SAN FRANCISCO — Homeless people in California are already a vulnerable group, often struggling with poor health, trauma and deep poverty before they lose their housing, according to a new study on adult homelessness.

The study released Tuesday by the University of California, San Francisco attempts to capture a comprehensive picture of how people become homeless in California, and what impeded their efforts at finding permanent housing. The representative survey of nearly 3,200 homeless people found that when they lost housing, their median household income was $960 a month, and for renters on leases it was $1,400 a month, of which on average half went to rent.

Homelessness is a national crisis, and all too pervasive in California, where an estimated 171,000 people — or 30% of all homeless people in the U.S. — are homeless. Political leaders are divided over how to address the crisis, with some, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, favoring tent encampment sweeps and a tough-love approach toward those with mental health and addiction issues.

It it not groundbreaking news that the state’s exorbitant housing costs are a major driver behind homelessness, but researchers at the UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative hope that the study will strengthen public support for policies that focus on offering housing and emergency rental assistance — rather than policies emphasizing punishment or stigma.

“People are homeless because their rent is too high. And their options are too few. And they have no cushion,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, initiative director and lead investigator. “And it really makes you wonder how different things would look if we could solve that underlying problem.”

Kushel’s team surveyed nearly 3,200 adults around California, and followed up to conduct in-depth interviews with 365 people, between October 2021 and November 2022.

The study found that Black people made up 26% of the homeless population in a state where they are only 6% of the general population. About 90% of participants were living in California when they became homeless. Half reported an inability to work due to age, health or disability. The median length of homelessness was a little under two years.

More than a third of adults surveyed met the criteria for chronic homelessness, meaning they had a disabling condition and were homeless for at least 1 year — or were homeless four times in the previous three years totaling more than 12 months.

In Los Angeles in 2015, Sage Johnson’s mother was evicted from their apartment when she was unable to meet rent that had increased to $1,200. In disability pay, she received about $1,340 a month. She bounced around, from LA’s notorious Skid Row to various convalescent homes while her daughter lived at a shelter.

Later, Johnson, 28, was able to place her mother in a home, where she stayed for about two years. In 2018 though, her mother died from a debilitating stroke.

Johnson, who now has stable housing, wishes she could have done more.

“But in the end, she did have a bed. She was inside. She didn’t have any more strokes outside. And she was able to regenerate and rejuvenate and restore some of her life while in the convalescent home,” said Johnson, a co-chair for one of the study’s advisory boards.

Among study participants, substance abuse and issues with mental health were common and predated becoming homeless. Of those surveyed, 45% reported current, regular use of cocaine, amphetamines and opioids or heavy episodic drinking. Participants described how heavy substance use contributed to losing their homes, but also how methamphetamine usage allowed them to stay alert to protect themselves from assault or theft.

Nearly half of the adults surveyed were not on a lease in the six months prior to becoming homeless, and had likely moved in with family or friends, contributing to rent when they could. Nearly a quarter cited conflict among housemates, desire for more space or not wanting to impose any longer on family and friends as primary reasons they left.

On average, people surveyed who were not on leases received only one day of warning before needing to move out.

Among people on rental lease agreements, more than 20% cited income loss or reduction as the primary reason they lost housing. “So it wasn’t so much that their housing costs increased, it’s that they could no longer keep up with it,” said Kushel.

California ranks as the most unaffordable state when it comes to housing, according to an annual report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A person earning an hourly minimum wage of $15.50 would have to work nearly 90 hours a week to afford the statewide average for a modest one-bedroom rental, which is nearly $1,800 a month, the coalition states.

The study was requested by Newsom’s administration, which has made addressing homelessness a priority, but the state did not fund it so didn’t play a role in analyzing data or interpreting the findings.

The report makes many recommendations, including deep expansion of rental assistance and pilot programs to facilitate shared housing for people seeking to get out of homelessness — and a rental stipend program for people living temporarily with family or friends.

Johnson said she hopes the public will find the report’s findings to be evidence that tax dollars are being put to good use in social safety net spending. She also hopes that people will support robust mental health and addiction treatment services along with affordable housing options.

“I don’t want to set anyone up for failure,” she said. “And I’m sure many of my peers can agree that folks need time to practice going back to, like, regular society life.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk’s big bet that Tesla price cuts could boost sales and profits amid increased competition and poor economic sentiment appears to be yielding mixed results. Sales soared and the company beat analysts’ expectations for net income in the April-June quarter, even as the company’s profit margins declined. Tesla shares followed suit in after-hours trading.

