Dear Friend --

We're excited today to annouce our guaranteed income pilot program. This initiative will help 500 single parents in our city who are living in poverty and struggling to meet basic needs. 

Direct payments will focus on the 90813 Zip Code which is the highest concentrated area of family poverty in Long Beach and has a median household income 25% lower than any other zip code in the city. The pilot program will provide up to 500 participants with $500 per month for 12 months.

Participants will be single-parent households, mostly consisting of single mothers, with incomes below the poverty line. The application will consider household income and hardships created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing direct payments, each parent will receive free child care, transportation support, workforce training and access to resources to support digital inclusion like cell phones and internet connection.

We are also working closely with the Office of Economic Research at California State University, Long Beach who provided analysis and recommendations to help develop this initiative. They will be studying the effects of the pilot program on families and communities to help lift people out of poverty — here in Long Beach and around the country.

The Long Beach Economic Development Department will begin accepting applications in the coming months and expects to begin distributing funds to residents by the end of this year. This is a historic step for our city in prioritizing the most basic needs of our residents, and it puts Long Beach at the front of a national movement committed to ending poverty. 

I want to thank the Mayors for Guaranteed Income coalition, our Community Working Group and our city staff for all their work to create this important initiative.

Thank you and Go Long Beach,

Mayor Robert Garcia