When the pandemic hit in , Debbie Wilkerson decided to retire early from her job at Jack-in-the-Box. With schools shut down, she needed to home-school her year-old grandson, James Carcione, who is on the autism spectrum, while her son continued to go to work.
But then the family caught a break. Led by the city of Tacoma and local nonprofit United Way Pierce County, organizers described the guaranteed income program as a radical rethinking of the social safety net, offering families barely managing to scrape by the opportunity to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. Efforts at the state level are underway that could bring a similar program to other Washington residents by June Critics of guaranteed income programs argue money without conditions would discourage people from working or becoming self-sufficient.
They also raise concerns about the costs of such programs. For Wilkerson, the money each month has been transformative.
Her dream of buying a house that she can one day pass down to her grandson finally feels achievable — she and her son now qualify for a mortgage, she said. Floated as a theory among some academics and activists for decades, support for no-strings-attached direct payment programs has swelled in recent years, cropping up in dozens of cities and counties in the United States.
Then, direct aid became the primary form of COVID relief for families, as the federal government funneled billions toward stimulus checks, child tax credits and unemployment benefits.