The Austin, Texas-based maker of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries reported net income of $2.7 billion in the quarter, up 20% year over year. Earnings per share also rose 20% to 78 cents as measured using generally accepted accounting principles. Total revenue increased 47% to $24.93 billion.

However, analysts tend to focus on Tesla’s own earnings measure, which excludes stock-based compensation expense. Using that metric, Tesla’s net income rose to $3.15 billion, or 91 cents a share, comfortably beating the average analyst estimate of 80 cents a share, according to FactSet. Some analysts had expected falling profits due to the price cuts.

However, Tesla shares initially remained flat around $292 in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the earnings report, climbing slightly above its close of $291.26. As Tesla executives spoke to analysts on a conference call, shares plunged more than 4%.

Tesla reported strong vehicle shipment numbers on July 2, saying they were up 83% from the year-ago quarter after the company repeatedly slashed prices on its four electric vehicle models. Tesla sold a record 466,140 vehicles worldwide from April to June, almost double the same period last year (254,695).

The vast majority of these sales were for Tesla’s popular Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossover SUVs.

However, the earnings report delivered mixed messages on one of the larger questions facing Tesla: whether the automaker’s rebate strategy can increase sales while preserving its profit margins. Tesla’s operating margin, which measures how efficiently it converts sales into pre-tax profits, fell to 9.6% in the April-June quarter, a notable decline from 14.6% a year earlier. The key figure also fell sharply in the January-March quarter.

While profitability and pricing pressures continue to weigh on Tesla, Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said he found some comments from management on cost controls optimistic and said the company’s overall performance remains solid.

“The long-term drivers of growth remain and there will only be short-term headwinds in the current environment that we are in,” he said.

On the company’s conference call with analysts, Musk praised the company’s performance despite high interest rates and what he called significant economic uncertainty, then quickly switched to the topic of Tesla’s advanced projects like its so-called “full self-driving” software.

Despite the name, software-enabled Tesla cars can’t drive themselves, and the company warns drivers to be ready to intervene at all times. Musk praised Tesla’s work on a new machine learning system called Dojo, which the company plans to use to improve its self-driving software.

Musk also said Tesla should deliver its long-promised Cybertruck — an unusual-looking pickup truck with an angular design that couldn’t look out of place in a Mad Max movie — by the end of the year. Tesla announced on Saturday that the first Cybertruck had rolled off the assembly line.

However, analysts aren’t convinced the vehicle will be widely available anytime soon, not least because other automakers have already unveiled conventional-looking electric pickups like the Ford F-150 Lightning.

“I don’t think we’re going to see significant volume, especially this year,” said Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar Research. “Not even next year. Maybe we’ll be looking more to 2025, 26, 27 until we see them.”

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed, or redistributed without permission.)

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One reason why you might want to attend an Ivy League college or similar college is to earn a higher income. As a parent, you hope your child attending an elite university will make them upwardly mobile. A better life is what every parent wants for their kids.

However, the median income earned by Ivy League graduates from U Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, and Brown is unimpressive in the beginning. For schools with single-digit acceptance rates, you’d think the median income earned would be much higher. Ivy League colleges are consistently ranked in the top 20 out of almost 4,000 colleges in America.

Before you find out how much the median income figure ten years after starting school is, take a guess at what it might be. $150,000? $200,000? $250,000+?

Median Income Earned By Ivy League Graduates

According to the Department of Education Scorecard, former Ivy League attendees who received federal aid earn a median of about $90,500 a decade after starting school.

The Scorecard is data used to help prospective students and their parents make more informed decisions about where to attend college.

Does $90,500 sound like an impressive income to you as a 28-32-year-old top university graduate? It’s OK, but it’s not blowing my socks off.

If you are to attend a top 0.375 percent university, then expectations are for you to make a top one percent income for your age group, not a top twenty five percent income.

A top one percent income for the 27-to-31-year-old age group was about $170,000 in 2014. For the 32-36-year-old age group it was about $210,000.

In 2023, assuming a three percent annual inflation since 2014, a top one percent income for the 27-to-31-year-old age group is about $222,000, and for the 32-36-year-old age group it is about $274,000.

$90,500 is quite a big shortfall for both age groups! The shortfall is even greater when compared to top 0.1% income earners by age.

Source: Professors Faith Guvenen, Greg Kaplan, Jae Song 2014

Median Income By Ivy League University

To get a little more granular, let’s look at the median income earned 10 years after attendance by Ivy League university according to the Department of Education Scorecard.

