Sacramento approves new guaranteed basic income program for foster youth
SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday gave the green light for a new guaranteed basic income for the city's foster youth. It comes as part of an infusion of taxpayer dollars into youth programs across the city.
Sacramento has roughly 1,000 foster youth. This program would create a guaranteed income every month, helping children survive as they age out of foster homes.
Ignacio Taylor, 19—a Sacramento High School graduate and now an American River College student—is one of Sacramento's foster youth.
"You see certain things that you may not want to see," Taylor said. "Just think of it as you wake up every day and you feel like you're living with complete strangers that don't necessarily understand what you're going through."
Taylor has grown up in homes in every city council district in Sacramento. The guaranteed basic income program will apply for foster youth 18-24.
Some advocates are calling for $1,000 a month payments for 100 foster youth who have recently aged out of the foster care system.
"A lot of the time, it's beyond paying rent," Taylor said. "A lot of us don't have houses or apartments to pay rent."
"For me, it's that we have to recognize the reality that we are not doing enough as a city," said Derrell Roberts, the co-founder of the Roberts' Family Development Center.
Roberts supports the plan for foster youth and for addictional youth services funding created by Measure L. Sacramento city voters appoved the childrens fund, taken from its cannibus business tax.
The city proposed using $9.2 million for foster youth basic guaranteed income of the $46 million now available for children services.
"I'm going to support anything that talks about investing in our young people," Roberts said."I just try my best every day to just keep pushing forward and to keep pushing the message out as best I can," Taylor said.
According to a California Department of Social Services report, in the first four years out of foster care, 50% of foster youth experience homelessness.
The city council voted unanimously 9-0 to pass the motion.
