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Harris County could become the latest region in the country to launch a guaranteed income pilot program, providing $500 per month for 18 months to 1,500 low-income families.
Beginning as soon as fall 2023, the county would use $20.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to the program, if approved by Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday.
More than 45 cities and counties have implemented similar programs providing families with direct cash payments — including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis — and many of them launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled by ARPA funding.
In Chicago and Minneapolis, families received $500 per month, while Los Angeles and Austin have sent residents in the program $1,000 each month.
Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the program, which they're calling Uplift Harris, while visiting a new mural in downtown Houston dedicated to essential workers.
"Unchecked and ongoing inequality has created an economic divide that families can't overcome on their own," Ellis said. "And Harris County has an obligation to act."
In other communities, critics have said these programs are too expensive and reward people for staying out of the workforce. Some economists and nonprofit organizations that study economic programs say that these pilot projects can't be scaled up easily or in a way that wouldn't overburden the economy. Some of these organizations say a better solution is expanding and overhauling existing federal programs, like the child tax credit.