If you want to potentially make the most amount of money 10 years after attendance, attend the University of Pennsylvania with a median earnings of $103,246. U Penn is known for its business school and heavy focus on working in industries that pay the most.

If making the most money 10 years after attendance isn’t your top priority, then consider attending Brown University. Brown is famous for its open curriculum, where students have greater freedom to study what they want. Its graduates have a median earnings of $78,943.

1. University of Pennsylvania

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $103,246
• Average annual cost: $25,046
• Median debt at graduation: $16,763

2. Princeton University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $95,689
• Average annual cost: $9,836
• Median debt at graduation: $10,450

3. Dartmouth College

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $91,627
• Average annual cost: $32,410
• Median debt at graduation: $17,000

4. Cornell University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $91,176
• Average annual cost: $37,042
• Median debt at graduation: $14,500

5. Columbia University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $89,871
• Average annual cost: $22,823
• Median debt at graduation: $21,500

6. Yale University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $88,655
• Average annual cost: $15,296
• Median debt at graduation: $13,142

7. Harvard University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $84,918
• Average annual cost: $13,872
• Median debt at graduation: $12,665

8. Brown University

• Median earnings 10 years after attendance: $78,943
• Average annual cost: $29,544
• Median debt at graduation: $13,000

Data Is Only From Students Who Took Out Federal Loans

The one big caveat about the median earnings data is that it reflects only students who received federal student aid. Students and families who were able to pay for college without the need for federal financial aid were not included.

One can logically assume that those students and families who do not apply for federal financial aid are wealthier than students and families who do. Non-federal financial aid recipients may also be smarter, thereby receiving more merit scholarships and grants.

Below is data compiled by Elaine Huang from The Daily Princetonian that highlights 49% to 65% of Ivy League students applied for financial aid from 2016 – 2020.

As a result, perhaps the median income earned by Ivy League graduates after attending is higher. Wealthier people tend to have wealthy connections that help their kids get even wealthier.

It’s curious to see students from Brown, the university that has the lowest percentage of financial aid applicants, also has the lowest median earnings 10 years after graduation.

One could make the assumption that Brown students may come from the wealthiest families who need less financial aid. Given they come from wealthier families, their students can also afford to major in areas that don’t translate as often into jobs in the highest-paying industries.

Whereas with Penn, even though the percentage of students applying for financial aid is similar, its students focus heavily on joining the finance and management consulting fields. Companies like McKinsey & Co. and Goldman Sachs are at the top of their lists.

Mid-Career Earnings Of Ivy League Graduates And Non-Ivy League Graduates

The data from the Department of Education Scorecard was unsatisfactory to me. As a middle-aged man, I wanted to know how much Ivy League and non-Ivy League graduates earn more than 10 years after attending.

Searching further, I found more information by US News & World Report and PayScale that paints a clearer picture about pay differences.

Early-career (three years of work experience) median pay in 2022 was $86,025 for Ivy League graduates, compared to $58,643 for those who graduated from other universities. A 47% pay difference is significant.

Mid-career (20 years of work experience) median pay in 2022 was $161,888 for Ivy League graduates, compared to $101,777 for those from other institutions. A difference of $60,111 a year in gross annual pay difference (59%) 20 years after college is massive!

If two of these Ivy League mid-career professionals marry, they’ll have my well-documented $300,000+ household income. With a $300,000+ household income, they’re living a comfortable middle-class lifestyle in an expensive coastal city and an upper-middle-class lifestyle everywhere else.

Hence, to get the most out of your attendance at an Ivy League school or similar-level school, work a long time, make lots of great friends, and marry a fellow graduate.

Work Long Enough Post Graduation To Make Attendance Worthwhile

To increase your Return On Investment (ROI) attending an Ivy League or similar school, work as long as possible. Forsake the FIRE movement, which I helped ignite in 2009. The longer you work, the greater the earnings gap compared to non-Ivy League graduates.

However, lasting 20 years in one profession is hard. Personally, I could only last for 13 years in banking before I was burned out. Even with today’s greater work flexibility due to work-from-home and technology, I still might have lasted for only 20 years at most.

If you end up changing professions, you may have to take a large pay cut. A pay cut lowers your ROI, but at least you might be happier doing something new.

If you’re thinking about retiring early or taking things easier before age 40, then attending an Ivy League school may not be worth it, especially if you don’t get scholarships or grants.

