Durham and Twitter’s CEO may give some residents a guaranteed income this year
Over 50 years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. suggested a plan for eliminating poverty that may gain some traction in Durham this year.
Durham could receive $500,000 in March to launch a guaranteed income program, city officials say.
The details have to be worked out, but the program could span a year, during which some Durham residents could receive a direct payment of $500 a month or more, Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton said in an interview Monday with The News & Observer.
The money would come from a $15 million grant from Twitter’s chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey. Dorsey contributed the grant in December to Mayors for Guaranteed Income, a national group that includes Durham Mayor Steve Schewel that advocates for guaranteed income programs across the country.
“This is the poster child of capitalism,” Middleton said, of Dorsey.
“And he recognizes that this is a good idea because stable families and children that are fed, and families that are able to meet their basic needs — they represent the future workforce,” Middleton added. “It’s actually better for business. It’s better for society.”
The city has until March to finalize its proposal in order for it to receive the funding, Middleton said.
Until then, he and Council member Pierce Freelon will talk to economics experts, scholars, and Durham residents to fine-tune how many people could get payments, who would qualify and how much money they could receive.
They will also look at how cities like Stockton, California and Richmond, Virginia, have implemented their own guaranteed income programs.
Durham eyed for pilot program
At a City Council meeting last week, Schewel said Mayors for Guaranteed Income was considering Durham for a pilot program even before he joined the group.
“All I had to do was sign up to join the organization. That was my contribution,” Schewel said. “But you know, these people knew about Durham, and they called us, which is super great.”
Middleton said Durham had caught the group’s attention.
“They made it clear to me that they had been monitoring our media; they’ve been monitoring chatter,” he said. “They saw me in the news talking about it.”
Middleton pitched a similar idea about guaranteed income in August, in a video conference with the community group End Poverty Durham and Duke University economics professor William Darity, The N&O previously reported.
Darity, who published a case for federal reparations last year, will give some guidance to the council members as they draft a proposal, Freelon said.
Results of guaranteed income program in Stockton
A guaranteed income program showed promising results in another city, supporters say.
In February of 2019, Stockton’s mayor, Michael Tubbs, initiated the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, or SEED, which selected 125 residents to receive a monthly $500 for 18 months.
To qualify, residents had to be at least 18 years old and live in an neighborhood with a median income of $46,033, the city’s median income, or less. Among those eligible, residents were randomly selected.
Eight months into the program, researchers documented how residents spent the $500 and their employment status.
Residents spent 40% of the money on food, 25% on other merchandise and just under 12% on utility payments.
Among those in the program, 43% worked full-time or part-time. About 20% were disabled and not working, and 11% each worked as stay-at-home caretakers or were looking for work. About 8% were retired and 5% were students.
About 2% of residents in the program were unemployed and not looking for work.
The median monthly household income of residents before the program began was $1,800.
Stacia Martin-West at the University of Tennessee and Amy Castro Baker at the University of Pennsylvania worked with SEED in conducting research on the residents in Stockton’s program.
What impact could it have?
Freelon said the push for guaranteed income can be traced back to King, who laid out his vision for it in his 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
He said the program could address an underlying cause of many of Durham’s most pressing concerns.
“Many of the issues we see, especially in the Black community, are rooted back to poverty,” Freelon said. “It has impacts on housing. It impacts educational outcomes and violence as well.”
People at risk of eviction could be among those who receive payments, said Middleton, who thinks the program could provide a blueprint for how guaranteed income could be implemented at a federal level.
“Local governments are actually the laboratories of democracy,” he said. “What we can do is demonstrate an experiment with bold initiative that hopefully will cause a groundswell and provide data points in conjunction with sister cities around the country.”
Samuel Gunter, executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition, said he will be watching what happens next in Durham and how people spend the money.
The coalition estimates 31% of Durham County’s nearly 40,000 households are cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 30% of their monthly income on rent or mortgage and utilities. Among renters, the figure is 49%, according to the group’s website.
Gunter thinks the $500 payments could cycle back into the local economy, with people at the bottom end of the income spectrum likely spending the extra money on groceries, utility bills, or an outing to a restaurant.
“We’re talking about a source of stability for folks that will give benefits to the broader community,” he said.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 5:45 AM.