PRESS RELEASE

Long Beach, CA – The City of Long Beach has begun issuing the first payments to participants of the Long Beach Pledge, the City’s guaranteed income pilot program. The program is providing $500 a month for 12 months to 250 families with children who live in the 90813 zip code, are below 100% of the federal poverty line and have one income earner for their household.

“Our communities need critical assistance to recover from the financial burdens of the pandemic,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “The Long Beach Pledge is providing that financial support to our most vulnerable families. We look forward to distributing these funds, evaluating the positive impacts of this pilot program and identifying expanded opportunities for guaranteed income programs.”

The City previously announced the Long Beach Pledge Guaranteed Income Pilot application period in November 2022. There were 2,800 applications received with 250 single headed families with children in the 90813 selected. There are 937 total beneficiaries for the 250 participating households, 583 of whom are children. Below is demographic data of the selected participants:

Program criteria were designed by a Community Working Group to target families hardest hit economically by the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and concentrate program impact in the area of Long Beach with the highest need. Families that were deemed ineligible for the Long Beach Pledge were provided with information about other available resources.

“This pilot is providing financial relief to some of our most vulnerable families in a zip code heavily impacted by the pandemic,” said Department of Economic Development Director Bo Martinez. “The research pilot from Cal State Long Beach will allow us to evaluate community needs and program impact to understand how cash transfers can support economic recovery for families with low-income in our city”

The City’s Department of Economic Development is leading the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program and overseeing all activity with the program partner, Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI), which offered real-time enrollment and is facilitating the payment and administrative platform, connecting participants to additional supportive services and managing the disbursement of monthly payments to participants via four payment options.

The City is also partnering with California State University, Long Beach Research Foundation to study the pilot and evaluate its impact on single parent families. The research and evaluation will include a randomized control trial by the foundation.

This program is made possible by the Long Beach Recovery Act, a plan to fund economic and public health initiatives for Long Beach residents, workers and businesses critically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the American Rescue Plan Act, a federal economic stimulus bill for COVID-19 recovery. A total of $51 million has been allocated to support Economic Recovery which includes $2 million for a Guaranteed Income program and its evaluation. Additional information about the Long Beach Recovery Act is available at longbeach.gov/recovery.