The same logic goes for those who want to become doctors, professors, scientists, or lawyers. The more education required by a certain profession, the longer you should or may need to work.

Below is a chart that highlights mid-career median pay by Ivy League school. The likelihood of earning six figures a year in one’s 40s is high. As a parent, this should be comforting.

Source: USNWR and PayScale

Yes, A High Salary Isn’t Everything

Of course, earning the highest salary you can after college isn’t the most important thing to all students and families. Meeting great people, having an amazing time, and building a network of lifelong friends are equally important to some people. So is finding a soulmate.

But this is a personal finance site that is focused on input and output. Measuring the average income for new college graduates and graduates with decades of experience are important for making an informed decision about where and whether to attend college.

Having a great time in college and earning a high income after graduation are not mutually exclusive. You might as well get the best experience and the best financial returns from your investment. Because the more money you make, the more options you will have in the future.

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Occupation Profiles Of Select Ivy League Graduates

To get even more granular, I thought I’d profile recent Ivy League graduates to see what they are doing. Understanding the end goal will help us decide whether the effort is worth it.

Given there’s an upcoming Supreme Court decision on race and college admissions, I read a 2019 article by Jay Caspian Kang entitled, Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian Americans? The article profiled several Asian-American students at Ivy League schools.

Given it is four years later, I was curious to see what these graduates are doing now. Their occupations will also help give context to the $86,025 median income figure three years after graduating and the $90,500 median income figure 10 years after attendance in context.

Thang Diep (Harvard 2019)- Post graduate fellow at the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID). Thang is likely earning less than $86,025.

Sally Chen (Harvard 2019) – Education Equity Policy Manager at Chinese for Affirmative Action. Sally is likely earning less than $86,025.

Fatima Shahbaz (Harvard 2020) – Business Analyst at McKinsey & Co. Fatima is likely earning closer to $160,000.

Catherine Ho (Harvard 2021) – Graduate Student In Asian American Studies at UCLA. Catherine is definitely earning less than $86,025 as a student. When she graduates in 2023, she will likely also earn less then $86,025.

Alex Chen (Yale 2023) – Intern at Snap. Alex is still in school, but will likely earn more than $150,000 his first year out if he works as a software engineer.

One More Ivy League Occupation Profile And Some Reflection

Then I read a book written in 2019 entitled The Years That Matter Most – How College Makes Or Breaks Us, by Paul Tough. It’s a great book.

Tough highlighted a female student named Shannen Torres who got rejected by U Penn and Princeton, but got into Stanford.

After graduating in 2021 with a BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Religion, she got her Masters in Latin American studies. She now works as a Communications Coordinator at Climate Leadership Initiative in San Francisco. Her income is likely less than $86,025.

If I was the father of any of these college graduates, I’d be proud of what they are doing, no matter how much or how little they are making. I just want my kids to pursue a career that pays enough and brings them joy and meaning.

How would you feel if you were one of their parents?

And if these graduates decide to do something else down the road, they’ll easily be able to pivot.

Enjoy High School More

Given the median income earned 10 years after attendance is only $90,500 for an Ivy League graduate, high school students don’t need to worry as much about getting into a top 25 college anymore. There are likely 100 colleges that will provide for similar income and career opportunities as Ivy League colleges.

The increase in breadth of colleges able to provide similar opportunities should also help alleviate the stress parents feel too. I know it does for me.

But even if you don’t graduate from a top-100-ranked college, just graduating from college will help your earnings power.

According to the National Center For Education Statistics, the median annual earnings for 25-34-year-olds with a Bachelor’s degree is $59,600. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for all workers with Bachelor’s degrees is $69,368 in 2021.

Sure, the earnings difference between attending an Ivy League university and any one of the ~4,000 colleges in America is significant. But not such much if you attend a top 100 college. Further, making the most amount of money after graduating may not be a student’s priority.

If money was your priority, you’d get a major in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Pharmacy, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering, with average salaries over $100,000.

Go To An Affordable University

If you can attend an Ivy League school or a similar school with enough grants to make it affordable, go for it. If you can’t get in, don’t worry. Just select another university that offers you the lifestyle and major that you want at an affordable price.

Earning $90,500 as a 27-to-32 year old is nice. So is earning $161,888 twenty years after graduation, especially if you can marry a person with a similar income. But it is underwhelming if you went to a top one percent university.

Therefore, if you do attend an Ivy League school or a similar school, make sure you develop great relationships that can improve the quality of your life.

