Some Contra Costa residents will get $1,000 monthly under a new county program

Beginning next year, Contra Costa County will pilot a county-funded guaranteed-income program, placing up to $1,000 monthly in the hands of residents — no strings attached. 

The Board of Supervisors allocated funding last month for a pilot that will include 250 residents for 18 months, though those numbers could change as the county develops its final plan. 

Youth transitioning out of foster care, unhoused residents, low-income families with young children and people returning from incarceration will be eligible to apply. County officials are still finalizing the program’s details, including the selection and application processes.  

The county will distribute the first cash installment by the end of next year. Though other privately funded and city-level guaranteed income projects exist in Contra Costa County, this one would be among the largest and longest. 

“The idea is to really make a transformative investment in our residents. And so to think about all the different ways to do that in terms of how long, how much, who are we investing in,” said Rachel Rosekind, who serves on the Measure X Community Advisory Board and authored the plan. “We want to really uplift and change not just the lives of these residents, but the lives of their families, the fabric of their communities.”

The county allocated $4.25 million for the program — slightly less than the $5.7 million requested by Rosekind at the October supervisors meeting. The funding comes from tax dollars generated from a statewide criminal justice reform bill, and Measure X, a 2020 county sales tax amendment. Measure X generates an estimated $120 million for the county each year and supports essential programs, including $47 million for mental health crisis services, $37 million for fire stations, $4 million for innovative public services and $21 million for youth centers, among many other expenditures. 

Meeting needs across the U.S.

Nationwide, 65 guaranteed income programs are currently operating. About a third are in California, and most of those include at least some public funding, according to data from the Stanford Basic Income Lab. Programs around the country serve people with high-risk pregnancies, single parents and those returning from incarceration. 

“From a very fundamental perspective, the idea of basic income, guaranteed income, is making sure that there is a floor to ensure that people have the resources they need to meet their basic needs,” said Sara Kimberlin, executive director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, which houses the Basic Income Lab.

County staff first came to the supervisors with a proposal for guaranteed income in April and were instructed to define specific groups eligible for the program. 

“It is a program that specifically responds to needs here in west county and in the Greater Richmond area,“ Supervisor John Gioia said. “When we improve the quality of life for our most vulnerable residents, we’re improving it for the whole community.”

In devising the plan, the county considered testimonies from academics, researchers, nonprofit leaders and residents. One letter was from James Becker, the president and CEO of RCF Connects, a foundation in Richmond’s Hilltop neighborhood that collaborates with organizations across the county on equity projects. RCF worked on a guaranteed income pilot with 30 individuals in Antioch for six months, distributing $400 to adults and $200 to foster youth. 

Becker said the cash payments enabled one participant to take a day off of work to interview for a higher-paying job. 

“Not a huge amount, but enough to make a difference,” Becker said. “Those kinds of stories tend to be the real value of this.”

Duplicating services?

Supervisor Candace Andersen cast the only opposing vote to allocate the funding from Measure X to guaranteed income. Andersen was concerned that the program does not allocate enough to research after the pilot has concluded. 

“I wasn’t anticipating that if we did a pilot, we would be learning that much new,” she said. “We would be sort of getting the same results that I’m seeing in other studies.”

She advocated for investing more resources in getting residents signed up for services like CalFresh, which provides food benefits to low-income households, and CalWorks, which offers cash for housing, food, utilities, clothing or medical care. 

Andersen cited estimates that 12,000 county residents eligible for these programs are not enrolled. At the October meeting, the supervisors also allocated $2.5 million in Measure X money to create an Empowering Enrollment Program, which would expand the number of people in these programs. 

Gioia said the county should act as a model for larger government-funded guaranteed income programs. 

“What’s great is using flexible dollars helps us innovate and come up with new programs that can potentially be funded by the state. I think that’s our hope,” Gioia said. “Local government can be the laboratory for innovation.”

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