San Francisco will provide 150 former foster youths guaranteed incomes of $1,200 a month under a state-funded pilot program announced last week.
The program, financed through the Department of Social Services, “will provide unconditional, individual, regular cash payments intended to disrupt poverty, advance equity, and support the basic needs of recipients,” according to a press release Friday from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
The pilot program will run for 18 months. A sister program will provide $1,000 monthly payments to 150 recipients in Ventura County.
The programs follow other guaranteed income pilot projects, including a 2020 universal basic income program for transition-age foster youth in Santa Clara County led by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose).
“I have personally witnessed the life-changing impact of guaranteed income through programs we launched right here in Santa Clara County — the power to break cycles of poverty, provide economic stability, and to, ultimately, change lives,” Cortese said in a statement.