Focus On Building Things And Helping Others

If you don’t make great relationships or earn a corresponding top one percent income, then at least do something amazing. Create something new or do work that helps others.

Remember all the great extracurricular activities you were doing in high school to try and get into college? I bet the majority of those activities weren’t about making as much money as possible! Instead, many of your activities likely involved helping others.

Consider painting a masterpiece that gets picked up by the NYC Museum of Modern Art. Be a violinist at Carnegie Hall. Write a bestselling book that changes people’s lives. Reduce child hunger in your city. Invent a device that helps those with visual impairments see better. Or cure cancer already! Yes, someone please cure cancer.

If you do something amazing, you will likely get rewarded handsomely. The reward may not always be financial, but at least you will benefit spiritually.

Readers Questions and Suggestions

With the difficulty of getting into an Ivy League school, are you surprised Ivy League graduates don’t earn more? Why is there still so much demand to attend the top-ranked universities, when plenty of four-year accredited universities will do?

Looking to leave a soul-sucking job with money in your pocket? Pick up a copy of How To Engineer Your Layoff. It will teach you how to negotiate a severance so you have a financial buffer to do what you really want. Use the promo code ‘saveten‘ to save $10.

Join 60,000+ others and sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter and posts via e-mail. Financial Samurai is one of the largest independently-owned personal finance sites that started in 2009. 

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• Rebecca Möller said it seemed “impossible” to build homes in the Bay Area that people could afford.
• She started a company, Symbihom, that transforms otherwise industrial garages into livable spaces.
• She described how the homes both add much-needed rental housing and help homeowners make money.

This essay is based on a conversation with Rebecca Möller, 64, founder of Symbihom, a company that converts garages in the San Francisco Bay Area into apartments that homeowners can then rent to renters. In this part of California, these units are often referred to as additional residential units, or ADUs, because they are additional dwellings built on the same lot as the primary residence.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I started my company in 2020 after coming across a BBC article about how Berlin and London are trying to solve their housing shortage by converting garages into apartments.

I saw an opportunity to create a replicable, scalable model. So I designed a modular product that would fit in a garage and San Jose pre-approved it.

I got my first investors in May 2021 and then I built my first model. The walls are proprietary modular panels built externally by a prefab factory, with electrical and plumbing already installed. They snap onto a concrete floor and are then strapped on top. I use electricity and water from the house itself.

All elements that go into the unit, except for the walls, are then taken to a warehouse where they are combined into a capsule. Then they are transported to the location of the garage along with the wall panels and installed in the garage. All in all, once approved, it takes no more than four weeks to put the whole thing together.

My units have sold for $150,000 to $220,000. So far I’ve built four units — five more in the pipeline — across San Jose, San Mateo, and Mountain View.

Möller in one of the garages that have been converted into residential buildings. Suszi Lurie McFadden

My previous jobs prepared me to lead a real estate startup

I was born in North Texas. I went to the University of Texas-Arlington to get my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, but didn’t become a professional engineer. Instead, I started my real estate career in construction at a global cost consulting firm in Fort Worth. There I did an apprenticeship as a mass expert and calculator.

The first contractor I worked with was the largest in Dallas. I assembled 55-story buildings, mixed-use properties and hotels. Years later, I moved to Philadelphia to join the largest contractor in the metro area, working on data centers, operations centers, and hospitals.

I wrote all of the purchase agreements, cost controls and claims on the field at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. In 1997 I started my own business to oversee the interests of Fortune 500 companies and have worked for large corporations such as IBM and Verizon.

My career in commercial has taught me how to write a contract, hold people accountable and be fair. It’s really important to understand what needs to go into a number estimate. You really need someone at the table who has the knowledge to make a realistic estimate.

I moved to the Bay Area

I came to the Bay Area in 2017 to oversee some high rise residential projects for a commercial developer. Then I was brought in to do a feasibility study at a university that had been given a building by the state. The university planned to set up the project for its teachers and staff. It is a detailed analysis of a project, how much it will cost and how likely it is to be successful.

I realized that the project would cost about $1 million per unit to build, which could not generate a below-market solution for the university. Put simply, the rents didn’t pay for the project. In addition, I realized that the teachers and staff earned less than the region’s median income of $160,000 a year.

The exterior of one of Symbihom’s garage ADUs. Suszi Lurie McFadden

That was my aha moment. I started thinking about what I could do. That’s how it all started.

The living spaces I install are unique to each garage

To start, I go out and visit a homeowner, do an appraisal and take measurements on the garage. I have a really fancy laser scanning the room. Once we’re gone I’ll take an as-is of the inside of the garage to share with all my professionals.

