Equity divide makes income test worth it

Turning talk into action, Marin Community Foundation and Marin County are joining forces to launch a universal basic income initiative aimed at providing 125 low-income single minority mothers with $1,000 per month for two years.

The goal is to bridge the economic equity chasm and racial divide in our county.

The foundation is committing $3 million and the county is investing $400,000 for the trial to see how a guaranteed income can help address poverty and racial inequities.

“We are starting with those moms with the greatest aggregate of challenges; low income, young children and facing the daily travails and insults of overt and covert racial discrimination,” said Thomas Peters, the foundation’s chief executive.

This is more than a handout. It is a courageous step, with a goal of addressing racial bias and generational inequity.

The county’s contribution will mainly go toward providing recipients support, such as job training and finding work that pays a living wage. It could also be tapped should recipients lose eligibility for government assistance.

Johnathan Logan, the foundation’s vice president, said many of those potential recipients interviewed in preparing the income strategy are working multiple jobs and still just squeaking by in Marin’s highcost economy.

One thousand dollars per month may not be a lot to many in Marin, but to struggling households it could make a huge difference in just meeting the basics of having a safe home, healthy food and other needs. It could provide them the checkbook breathing room they need to help fulfill their goals of financial independence.

The foundation and the supervisors are hoping the guaranteed income makes a difference in the lives of these mothers and their children.

For the supervisors, it meets their oft-stated goal of reducing poverty and addressing racial inequities.

For the foundation, it furthers its long-held objective of advancing effective programs in helping people facing the hardships of poverty and providing them help to build better lives.

As a significant trial, both the foundation and county need to figure out how they are going to assess the impact of this helping hand and determine whether it has made a difference.

There are potential shortand long-term ramifications. Among them, is whether the county and the foundation can continue to write those checks. What happens to these households if the guaranteed income is cut off?

Will those households be better off than they are today? It’s a good bet many could be with this help. It is worth a try. It is affirmative action.

Just like affirmative action, it will likely draw criticism for helping only minority households. Its specific geographic targets — San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, Marin City, Novato and West Marin — is also bound to generate complaints.

The Marin trial is modeled after others begun in other communities such as Stockton and Oakland.

The Stockton program — set at $500 per month — generated successes, with some recipients saying it gave them the financial boost they needed to find full-time jobs, spend more time with their families and enroll in school. One recipient said: “It’s like being able to breathe.”

This county is fortunate to have the Marin Community Foundation, the Buck Trust and many other generous and civic-minded trusts shepherded by the foundation, to provide the firm financial foundation to underwrite this plan.

It certainly reflects the goal of the foundation’s cornerstone donors, Dr. Leonard and Beryl Buck, who committed their multimillion bequest “for exclusively nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes in providing care for the needy in Marin County, California, and for other nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes in that county.”

The foundation has been a pivotal player in helping needy Marin families financially weather this past year of lockdowns and job losses.

The goal of this initiative is hopeful. But it will never be realized unless it is tried.