A coalition of community partners today launched the Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project, a two-year project that will give 150 Santa Clara County families who are experiencing homelessness or unstable housing $1,000 per month in no-strings-attached cash assistance for 24 months.
The $3.6 million program is designed “to help participants achieve housing stability as well as greater independence over their lives, finances and future,” according to the announcement.
“This unconditional support is meant to provide families with the flexibility to decide how best to meet their needs,” the coalition said in a statement.
The guaranteed income project focuses on families experiencing homelessness, an approach that the coalition said “will enable us to help key populations including people of color, undocumented and mixed status families, and women-led households.”
The project is being spearheaded by Destination: Home and the ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective, in partnership with the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, Sacred Heart Community Service, the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing and UpTogether.
One of the leading partners in this project is the ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective, which envisions a rooted and thriving community “where resilient families have confidence in their gifts, choices and dreams.”
“Through this project we can support families vulnerable to homelessness by giving them cash with no conditions,” said Gabriel Hernandez, director of the Si Se Puede Collective. “With their participation, in 2 years, we hope to see how guaranteed income benefits families and advocate for more programs to support more families.”
“We believe people are experts in their own lives," added Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home. "Guaranteed income allows families to make the choices they know will assist them in achieving their goals, and we believe philanthropy should seek to serve and amplify that wisdom and lived experience, rather than attempt to dominate it.”
“Through this project, the partners aim to demonstrate the ways in which guaranteed income can help address Silicon Valley’s deep systemic inequities and severe homelessness crisis,” the coalition said in a statement. The coalition reported that the median monthly rental in Silicon Valley is $2,850, and estimated that to afford this, families would need to make an average of $54.81 an hour, about 3.7 times the minimum earned wage.
The Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project will include a research and evaluation component, led by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, to assess the effectiveness of guaranteed income on housing stability, health, economic and overall well-being. The evaluation is designed as a mixed-methods randomized controlled trial and will be among the first U.S.-based studies of guaranteed income as a homelessness mitigation strategy.
“This is a bold community initiative that aims to not only act locally but to think globally,” said Dr. Oanh Kieu Nguyen, a researcher at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. “In addition to supporting families in Santa Clara County, we hope to show that guaranteed income is an innovative, yet simple, effective, efficient, equitable and evidence-based approach to addressing the humanitarian and public health crisis of homelessness in the U.S.”
The Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project is receiving financial support from several other private funders, including: Google.org, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Sobrato Philanthropies.
Notification and onboarding of participating families into the project is currently underway. Participation and enrollment are by referral only, and the project is closed to new referrals at this time.
My there are a lot of “homeless” and “housing” “non-profits” in this state.
I wonder where all the money comes from to pay all the people who hand out free money?
Something seems amiss……..
LOLLLLLLLL Holy crap and we wonder why the deficit is so bad and how the criminals end up scamming this money. More feel good liberal waste!
The $3.6 million program is designed “to help participants achieve housing stability as well as greater independence over their lives, finances and future,”
That’s not how it works. You can’t foster independence and personal responsibility by just giving “no-strings-attached” money to people. In fact, doing so only encourages more dependence on the government and less personal responsibility for improving one’s life. This isn’t supporting less-fortunate families, it’s enabling their dependence.
The demand for meth just went up.
Yes i I’m homeless how to i apply?
Instead of “no strings attached,” these individuals should do some sort of community service.
The slide continues. Give people money but don’t spend on council elections. Money spent on elections pays people too.
I’m Brian and so is my wife!
I think that you can foster independence and personal responsibility by giving disadvantaged people a helping hand. Keep in mind that a lot of homeless people do indeed have jobs, but they are so low paying that any little financial setback can blow a huge hole in their budget. Most likely, that’s how they because homeless in the first place.
A lot of cynical people say, Those homeless folks should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But, what if they don’t have boots?
They’re giving the money to families, not individuals–probably an important distinction, for those who are against funding meth production. Also, they’re gonna watch what happens when they do this, which is an attached string despite what they say
Word of this is spreading quickly in the homeless communities through their free cell phones.
More free money! The homeless population is now going to double in San Jose.
For those who keep citing San Jose, the article says SANTA CLARA COUNTY. SCC runs from Palo Alto to Gilroy and includes several other cities and towns, not just San Jose.
@ETHAN AMYX
They’re giving the money to families, not individuals–probably an important distinction, for those who are against funding meth production.
baaaahahahahahahaha
as if no “mom” is on meth
wake up
@MY_OPINION,
Just an Observation,
The reference to San Jose only appeared once in the 11 comments before yours.
In fact your comment alone increased its frequency by 200% in the comment section.
Do you have any other opinion to offer that is BETTER than this?
Giving away free money is not a “helping hand.” Giving shelter, food, clothing, toys, education, showers, shoes, job training, computer access, or practically anything else that could specifically be used to live and improve oneself is. Many disadvantaged families are in their current state because of poor choices or the inability to even make good choices. The odds of using this free money to make good choices is slim to none.
Just disgusting how much ugly people only think the worst …. Hopefully some unfortunate child becomes a functioning member of society from this money and if not that’s ok . It’s not wrong to help others and hope for the best damn !!!! Privileged ass people.