My studio living unit is between 170 square feet and 400 square feet for a one car garage or a small two car garage. My one and two bedroom ADU can range from a 420 square foot unit in a large two car garage to a 1,200 square foot unit in a three car garage.

A representation of one of the two-room apartments that Symbihom is building. Courtesy of Rebecca Möller /Symbihom

All units have a full bathroom with shower, vanity and toilet. You also have a kitchen with a large fridge freezer, extractor hood and hob, quartz worktops, convection oven and sink.

The shower walls are also made of quartz, and there are dimmer switches in every room. The floors are cork and bamboo and the units have solid core barn doors.

There is also an 18-inch dishwasher in the kitchen and a tower washer-dryer in the one- and two-bedroom units.

I love building something beautiful and adding apartments at the same time

The most rewarding part of my business is making a quality product that allows my clients to earn extra income by renting out the unit.

I really started doing this to solve a problem. Sure, my goal is to sell units, but on the side I’m helping solve a problem while making a profit.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It’s an idea that’s sweeping the country: unconditional cash handed out on a monthly basis to families most in need. Universal basic income pilot programs are popping up all across the US But rarely do we get to follow a family and see the impacts these small amounts of cash can have on the recipients. ABC7 News followed one family from one basic income pilot for an entire year, here’s what we saw.

From chocolate to sugar cookies, scones and more Deisy Chan loves making sweet treats at the bakery she works at in the Mission.

The early days and long hours of standing can be tiring, but it’s all in support of her family.

We first met Deisy in November of 2021 when she and her family of four called a three-bedroom apartment in the Tenderloin home.

Before the pandemic, another couple lived with Deisy and her family and paid half the rent. But that family moved out during the pandemic leaving Deisy’s family with the entire bill.

RELATED: San Francisco launches new guaranteed income program for transgender community

Then, it was only Deisy, her husband Miguel Senior, and her two boys: 3-year-old Mateo and 13-year-old Miguel Jr.

Deisy speaks Spanish and an indigenous language native to Mexico. She spoke to us in Spanish as she prepared dinner for her boys.

“To live here is expensive,” she said. She’s paying more than $3,000 a month in rent now that the family moved out.

“It’s tough buying things for the kids because I have to save so much for rent,” she said.

But saving got easier for Deisy and financial burdens less stressful.

A month before we met her and her family, in October of 2021, she received $350 of unconditional cash.

The payment was the first of six monthly checks as part of a Basic Income Pilot program.

“It’s a great help,” she said.

She’s able to buy food for her family without worrying if she can afford it. Deisy told us her youngest is growing fast. Now she’s able to make sure he has the basics, thanks to the additional cash.

Deisy and her family were selected to be one of the 13 families enrolled in the basic income program run through Compass Family Services.

The San Francisco nonprofit has been around for more than 100 years, focused on safety net programs for families that are unhoused or on the brink of living without shelter.

Compass offers wrap-around services like food assistance and free childcare.

Deisy’s youngest, Mateo, is enrolled there. That’s how she heard of the program.

The program provided each family $350 a month for six months for a total of just $2,100.

VIDEO: Universal basic income for Californians? Assemblyman breaks it down

“A little bit of money can make a really big difference for the families,” said Erica Kisch, executive director of Compass Family Services. “The families are using these funds for basic needs.”

Kisch said the basic income pilot was made possible by a $35,000 grant from Wells Fargo.

She said the nonprofit surveyed the families before, during, and after the program concluded.

ABC7 News followed Deisy and her family for the six months of the program.

“One of the words (the families) used when they were describing how the funds impacted them was that it increased their calm… So the idea that families are so stressed out by their finances, or lack of finances, and that affects everything ,” said Kisch.

There are currently more than 100 active Basic Income programs being tested in all 50 states – most of them following the huge success of a program started in Stockton by former Mayor Michael Tubbs.

Tubbs now leads the group Mayors for a guaranteed income. The group is a network of dozens of mayors across the country that have pledged to test the idea of ​​a guaranteed income in their cities.

The locations range in size from major cities from San Francisco, Oakland, and Atlanta to smaller cities like Salisbury, Maryland.

A newly released report by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income shows that families surveyed from 20 guaranteed income programs primarily used the funds on necessities.

The report shows 39% of the fund’s recipients received was spent at discount superstores for clothes, food, household goods and hygiene products.

