ATTENTION APPLICANTS!
Thank you for your interest. The survey application period is closed. For more information about The Urban League of Greater Atlanta programs and services, visit ulgatl.org.
404-631-6600.
Income Mobility Program for Atlanta Community Transformation
The City of Atlanta’s I.M.P.A.C.T. aims to accomplish the following:
Participants will be Atlanta residents whose income is up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline. This means screened, eligible participants could include an individual who earns up to $27,180, a family of four with an annual income of $55,500, and other categories. The selected families or individuals would receive $500 a month to augment their income for a year.
ATTENTION APPLICANTS!
Thank you for your interest. The survey application period is closed. For more information about The Urban League of Greater Atlanta programs and services, visit ulgatl.org.
404-631-6600.
I am excited to join this coalition of mayors to explore guaranteed income programs at the local level. This is an important first step to achieving economic security, especially for those who have been overlooked and left behind because of economic inequality. This initiative will allow us to act against poverty and equip vulnerable residents with a means of meeting their basic needs and achieving greater success.
In 2020, I joined 19 of my peers from across the country to launch – Mayor’s for Guaranteed Income (MGI). MGI supports cities across the country in launching their own guaranteed income pilot programs (“demonstrations”), and the City of Atlanta is excited to be among them.
More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King called for a guaranteed income to be established to ensure economic security as an individual right. It is vital that our residents be economically secure to thrive. Today, we live in a time of overwhelming obstacles – generational poverty, racism, COVID-19, record-breaking hurricanes, fires, and floods – in some places at the same time. The sum of these is more than many of us can bear, and it is pushing many of our residents into personal economic crises. Income inequality has reached historic highs in Atlanta and across the U.S., and nearly 40% of Americans cannot afford to cover a single $500 emergency. Systemic racism and the growing racial wealth gap further exacerbate these dire economic conditions.
A: It’s an effective way to combat several factors that are stifling economic mobility – the coronavirus pandemic and its near- and long-term economic fallout, our country’s history of entrenched poverty that hasn’t ebbed in decades, and the growing concentration of wealth at the very top.
The idea of using a guaranteed income to prevent abject poverty has been around for centuries. Modern-day Basic Guaranteed Income programs vary from place to place. Then and now, what these ideas have in common is the goal of combatting poverty and addressing factors that stifle economic mobility. Around the world, in the US, and in Atlanta, the coronavirus pandemic and its near and long-term economic fallout, entrenched poverty, and the growing concentration of wealth at the top are among the drivers of extreme poverty.
A: Again, we have a lot of research that shows us that recipients of cash transfer programs overwhelmingly use the money on their basic needs – housing, utilities, food, unexpected medical costs or other financial emergencies. This also brings up the reality that a lot of social safety net programs are becoming increasingly paternalistic, with work requirements and cumbersome hoops to jump through – the pandemic has shown us we should not be putting up barriers to desperately-needed aid. We have a disappointing history in our country of believing that poor people can’t be trusted to make their own financial choices, which goes against the ideals of freedom and dignity that our country is founded upon.
There are a number of ways; from a sovereign wealth fund in which citizens benefit from shared national resources like Alaska’s program, to bringing tax rates on the wealthiest and corporations to their 20th-century historical averages, and ensuring that capital gains are taxed at or above income from work. For city pilots, funding can be philanthropic, public dollars, or a mix of both.
A: Again, we have a lot of research that shows us that recipients of cash transfer programs overwhelmingly use the money on their basic needs – housing, utilities, food, unexpected medical costs or other financial emergencies. This also brings up the reality that a lot of social safety net programs are becoming increasingly paternalistic, with work requirements and cumbersome hoops to jump through – the pandemic has shown us we should not be putting up barriers to desperately-needed aid. We have a disappointing history in our country of believing that poor people can’t be trusted to make their own financial choices, which goes against the ideals of freedom and dignity that our country is founded upon.
A: That’s a harmful stereotype around this concept and other social safety net programs; but the facts show that simply isn’t the case. Research on several cash transfer initiatives over decades has shown that there is no negative effect on the labor market, and in fact recent research shows recipients found more work. Additional data out of Alaska, where they’ve had a guaranteed income in the form of the PFD for nearly 40 years, shows that cash did not stop people from working. And most proposals for a guaranteed income are rather modest – would you quit your job for $6,000 a year?
A: We have a lot of research that shows us that recipients of cash transfer programs overwhelmingly use the money on their basic needs – housing, utilities, food, unexpected medical costs, or other financial emergencies. This also brings up the reality that a lot of social safety net programs are becoming increasingly paternalistic, with work requirements and cumbersome hoops to jump through – the pandemic has shown us we should not be putting up barriers to desperately needed aid.
A: We have a lot of research that shows us that recipients of cash transfer programs overwhelmingly use the money on their basic needs – housing, utilities, food, unexpected medical costs, or other financial emergencies.
This also brings up the reality that a lot of social safety net programs are becoming increasingly paternalistic, with work requirements and cumbersome hoops to jump through – the pandemic has shown us we should not be putting up barriers to desperately-needed aid. We have a disappointing history in our country of believing that poor people can’t be trusted to make their own financial choices, which goes against the ideals of freedom and dignity that our country is founded upon.
We have a disappointing history in our country of believing that poor people can’t be trusted to make their own financial choices, which goes against the ideals of freedom and dignity that our country is founded upon.
A: Approximately 275 participants will be chosen at random by ABT and the Center of Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania to receive the $500 per month for 12 months. Additionally, roughly 130 applicants will be randomly selected to participate in the research component of the program only called a Focus Group (no monthly cash deposit).
We are a dedicated person-to-person organization invested in the economic success of
African-Americans; coaching them to a better life.
