Oakland is accepting applications for income

Oakland opened the first round of applications Tuesday for the city’s guaranteed income program — one of the largest of its kind in the country.

The program, Oakland Resilient Families, will provide $500amonth cash payments with no strings attached for 18 months. The first round of applications will be for 300 families who live in East Oakland, in a roughly 1squaremile neighborhood bounded by 94th Avenue and Havenscourt, International and MacArthur boulevards.

Applications will open citywide for an additional 300 families by August.

“Poverty is not a personal failure, it is a policy failure,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said at a news conference Tuesday. “The policy of guaranteed income is one that is designed to lift up the dignity of individuals and allow them to chart their own path to self sufficiency.”

Schaaf said previous guaranteed income programs, including one in Stockton, show that when people have additional funds, it helps them gain employment, address mental health needs and take care of their families.

“That’s what we want in Oakland,” she said.

Lowincome families with at least one child under 18 are eligible for the program. It is open to anyone whose income qualifies — a shift after the initial rollout spurred criticism that white residents wouldn’t be considered.

To be eligible, applicants must have a child in their household under age 18 and have a yearly income of no more than half of the area median income. For a family of three, that income cap is $61,650 per year. For a family of seven, the cap is $84,950 per year.

Recipients will be randomly selected from a pool of eligible applicants.

City Council Member Loren Taylor, who represents part of the neighborhood where the first recipients will be chosen, said that since the city announced the effort in March, 9,000 people have subscribed to the program’s email list. He said Oakland’s program will “establish a model” that other cities can follow.

Council Member Treva Reid, who also represents part of East Oakland where first recipients will be selected, said the first phase of the project will help those living in an area “disproportionately impacted by economic inequities” that were exacerbated by the pandemic.

“For many of our lowincome residents in East Oakland, an additional $500 means having muchneeded money to maintain their housing, pay their rent, to pay for child care, to secure resources that not only will help economically support their families but advance our community as a whole,” Reid said.

The program is funded with donations from Blue Meridian Partners, a philanthropic organization focused on poverty, which has raised more than $6.7 million. About 80% of those funds are going into the hands of residents. UpTogether, a national nonprofit based in Oakland focused on fighting poverty, will run the program.

For more information about the program, go to https://fund.uptogether.org/ eastoakland.