Another 27% of funds were spent at grocery stores, 9% on transportation costs including gas and car repairs, and 7% on housing utilities.

Other notable expenses included loan payments, medical expenses, and tuition.

RELATED: Oakland to launch universal income program

“If you’re worried about food to feed your children, pay your rent, pay your utilities, buy milk – that’s going to impact your mental health, that’s going to impact your ability to parent… So just the idea that we could reduce that tension-that stress-and support the families’ calm just feels like it’s certainly a good use of $350 a month,” she added.

Along with the six monthly payments of unconditional cash, the 13 families enrolled in this pilot program received additional help including access to family counseling and money management classes, much-needed help when you’re just one unexpected bill away from homelessness.

“The situation that they are facing is they cannot pay their rent or they cannot buy groceries or they cannot pay other bills,” said Gerardo Gonzalez, Compass Family Services family and community engagement coordinator.

That’s the exact situation Deisy and her family found themselves in when we checked in halfway through the program, some three months in.

We caught up with Deisy over Zoom as the entire family recovered from COVID.

She told us her husband was out of work for two weeks because he was still testing positive for COVID.

Paid sick leave through Deisy and her husband’s job kept the family afloat, but still sick, her husband couldn’t work his part-time job so money was tight.

Deisy said she’s unsure how they would have purchased groceries without the extra cushion from the program. She’s grateful for the assistance – and is already saving what she can. She’s planning ahead for when her family will no longer have that added help and hopes the family can move into a less expensive apartment to save even more.

Months later, we caught up with Deisy on a busy summer day as she picked up her youngest son from after-school care offered by Compass Family Services.

She’s grateful for this support along with the $350 of unconditional cash she’s received for the last six months.

With a sense of gratitude and emotion akin to guilt, Deisy told us she wishes even more families could receive this basic income on top of services like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) her two boys already receive.

Her wish is becoming reality as an increasing number of organizations and city governments across the Bay Area, and beyond, test out basic income programs.

The City of Mountain View, which started sending out $500 payments to more than one hundred families just days ago, is the latest city to test out a basic income in the Bay.

“We can definitely call the movement,” said Sean Klein, associate director of the Stanford Basic Income Lab. “I don’t think we ever thought we would be at this place even a few years ago.

Stanford’s Basic Income Lab was launched in 2017 to study the successes and roadblocks of basic income pilots across the country.

Early findings from the lab suggest families spent the money on necessities like rent and food – not drugs and alcohol.

Kline also noted the added assistance allowed adults to look for better-paying, full-time jobs and does not cause reliance on the program, a major argument by naysayers.

“The evidence suggests that unconditional cash is efficient. It’s swift. It’s much more powerful than in-kind assistance: food, even housing, because it gives people the agency and the means to make the choices they know are right for their family,” Kline added.

Kline points to recent examples of the government doling out unconditional cash at large scales as an example of the power these programs could have if applied more broadly.

Just think back to the several rounds of stimulus checks during the onset of the COVID pandemic from the federal government and the State of California.

Or look at the longest-standing basic income program in the country just to our north in Alaska with the “Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend”.

For nearly the last four decades residents of the state have received an annual lump sum payment of approximately $1,600. The money is generated through taxes on the state’s oil companies.

“Middle and upper-middle-class families receive a tremendous amount of in-kind, unconditional tax benefits from the government. We don’t call into question when someone’s able to write off the interest on their mortgage, we don’t ask them for a urine sample. And yet, when it comes to those who are really in dire straits and need support from the government, who they pay taxes to as well, we call into question their deservingness,” Kline said.

When we caught up with Deisy, just weeks after receiving the final check in the pilot program, it was in her new government-subsidized apartment.

She and her family moved in just weeks earlier and now they are able to save money on rent.

Deisy gave us a tour as little Mateo showed us what he’s most excited about in his new home: toys. Just like every other kid.

Deisy tells us the six months of unconditional cash has been significant. It allowed the family to be financially secure when her husband lost his job.

It even gave the family enough breathing room to save up to buy new beds and even pay for her 13-year-old to start playing soccer.

For most, these are the basics. For Deisy it’s the American Dream. Out of reach for so long, now possible with just a little extra help.

It’s a transformation of the organization behind the basic income pilot calls a “huge success.”

It’s been so successful, Compass plans to expand the program to many more families thanks to a newly awarded grant.

“Absolutely, we plan to do more of this,” said Kisch.

This is welcome news for Deisy who wants more families to get the help her family did.

“I’m thankful to God that he puts people in my path who want to help me,” Deisy said.

