Austin will be the first major Texas city to use local taxdollars to give cash to low-income families to keep them housed asthe cost-of-living skyrockets in the capital city.

Under a yearlong, $1 million pilot program that cleared a keyAustin City Council vote Thursday, the city will send monthlychecks of $1,000 to 85 needy households at risk of losing theirhomes — an attempt to insulate low-income residents from Austin’sincreasingly expensive housing market and prevent more people frombecoming homeless.

“We can find people moments before they end up on our streetsthat prevent them, divert them from being there,” Mayor Steve Adlersaid at a press conference Thursday morning. “That would be notonly wonderful for them, but it would also be wise and smart forthe taxpayers in the city of Austin because it will be a lot lessexpensive to divert someone from homelessness than to help themfind a home once they’re on our streets.”

Eight Austin City Council members voted Thursday to establishthe “guaranteed income” pilot program and contract with aCalifornia nonprofit to run it.

Austin joins at least 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago,and Pittsburgh, that have tried some form of guaranteed income.Locally, the idea came out of efforts to rework how the citytackles public safety in the wake of protests over police brutalityin 2020.

Other Texas metro areas have experimented with guaranteed incomeprograms during the pandemic. Programs in San Antonio and El PasoCounty have sent regular payments to low-income households using acombination of federal stimulus dollars and charitablecontributions. Austin is believed to have the only program fullyfunded by local taxpayers.

Austin officials are working out how exactly the program willwork, and which families will receive the money. Austinites whoqualify won’t have restrictions on how they can spend the money —but the idea is that they’ll use it to pay household costs likerent, utilities, transportation, and groceries.

City officials have floated some possibilities regarding whoshould qualify for help: residents who have an eviction case filedagainst them or have trouble paying their utility bills, as well aspeople already experiencing homelessness.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, some council members voiced concernsabout the relative lack of details about the program and questionedwhether it was a good idea for Austin to use local tax dollars tofund the program, rather than letting the federal government ornonprofits take the lead.

“I believe that we do need to invest in people and their basicneeds, but I’m not sure that this is the right way today,” councilmember Alison Alter said at Thursday’s meeting before votingagainst the measure.

Brion Oaks, the city’s chief equity officer, told city officialsin a memo that the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank based inWashington, D.C., will help measure the program’s impact by lookingat factors like participants’ financial stability, stress levelsand overall wellness over the course of receiving the funds.

Preliminary findings from a similar pilot program showed somepromising results. UpTogether, the California nonprofit that willrun the Austin program, ran a separate guaranteed income programfunded by private dollars in Austin and Georgetown that ended inMarch, the nonprofit said in a statement Thursday. That programgave 173 families $1,000 a month for a year, and the nonprofit saidparticipants used the money for expenses like rent and mortgagepayments, childcare, fuel, and groceries.

Some were able to boost their savings, more than half ofrecipients slashed their debt by 75% and more than a thirdeliminated their household debt, the nonprofit said.

According to Austin’s Ending Community Homelessness Coalition,the city has more than 3,100 people experiencing homelessness. Alocal ban on most evictions during the pandemic kept the number ofeviction case fillings low compared with other major Texas cities,but that number has exploded since the ban ended last year.

“This is about preventing displacement, preventing eviction andensuring that our families are able to stay in their home, that wehave that stability,” council member Vanessa Fuentes said.

1. In the above case, outline the impact and measurementchallenges outlined in the above case, using classroom readings,presentations, and classroom discussions. The answer is not youropinion but using classroom materials to give analysis on the areasof impact and measurement outlined in the article.

2. In the above case, what would be your advice to theCity of Austin on how they should move forward, thinking aboutmeasurement and impact? Is there a better solution? Use the classinformation from our discussions, materials, and presentations,what would be your advice.