Durham County in North Carolina has approved a new pilot guaranteed income program with the aim of helping needy families in the area.
The initiative, dubbed “DCo Thrives,” was approved unanimously by the Durham County Board of County Commissioners last week. DCo Thrives will provide 125 families with $750 in guaranteed income per month and will conduct surveys to gauge the outcomes.
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The program joins a slew of other similar initiatives in cities across the country that are designed to test the feasibility and effectiveness of universal basic income, which is the idea that providing people with a set level of guaranteed income each month could help improve poverty and quality of life.
The county will also provide another sample group of 125 people who didn’t receive the stipend with surveys in order to assess and compare the outcomes of families who didn’t receive the extra $750 boost.
The DCo Thrives program will be bankrolled using $1.69 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, which was the partisan coronavirus relief legislation passed shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
One of the requirements to be enrolled in the program was that the households must have a child under the age of 18 and have an income of at or below 30% of the county’s median income.
Durham County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Brenda Howerton emphasized that a big part of the pilot is to help the children of struggling families, according to ABC 11.
“Children cannot thrive. If their parents are not thriving and they don't have a house to live in, if they don't have food for their children, our children cannot thrive, and they cannot learn,” Howerton said.
Of note, this isn’t the first time Durham has experimented with UBI-like pilot programs.
Last year, “Excel” was launched by the City of Durham. That guaranteed income program provided 109 formerly incarcerated residents with monthly stipends of $600. While that program ended earlier this year, $1 million in Durham’s budget was set aside to continue the program.
Proponents of UBI argue that a broad-based program of direct payment could make employment more tenable because of fewer economic barriers. They also see it as a way for families to overcome healthcare and education challenges. But critics argue that UBI programs, especially at the national level, would be prohibitively expensive and could end up hurting more than helping due to the enormous tax burden involved.
UBI gained prominence during the 2020 presidential election after Democratic candidate Andrew Yang made it one of the platforms of his campaign, referring to it as a “Freedom Dividend.”
Several localities have explored guaranteed income programs, particularly since the pandemic began.
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One of the most prominent ones took place in Stockton, California, in February 2019. Spearheaded by former Mayor Michael Tubbs, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration gave 125 of the city’s residents $500 per month.
The largest UBI pilot is taking place in Africa. Since 2017, GiveDirectly has been studying the effects of UBI in the broadest possible sense. Some 20,000 recipients across nearly 200 villages in Kenya have received funds, and another 100 villages are being used as a control group.