Fairfax county pilot program to give 750 a month to low income families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/fairfax-county-pilot-program-provide-2m-guaranteed-income-180-eligible-families

Not that 750 a month is a ton of money, but hasn’t this already been tried other places? Is it scalable?

The nature of this program is that it only works if kept small-scale and it only helps the families selected.

If the county decides to tout the results of this program as a win for equity and decides to implement it for all eligible families, then housing and prices will go up and we will be in the same situation we were already in, except now you have a new welfare dependent population.

The county would be better served by examining the policies that make life unaffordable here in the first place.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/neighborhood-community-services/economicmobilitypilot

more info. No in person interview. Participation not required in GMU study on what happens with unrestricted cash payments. Participation in financial counseling available but not required. So it's free money and a useless study will be done. 180 participants and data from the study could be used to justify program expansion.Who pays for this?

Taxpayers , covid cash, and might ask for donors [note indirect taxpayer]. No federal income tax due since "No. The financial assistance payments from this pilot are not included in gross income calculations and are not taxable due to being disaster COVID-19 relief." Open to non US citizens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love how DCUM brings so many retrograde Reaganites out of the woodwork.

Cash transfers to low-income households are one of the best ways we have to fight poverty and improve the lives of the most vulnerable, especially children. Turns out giving money to impoverished people relieves poverty. What a concept!

Here’s one recent study finding that cash transfers are associated with reduced mortality among women and kids: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06116-2

Absolutely. Now let's find half a billion dollars to implement this county wide! Never gonna happen.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria is doing the same thing.

They also tried to give out business grants to literally anyone as long as they weren't white. But they got sued for obvious discrimination and pulled it.

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/02/16/alexandria-cancels-grant-program-for-minority-owned-businesses-after-lawsuit/

[Anonymous]

This program seems like an old idea. I am not sure what the point is.

[Anonymous]

Cash transfers to low-income households are one of the best ways we have to fight poverty and improve the lives of the most vulnerable, especially children. Turns out giving money to impoverished people relieves poverty. What a concept

You know what else relieves poverty? Work. Turns out if you go to work you earn money! What a concept!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Cash transfers to low-income households are one of the best ways we have to fight poverty and improve the lives of the most vulnerable, especially children. Turns out giving money to impoverished people relieves poverty. What a concept

You know what else relieves poverty? Work. Turns out if you go to work you earn money! What a concept!

One of the qualifications for this program is that they must be working. I don't agree with this program, but I did at least click on the link and read the information.

[Anonymous]

Sooooo communism. Great idea!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love how DCUM brings so many retrograde Reaganites out of the woodwork.

Cash transfers to low-income households are one of the best ways we have to fight poverty and improve the lives of the most vulnerable, especially children. Turns out giving money to impoverished people relieves poverty. What a concept!

Here’s one recent study finding that cash transfers are associated with reduced mortality among women and kids: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06116-2

Absolutely. Now let's find half a billion dollars to implement this county wide! Never gonna happen.

Frankly the foolishness of this freebie is astounding- no mandatory participation in accounting for the household and financial advising. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/23/virginia-fairfax-basic-income-pilot/

If I win $11k plus I have to report it as income. So what about the part not from free covid cash? How could this cash received not go into public assistance determinations? "If you are a tax filer, can you still apply? Yes. The financial assistance payments from this pilot are not included in gross income or taxable due to being disaster COVID-19 relief. Please note that these payments are likely to be counted as income for the purpose of public assistance eligibility determination."

Basically the county wants to give tax free money and some recipients might not have even been in the USA from Jan 2020 through 2021. I guess FX will declare this a resounding success ...maybe Eric Adams helped draft it during some personal cell phone calls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will have to read up on this, as I work for a nonprofit that already does receive county funds to help house low income residents.

I don’t know that there is much that can be done to fix the outside pressures that are just making life in general unaffordable these days.

Our residents definitely need help, and charity only goes so far.

