HR0620 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0620 LRB102 24804 ECR 34049 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, According to 2018 Census estimates, in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, the neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr. grew up and later preached, 37 percent of Black children live in poverty while no white children do; and

WHEREAS, As the Old Fourth Ward has quickly gentrified over the last two decades, nearly half of the remaining Black households are living on less than $25,000 a year; and

WHEREAS, This trend of disproportional poverty among racial lines along with gentrification is happening across the country; and

WHEREAS, In Georgia, Black women make 63 cents for every dollar that white men make; and

WHEREAS, Later this year, the Old Fourth Ward will become home to one of the largest guaranteed income experiments in the U.S. and the largest to ever specifically focus on Black women; and

WHEREAS, The GRO Fund is partnering with GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that has been giving unconditional cash transfers to people living in poverty for a decade, to run the program, which will later expand to predominantly Black suburban and rural areas in Georgia; and

WHEREAS, The In Her Hands program plans to enroll 650 Black women who will be randomly divided into two groups, one getting $850 a month for two years and the other receiving an upfront payment of $4,300, followed by recurring $700 monthly payments; and

WHEREAS, The new program will test whether it is more helpful to give a larger sum of cash initially rather than a monthly payment alone; and

WHEREAS, When the program expands to rural parts of Georgia, it will also help organizations understand the value of cash transfers in another setting, since most programs in the U.S. have happened in cities so far; and

WHEREAS, The lessons from the project could help inform better policy, support a redesigned social safety net, and help make the case for a federal guaranteed income program; and

WHEREAS, There is ample evidence that giving out cash, with no strings attached, can be transformative; and

WHEREAS, In a village in Kenya, the first place that GiveDirectly worked, recipients have used the money to pay for food and healthcare, to start businesses, and to let their children attend school instead of working; and

WHEREAS, In Houston, the nonprofit distributed prepaid debit cards after Hurricane Harvey; this is arguably the most efficient way to make sure that people get what they actually need following a disaster, rather than the usual model of handing out donations of clothing or laptops that may or may not be useful; and

WHEREAS, In Stockton, California, one of a handful of cities that have tried a basic income experiment for low-income residents, recipients spent money on basic needs like food and utilities and, unsurprisingly, experienced more stability in their lives; more people were able to work or become involved in their communities; and

WHEREAS, Having a predictable flow of money not only helps people living near the poverty line with day-to-day needs but also provides stability when faced with surprise financial costs, such as medical bills; and

WHEREAS, In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, he wrote "The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income"; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support the creation of a guaranteed income pilot program for women at or below the poverty line in the communities of East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights; and be it further

RESOLVED, That this guaranteed pilot program should be funded by the Department of Human Services through cannabis revenue; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be delivered to the Department of Human Services.