‘Guaranteed basic income’ in Fresno launches; $500 a month for families chosen by lottery

A years-long effort to launch an anti-poverty initiative in Fresno has finally put cash in the hands of Fresno County families.

On Monday, Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission distributed the first round of $500 monthly cash payments to 150 families living in parts of southwest Fresno and the west Fresno County city of Huron, two of the highest poverty-dense census tracts countywide.

The payments are part of an initiative growing in popularity nationwide known as “guaranteed basic income.” It gives qualifying recipients unrestricted monthly payments, with the goal of providing an income floor and economic stability to financially struggling families.

“This week marks an important milestone,” said Fresno Economic Opportunities CEO Emilia Reyes during a news conference Wednesday to announce the official launch of the “Advancing Fresno County Guaranteed Income Program.”

“Whether our families need extra support for health care, help putting food on the table, help keeping the lights on, paying rent, or having an opportunity for a better job or to get some assistance in education, this program makes a difference,” Reyes said.

Participating families were selected from the 93706 zip code in southwest Fresno and the 93234 zip code in Huron through a random lottery. They will receive payments of $500 each month to use however they choose for one year.

But the need in Fresno County is far greater: An estimated 21,000 families live below the poverty line, said program evaluation lead Amber Crowell, a sociology professor at Fresno State.

Fresno EOC received around 10,000 applications for the program.

Patricia Cail said Wednesday she was initially skeptical when she got the call that she was selected as a program participant. She wondered, “is this for real?” She called her daughter, who confirmed she had applied on her mom’s behalf.

Cail said she plans to use the cash to help her son prepare to go back to school, purchase school clothes for her son and pay bills.

But what did she do when she got the cash card?

“I first went to Costco,” she said.

Local community advocates have worked on developing the pilot program since fall 2021 , gathering community input on the program design. In 2022, the group made an unsuccessful bid for a portion of the $35 million in state grant funding distributed to basic income pilots statewide .

For Andy Levine — co-director of the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State, the group that will lead program evaluation — seeing Fresno’s pilot come to fruition was a full-circle moment.

After all, he said, the nation’s guaranteed basic income movement got its start in the central San Joaquin Valley city of Stockton in 2019 under former Mayor Michael Tubbs. (Earlier this week, Tubbs announced his candidacy for California lieutenant governor .)

“The Guaranteed Income movement started here in the Central Valley and is now coming back to the Central Valley,” Levine said to The Bee.

There are many similar programs nationwide, but Fresno’s is unique because it was designed to target families in rural and urban settings, Levine said.

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‘A blessing’ for farmworker family

Nancy Ramirez has been living in the agricultural community of Huron over 17 years.

Originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, she came to the area to work in the local fields. But lately, she said, work has dried up. She thinks the recent drought, employers cutting hours in response to the 2016 farmworker overtime law and extreme heat have all contributed to the reduction of local ag jobs. Other Huron farmworkers told The Bee in 2022 the increased mechanization of agriculture has also led to fewer job opportunities .

Today, Ramirez is a stay-at-home mom of two and struggles to take care of basic necessities. Her daughter’s teacher encouraged her to apply for the program.

She called the cash aid “una bendición” — “a blessing.”

“This is going to be a big help and less stress for my family,” she said.

Huron Mayor Rey Leon said the program would be a huge economic boost to Huron, which he described as one of the most hardworking cities in the state.

“Huron has been identified as one of the poorest cities in California,” he said in Spanish. “We as a government, as a city, county, state, must support these types of programs for all working families who are not paid enough to ensure a quality of life.”

Hope for program longevity — and more support from city leaders

The pilot program has funding for one year thanks to private foundations — but its creators said more support from local elected officials is key to securing funding long-term.

Reyes said in an interview with The Bee that Fresno city elected officials were invited to the program launch press conference, though they did not attend.

There could be a way for local school districts and education leaders to support these efforts, too.

Levine, a Fresno Unified School Board member, wants to see what kind of benefits the program could have on school-aged children.

“Because this program is for families with young children, I’m absolutely interested from my Fresno Unified School Board capacity in what the evaluation findings and the participants themselves tell us about the impact it has on early childhood activities and investments,” he said.

A recent study published in the academic journal Natural Human Behavior found that this type of program had a significant impact on the amount of time and investments families could spend on early learning activities for children.

Program evaluators will produce a final report on the pilot in winter 2025.

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