Why One City is Prioritizing Financial Empowerment

In San Francisco, the first Financial Justice Project is working with the city to eliminate fines and fees that hold back people experiencing poverty and financial instability and also cost the city more than they can recover. So far, the innovative program has made all phone calls from jail free, cleared outstanding holds on driver's licenses for missing a traffic court date, announced the elimination of all library fines, and more - and cities across the country are taking not and exploring similar changes.

The only psychiatric hospital in New Mexico is in the north, which means frequent trips must be made from the south to bring new patients which is expensive and makes it difficult for southern families to visit. There is a new push to build a psychiatric hospital in the south to decrease the transportation of patients and include families in care, but there are space and financial issues with this new idea.

ClaimStat is a New York city program that uses data to track allegations of police misconduct on a neighborhood level and shares the information with the public, helping prevent lawsuits against the city and diverting settlement funds to core city services like education or street cleanup. Chicago looks to learn from the program and reduce the millions spent on police misconduct lawsuits each year.

Pennsylvania uses a comprehensive approach to maintain accurate voter roles. The state is a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center, which is a cross-state database that updates records of voters every 60 days based on interactions with the DMV. In addition, when a registered voter doesn’t vote in two consecutive federal election cycles, they are marked inactive and sent a request to confirm their residency. Those that do not respond with 30 days are removed from the rolls. All 67 counties are required to do annual maintenance of their voter rolls.

Affordable housing requirements for developers were eased in Austin through legislation known as Affordability Unlocked. As a result of less stringent parking, set-back and height codes, developers are able to maximize the number of units per building and deliver a bigger impact per project. These projects are generally built through government subsidies, therefore giving tax payers a higher return on investment.

Legalized marijuana sales in Canada were supposed to make the industry safe, stable, and prosperous. But the rollout of licenses for pre-existing private dispensaries has turned into a debacle for small businesses in British Columbia. Ignoring the advice given to Health Canada by dispensaries seeking licenses about sensible ways to regulate, the agency delayed approving licensing applications for months, only to begin raiding applicants' businesses as soon as competing government dispensaries started opening. Hundreds were put out of work and quality product grew scarce.

The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) protects states from having to fund federal laws. Prior to its passage, Congress passed bills without worrying about how to fund them, leaving states, cities, and counties to pay for federal mandates. Though UMRA has not been foolproof, 185 unfunded mandates were passed in 1993 before the law was passed and only 15 laws that violate UMRA limits were enacted between 1996 and 2018. Congress is not required to fund the whole bill, which means localities can still be required to pay significant amounts for federally mandated laws.

Health care in the Netherlands relies heavily on the collaboration, cooperation, and shared responsibility between private markets and government regulations to achieve affordable, consistent, and quality care for patients. Although the system is not without its limitations, this process has helped the country avoid preventable deaths while also guaranting nearly all residents insurance.

The success of a pilot program that successfully housed several dozen people in Los Angeles is the basis of current proposed legislation. The program known as "SHARE! Collaborative Housing" finds housing for people with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness by matching people with homeowners in residential neighborhoods and places its members with other people who are going through similar struggles. Over 25 percent of participants are fully employed and move out within a year. SHARE! is more cost effective and successful than traditional government methods used to alleviate homelessness.

Reducing landfill waste takes a comprehensive approach. By implementing city-wide composting alongside trash collection and utilizing the sorting technology of Recology, the city’s municipal waste recovery company, San Francisco has significantly reduced the amount of waste residents send to landfills. Although it missed the ambitious target of achieving zero waste by 2020, the city aims to cut what it sends to landfills in half by 2030.