How Guaranteed Income Is Helping Black Women Battle Gentrification

In Jackson, Mississippi, the nonprofit-run Magnolia Mother’s Trust is a guaranteed income program providing a no-strings-attached monthly stipend of $1,000 to Black mothers living in affordable housing to help them combat poverty.

Funded by a philanthropic donation and funds raised by the city, a guaranteed income program in Durham, North Carolina, provided people who were formerly incarcerated with a monthly stipend of $600. The no-strings-attached payments are meant to decrease recidivism by helping recipients meet their needs.

Guaranteed income programs aim to reduce poverty by providing cash to those in need with no strings attached. One of these programs in New York City, The Bridge Project, focuses on helping women of color who are mothers.

A guaranteed income program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, provided 130 single caregivers who made below 80% of the local median income with $500 cash payments, no strings attached. The 18-month program, Cambridge Recurring Income for Success, helped participants increase their savings, cover emergencies, and spend more time with their children.

A pilot project by a pair of nonprofits in Atlanta, Georgia, gives monthly, no-strings-attached payments of $850 to 650 predominantly Black women who are earning 200% or less of the federal poverty level. The goal of the concept, called guaranteed income, is to combat poverty while giving the recipients agency to spend the money on their specific needs.

Los Angeles’s city-run guaranteed income program provided 3,200 low-income participants with no-strings-attached payments of $1,000 a month to address economic inequity and the multigenerational cycle of poverty.

To combat unemployment, the Girls2Women Initiative runs 6- to 12-week training programs for girls and women in underserved communities in Nigeria. During this time they learn skills they can use to find a job or start their own business in industries like graphic design, decor, and tailoring.

Fund a Mom gives 40 single mothers in Jaipur, India, $60 a month with no strings attached. The guaranteed income program helps them cover necessary expenses giving them the breathing room to find paid employment.

A philanthropy-funded guaranteed income pilot program, Oakland Resilient Families, distributed a $500 monthly payment to 300 participants for a year and a half. The money was provided with no strings attached, so participants could use it for whatever they needed.

Women in El Salvador have long faced the extreme challenges of having fewer economic and social rights than men, making it difficult to survive when tragedy - such as an earthquake - strikes. The Romero community, which comprises of 90% women, is providing protection and community for women where they help each other survive.