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Alexandria seeks community input on $3M guaranteed basic income pilot program

The new program would give $500 on a pre-loaded debit card each month to one of 150 low-income families for the next two years.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Low-income families in Alexandria, Virginia may be getting a financial boost thanks to a new pilot program funded by the American Rescue Plan (ARPA).

Alexandria plans to allocate $3 million of the more than $59 million ARPA funds to start a guaranteed basic income pilot. The new program would give $500 on pre-loaded debit cards to 150 low-income families each month for the next two years.

The City of Alexandria will host two virtual community input meetings on the program on Monday, August 9, at 2 p.m. and Tuesday, August 10, at 6 p.m. Registration is required.

Participants of the program would also receive support through case management to help them establish goals, navigate systems and fully take advantage of everything the program has to offer. 

The City of Alexandria says a research partner will help monitor the outcomes and assess the program's impact to understand if and how participants become more economically stable. 

A similar pilot program took place recently in Stockton, California. A study in March of those involved with the program showed participants transitioned to full-time jobs and had better health. 

WUSA9 has reached out to the city to learn how people may apply for the program and when it would begin. As of publication, the city has not replied. 

The guaranteed basic income pilot is just one of the ways the City of Alexandria has decided to use the first half of the ARPA funds. The city plans to focus on 30 projects, that fall into four goals: 

  • Business thrive
  • Everyone has access to the basics
  • Recovery lifts everyone 
  • Long-term community investment

Projects that will focus on helping businesses thrive include enhancing the Visit Alexandria website, creating new business support programs and a pilot program that will focus on getting people back to work with increased skill levels and wages. 

Funding intended to help everyone gain access to the basics will be used to start the guaranteed basic income pilot, help advance a food security system and hire a second housing justice attorney to help support ongoing eviction prevention data analysis and planning. 

The third goal, recovery lifts everyone, will be provided funds to support the Alexandria Library Mobile Hotspot Lending Program, which lends free mobile hotspots to residents. The funding will also help the LGBTQ & BIPOC Equity Project.

The final goal the City of Alexandria hopes to achieve using the ARPA funding is called long-term community investment. The city plans to fund projects like flash flooding spot improvements and stormwater state of good repair and resiliency, a one-time state of good repair and structural resiliency improvement to the Hooffs Run Culvert, including more heavy cleaning. 

To read more about every project the city will be funding to achieve these goals, visit the City of Alexandria website

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