By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Some 110 low-income Providence families will be chosen by lottery to receive $500 dollars a month in a pilot program that Mayor Jorge Elorza joined nearly a year ago with a national group of mayors.
“It’s rough out there, and especially in a moment like now where so many people feel as though they’re on a hamster wheel,” Elorza said. “You know, they’re running as hard as they can but they still can’t seem to get ahead.”
He said many poor families are just $500 dollars away from a crisis like a broken down car rendering them unable to get to work.
“But the root causes of the crisis are abundantly clear, and are always the same,” said Cortney Nicolato, President and CEO of the United Way of Rhode Island. “Poverty, underlined by systemic racism and inequities.”
Elorza said after applications are opened in August, 110 families will be chosen to receive a monthly, no-strings-attached stipend to pay for their own most urgent needs. Those chosen will be at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
Another group of families will be selected as a “control group” and will not receive any money. Elorza said a team of researchers will monitor the families’ progress.
The Democratic mayor said that the program is not a hand-out, a sentiment echoed by Neil Steinberg, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, among the groups providing funding for the pilot.
“This is not handouts, that’s what’s the most exciting thing to me,” said Steinberg. “This is investments in our friends, our neighbors, in critical people that we need to be the future of our community.”
“If there ever was time for bold and innovative programs, it’s now,” Steinberg said.
“Are we not our brother’s keeper,” asked State Representative Anastasia Williams. “Are we not responsible for each other?”
Other funders in the pilot include Square CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who contributed $500,000, the United Way of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Foundation, Providence Community Relief Fund and ONE Neighborhood Builders.
Amos House and Dorcas International will co-administer the pilot.
Last year, Elorza joined the group Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, led by Stockton, California Mayor Michael Tubbs who initiated a guaranteed income for residents.
