BALTIMORE — If you're a young parent living in the city of Baltimore and struggling to pay necessities relief may be coming your way through a new guaranteed income program.
Applications officially open Monday May 2, 2022, at 6:00 a.m. And those who are chosen will receive a payment of $1,000 per month over 24 months.
Thanks to Baltimore city’s new guaranteed income pilot program called The Baltimore Young Families Success Fund.
Through this program 200 young families will receive the opportunity to get paid $1,000 a month to use any way they see fit to help their children and themselves to succeed.
The new program is aimed to help families in need overcome poverty. Organizers hope with this additional income families will be able to spend more time together and parents can focus on raising their children to be the best they can.
"This is fundamentally about putting our families in a position to succeed. We are putting money directly in the hands of our residents because they know more than anyone else, what their families need to ascend the ladder of opportunity, something that has been not denied to them for far too long," said Mayor Brandon Scott.
However, it's important to note that if you are selected it can interfere with other benefits.
"That's important for people to understand that if they're receiving public benefits like food stamps, like temporary cash assistance, to understand what the impact is and typically getting additional income does impact these programs. So, the CASH Campaign is going to be providing or offering benefit counseling to all the people who are in this program to help them really understand their unique situation," said Robin McKinney co-founder & CEO of CASH Campaign of Maryland.
However, if you decide to be a part of this program the way you use the money is up to you, but organizers will be collecting data to see how households successfully benefited from this program.
"There actually is going to be a group that will be a part of the pilot, where they will be participating in surveys and they can provide information, if they want, they are not at all required to, but they could provide information about how they're going to spend the money as a part of that pilot. We also have a group that's going to be focused on narrative change, so will be they'll be sharing their stories about how guaranteed income changed their lives, said Faith Leach, Deputy Mayor of Equity, City of Baltimore.
“Baltimore’s predominantly Black and Latino working-class communities —already suffering from decades of institutional disinvestment — were among the hardest hit by the COVID pandemic and its economic fallout,” said Danielle Torain, Director of the Open Society Institute – Baltimore (OSI). “Guaranteed Income is a powerful people-centered way to address both the historic disinvestment and the more recent impact of COVID. We hope that by collaborating with communities and creating this pilot, we can create a lasting model to help pull people out of poverty and invite more public and private investment in these communities.”
Applicant qualifications:
- Residents of Baltimore City.
- Between the ages of 18 -24 years old at the time of the application deadline.
- Either the biological or adoptive parents, or guardians, must have full or partial care-taking responsibilities.
- Have income at or below 300% of the federal poverty level based on their household size.
Applications will open at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, May 2, 2022, and go through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 9, 2022. Click Here to apply.
