Over 82K apply for cash assistance program
Harris County’s guaranteed basic income program received more than 82,000 applications from residents before the online portal closed earlier this month.
Around 1,900 households will be randomly selected from the applicant pool to participate in Uplift Harris, which will provide $500 monthly payments to low-income households for 18 months.
Applicants who are selected to participate will be notified by Feb. 26, with the first cash payments going out April 3, according to County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office.
Nearly 90% of residents who applied for the program identified as Black or Hispanic, Hidalgo said.
“The huge amount of interest in this program shows how great the need is in Harris County for a program like Uplift Harris, especially among vulnerable communities,” Hidalgo said. “Reducing poverty and helping families who are struggling to meet basic needs should not be a political debate.”
Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis attributed the program’s “overwhelming response” to “unchecked inequality and soaring costs.”
“People want government to do something about the economic divide, and that’s what Harris County is doing,” Ellis said in a statement. “In a state with vast prosperity, we refuse to be bystanders as 750,000 Harris County residents endure a relentless cycle of poverty.”
County officials are looking into how they can continue to fund the guaranteed income program after the 18-month pilot phase concludes, Hidalgo added.
The $20.5 million pilot program is one of many initiatives the county is launching in using its allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
Others efforts include creating affordable child care slots, boosting eviction legal aid resources and training more than 1,500 low-income county residents for higher-paying employment.
Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt has questioned the legality of Uplift Harris, requesting an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office about whether counties have the authority to carry out a guaranteed income program and whether such a program would violate a state constitutional clause prohibiting the gift of public funds to any person.
In response, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee sent a brief to Paxton’s office in which he argued that the guaranteed income program is on firm legal ground.
Paxton’s office has yet to respond, according to the county attorney’s office.