Farokhi provides update on the work of the Old Fourth Ward Task Force
A task force launched by District 2 Council member Amir Farokhi to assess guaranteed income in the Old Fourth Ward community recently held its second meeting. Consisting of 28 local and national stakeholders, the task force is working to draft recommendations aimed at addressing wealth inequity for the most vulnerable residents in the Old Fourth Ward.
“This second meeting focused on what causes poverty and approaches to address it. Those are obviously big questions, but we looked at it through the lens of guaranteed income and cash assistance,” Farokhi said.
During the meeting, the task force heard from Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey. Baraka provided insight on his own efforts to launch a guaranteed income pilot program by the end of the year. The Newark program aims to focus on helping residents combat housing insecurity.
The task force also heard from Aisha Nyandoro, the CEO of Springboard to Opportunity, who started Magnolia Mother’s Trust in Jackson, Mississippi in 2018. Nyandoro provided the task force with an overview of the program, which has provided 15 families in Jackson, Mississippi with $1,000 on a monthly basis for 12 months straight. Most of the families made an average of $11,030 annually, so the cash more than doubles their income. There are also no stipulations with the money, allowing families to use the funds as best they see fit to meet their financial needs.
As part of the meeting, former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a member of the task force, also led a discussion featuring four Old Fourth Ward residents. The conversation highlighted the need for greater financial support for residents, as well as the need to build stronger levels of trust in the relationships between residents and the city, nonprofits, and private sector.
Following the meeting, Farokhi said one of his biggest takeaways from the task force so far has been the genuine and broad-based interest in designing a guaranteed income program, particularly one that’s calibrated to Atlanta’s needs.
“There’s a lot of interest among the task force members in designing a program that builds on the others around the country, so we’re not just doing the same thing. We’re driven to move the field forward and develop a proposed program that measures previously unexplored outcomes of guaranteed income,” Farokhi said.
He added that the expiration of the $600 per month federal unemployment benefits program at the end of July put a greater spotlight and sense of urgency around guaranteed income. The funding was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
“That’s an example of what can happen when you give people a basic amount of money to keep a roof over their heads, food on their plate, and buy basic necessities,” he said. “There are huge individual and societal benefits that come with personal and unemployment payments like we saw with the CARES Act: namely stability for millions of people and positive economic activity.”
The task force’s next meeting will be held September 16 and will feature Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mayor Michael Tubbs of Stockton, California, who will talk to the task force about a universal basic income initiative launched in his city in 2019. Over the rest of 2020, the task force will also look at a state earned income tax credit for low income residents and what the future of work holds for low-and middle-wage workers.
