The city of San Francisco is offering a monthly stimulus program exclusively for transgender residents.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the city would begin accepting applications for the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program Wednesday. The program is exclusive to transgender residents of the city, and led by The Transgender District, a neighborhood of the city for transgender people; it will give 55 transgender residents $1,200 a month for up to 18 months. The move is allegedly part of an effort to advance equity for transgender people.
“Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (G.I.F.T.) will provide economically marginalized transgender people with unrestricted, monthly guaranteed income as a way to combat poverty our most impacted community members face,” a website for the program reads. “The Transgender District and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, in partnership with municipal city departments in the City and County of San Francisco, will provide 55 Transgender residents of San Francisco County with $1,200 a month in guaranteed income for a year and a half. The program will prioritize enrollment of Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex (TGI) people who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, youth and elders, monolingual Spanish-speakers, and those who are legally vulnerable such as TGI people who are undocumented, engaging in survival sex trades, or are formerly incarcerated.”
The pilot program is the first of its kind, KRON 4 News reported. In addition to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Transgender Initiatives, and the Treasurer & Tax Collector, the program is being led by Lyon-Martin Community Health Services and The Transgender District.
The payments will be regular and unconditional for qualified applicants to provide steady income for the recipients to spend as they see fit. The Mayor’s Office also said, via the outlet, that in addition to the temporary income, the program will also provide other resources such as so-called “gender affirming medical and mental health care,” as well as financial coaching.
On its website, the program announced it was accepting applications from November 15 to December 15.
“Our Guaranteed Income Programs allow us to help our residents when they need it most as part of our city’s economic recovery and our commitment to creating a more just city for all,” Breed told the outlet. “We know that our trans communities experience much higher rates of poverty and discrimination, so this program will target support to lift individuals in this community up.”
The city previously enacted a similar program to help starving artists affected by the COVID pandemic. According to a report from KQED, the “Guaranteed Income Pilot” program debuted on March 25, 2021. It gave 130 San Francisco-based artists $1,000 a month in income for six months, with no strings attached.
Earlier this year, the city of Chicago rolled out a similar guaranteed income program to promote “equitable recovery.” Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, along with Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze, announced the $31.5 million pilot program, called the “Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot,” which would give $500 monthly payments to 5,000 Chicago families for one year “to provide additional economic stability.”
The program was one of a number of initiatives within the city of Chicago’s $1.2 billion “Chicago Recovery Plan,” which was created “to promote safe and thriving communities and an equitable economic recovery from COVID-19.”
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