Remember that various types of handouts of “free” money is one of the things that got us where we are today in terms of affordability. That is one of the reasons the effective minimum wage is $15 around here and one of the factors of housing becoming more expensive.

We do need more housing but we are running out of space to build. The fact is, not everyone is going to be able to afford to live here. Some people will need to double up in smaller apartments or move further out. Kinda sucks but it is what it is.

Seeing that I’m stuck in Fairfax County for a least the next few years, I need to find out who is supporting this nonsense and vote against them.

Is there no up in Fairfax County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This program seems like an old idea. I am not sure what the point is.

The point is helping people improve their lives.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-28/for-more-than-20-guaranteed-income-projects-the-data-is-in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will have to read up on this, as I work for a nonprofit that already does receive county funds to help house low income residents.

I don’t know that there is much that can be done to fix the outside pressures that are just making life in general unaffordable these days.

Our residents definitely need help, and charity only goes so far.

Remember that various types of handouts of “free” money is one of the things that got us where we are today in terms of affordability. That is one of the reasons the effective minimum wage is $15 around here and one of the factors of housing becoming more expensive.

We do need more housing but we are running out of space to build. The fact is, not everyone is going to be able to afford to live here. Some people will need to double up in smaller apartments or move further out. Kinda sucks but it is what it is.

Seeing that I’m stuck in Fairfax County for a least the next few years, I need to find out who is supporting this nonsense and vote against them.

Is there no up in Fairfax County?

Sure there is, to a degree. Already lots of new high density construction around Metro stops, which is good. But adding people doesn’t just require spaces to put them in, it requires infrastructure improvements.

One of the things that makes Fairfax County a desirable and livable place in the first place is the amount of green. We need to preserve that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This program seems like an old idea. I am not sure what the point is.

The point is helping people improve their lives.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-28/for-more-than-20-guaranteed-income-projects-the-data-is-in

It’s not scalable to everyone who would be eligible, and I’m not sure how fair it is to help some and not others. If we “help” everyone, then nobody is helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This program seems like an old idea. I am not sure what the point is.

The point is helping people improve their lives.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-28/for-more-than-20-guaranteed-income-projects-the-data-is-in

It’s not scalable to everyone who would be eligible, and I’m not sure how fair it is to help some and not others. If we “help” everyone, then nobody is helped.

We can't help everyone, so we should help nobody...

The pilot programs are not scalable and are not designed to be scalable. They are designed to be pilot programs. The policies suggested by the results from the pilot programs certainly are scalable. What they probably aren't, is politically feasible. That's because we're a country where policies favored by large majorities of the population are somehow politically impossible to implement.

[Anonymous]

Cambridge, MA is doing something similar:
https://www.marketplace.org/2023/07/24/cambridge-expands-guaranteed-income-program-to-all-eligible-families/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will have to read up on this, as I work for a nonprofit that already does receive county funds to help house low income residents.

I don’t know that there is much that can be done to fix the outside pressures that are just making life in general unaffordable these days.

Our residents definitely need help, and charity only goes so far.

Remember that various types of handouts of “free” money is one of the things that got us where we are today in terms of affordability. That is one of the reasons the effective minimum wage is $15 around here and one of the factors of housing becoming more expensive.

We do need more housing but we are running out of space to build. The fact is, not everyone is going to be able to afford to live here. Some people will need to double up in smaller apartments or move further out. Kinda sucks but it is what it is.

Seeing that I’m stuck in Fairfax County for a least the next few years, I need to find out who is supporting this nonsense and vote against them.

Is there no up in Fairfax County?

Sure there is, to a degree. Already lots of new high density construction around Metro stops, which is good. But adding people doesn’t just require spaces to put them in, it requires infrastructure improvements.

One of the things that makes Fairfax County a desirable and livable place in the first place is the amount of green. We need to preserve that.

Guess what preserves green? Up.

Guess what doesn't preserve green? Sprawl.