largest in the country. So, now, city officials want to try it again.
In its original basic income program, some 3,200 low-income households in the city received $1,000 a month no strings attached. Recipients said the payments allowed them to have greater food security, feel better about covering housing costs, and establish safer home environments.
Within the first six months of the 12-month program, recipients who were victims of intimate partner violence also left those relationships and were more likely than a control group to work toward protecting themselves and their children.
Those results have inspired some Los Angeles City councilmembers to propose another basic income program specifically for victims of abuse. Access to financial stability is among the greatest reasons victims of abuse feel trapped into staying, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
The first basic income program gave participants a path forward and "empowered them to get out of survival mode and reclaim their power," Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price said on X last week.
Price, along with councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Hugo Soto-Martinez, said in a press conference they are seeking $4 to $5 million for a new guaranteed income program specifically targeting victims of domestic abuse and foster children.
"That is why, alongside some of my colleagues, I am advocating for a second round of guaranteed income and will be committing $1 million from my own discretionary funds to make sure this happens," Price said on X.
Harris-Dawson and Soto-Martinez also agreed to allocate $1 million of their discretionary funds for the project.
Price's office did not respond to a request for comment.
