Here’s how Black, Native families in Sacramento can apply to get $725 monthly for a year

Starting on Sept. 30, Sacramento County families who live slightly above or below the federal poverty level can apply for a chance to receive $725 a month in guaranteed income for a year, county leaders announced this week.

A research group will randomly select 200 households to get the payments from the Department of Child, Family and Adult Services. Funding comes from a block grant from the California Department of Social Services to support programs aimed at keeping families together.

County officials said this program will focus on early intervention with Black, Native American and Alaska Native children as a way to determine whether financial help could reduce their high rate of contact with the child welfare system, numbers that have been tied to historic and systemic oppression of these groups.

Child welfare authorities are almost five times as likely to remove Black children from their homes as they do white children, and they are nearly twice as likely to separate Native parents from their children than they do white children.

The California Reparations Report, submitted in June 2023, decried the “staggering” impact on Black families up and down the state.

“In 2021, African American children were 18% of the children in foster care in California, the largest percentage by race, despite constituting only 5% of the overall population of children in California,” the report noted. “Given the disparities, it is likely that racial bias impacts African American families at all stages of the process, including during the reporting of abuse or neglect, the investigation of the allegation, the substantiation of the allegation, the decision to the remove the child from the home, and ultimately where to place a child once the child is removed.”

Guaranteed income, or basic income, programs provide cash payments with no strings attached, helping to ensure people do not have to make choices between basic needs such as paying rent or buying food. Research on such plans shows that recipients use the money for housing, food or utility bills, reducing stress on parents, helping them to maintain their employment and improving the overall well-being of children.

County officials did not say when payments would begin for this program, known as the Family First Economic Support Pilot, but they provide greater detail on eligibility and program aims at ffesp.org/faq/. To qualify, applicants must:

▪ Live in the 95815, 95821, 95823, 95825, 95828 or 95838 ZIP codes.

▪ Be either a parent or legal guardian of a Black, Native American or Alaska Native child between the ages of 0 and 5.

▪ Earn an annual household income of less than 200% of the federal poverty line. That amounts to less than $105,440 for a household of eight, $62400 for a family of four or $40,880 for one adult and child.

The United Way California Capital Region will be overseeing this guaranteed income program, working with the social policy research firm MEF Associates to evaluate demographics and results of the program. The local United Way has run four smaller guaranteed income pilots in the city and county of Sacramento.

Visit ffesp.org to get updates on what’s happening with the Family First Economic Support Pilot.