Now Compass plans to do the same for so many others.

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A pilot program scheduled to begin in May will guarantee more than 100 San Francisco artists $ 1,000 per month for six months after Stockton, Oakland and Marin Counties made similar efforts to help struggling residents during the pandemic support.

The Guaranteed Income Program, announced by Mayor London Breed on Thursday March 25th, is accepting applications from now until April 15th through the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts website.

“This program is one of several guaranteed income pilots we’re developing in San Francisco,” Breed told The Chronicle Recovery.

YBCA will administer the program and use a partially computerized system to determine eligibility to select 130 local artists, with the process being randomized in the later stages, said Deborah Cullinan, CEO of YBCA.

Deborah Cullinan, director of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, will help manage the funds under the new pilot program. Photo: Michael Short / Die Chronik

Qualifications for the program include being a San Francisco resident and being an artist “whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community” which, according to Cullinan, does not exclude anyone from any cultural or racial group, but rather underrepresented artists Encourage communities should apply.

Artists are defined as “someone who actively engages with the community through music, dance, creative writing, visual arts, performance art, installation, photography, theater or film,” according to the program’s website.

Teaching artists and art educators as well as “culturally influenced craftsmen and doers” can also apply.

Applicants must have income below certain income limits to qualify: For a single person household, the income limit is $ 60,900; for a two-person household, the combined limit is $ 69,600. These income limits were determined by researching the best practices of other guaranteed income programs across the country, including Stockton, where 125 residents were given $ 500 a month and showed improved quality of life, according to a study commissioned by the city.

“Ultimately, we want everyone in San Francisco to live healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives without worrying about how to pay rent or get food on the table,” said Breed. “I am committed to making San Francisco a fairer, more just, and prosperous city, and we are investigating this guaranteed income model to see if it can help us achieve these goals.”

The pilot program is led by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

The pilot program is a collaboration between the Office of Racial Equity at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, YBCA, Grants for the Arts, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. The program is funded from the Arts Impact Endowment, established by Proposition E, an action reallocated in 2018 1.5% of the existing 8% hotel tax on art and cultural services, i.e. money jointly managed by the Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts.

In developing the program, YBCA worked with organizations such as SOMA Pilipinas, the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, the Dance Mission Theater, the Galería de la Raza, the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company, the African American Art and Culture. together Complex and members of the Racial Equity in the Arts Working Group. Bay Area poets Tongo Eisen-Martin and Kim Shuck also worked closely with the groups involved for the pilot project.

“We talked about different ways we can reach BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), the disabled, LGBT, displaced and below the poverty line,” said Rodney Earl, co-founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company Jackson Jr “Many artists fall into these categories.”

The San Francisco native Tongo Eisen-Martin helped develop the new pilot program. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

The initiative is in line with the policy recommendations of the Economic Recovery Task Force of San Francisco, which the city issued in October 2020. The task force recommended identifying new sources of funding and revenue for the arts “to catalyze neighborhood recovery through the arts” and continue investing in color communities.

According to the San Francisco Arts Commission, the city’s creative sector generates $ 1.45 billion in economic activity annually and supports nearly 40,000 full-time jobs.

“COVID-19 has seriously threatened this important sector,” said Ralph Remington, the Commission’s director of cultural affairs, in a statement, “and the Guaranteed Income pilot is allowing artists to focus on their creative work through other programs like this one focus and support “the recovery of the industry as a whole.”

Cullinan said YBCA staff are prepared for a quick rollout despite an expected large influx of applications.

“We’ll be ready for direct deposits, writing checks to people, and working right away with people who don’t have a bank account,” she said.

After launching the pilot, YBCA plans to study the process and its impact on artists to see how the program can be better customized in the future.

“There are people living in difficult circumstances right now,” said Cullinan. “We want to act as quickly as possible to provide you with the resources you need.”

Apply: Visit www.ybca.org/guaranteed-income-pilot. The application deadline is April 15th.

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South San Francisco became the first city in San Mateo County to offer a guaranteed income program aimed at serving the city’s low-income and vulnerable populations.

The city council unanimously approved the continuation of the program – led by Vice Mayor Mark Nagales – during its July 14 session.

“Our neighbors are struggling to make ends meet. And many of them have an uncertain future, ”said Nagales. “I know we can do it and I know we can help our residents.”

The MTC has identified the city as a worrying community with low-income and needy neighborhoods prone to displacement, and the majority of the Latinx community lives in the two lowest-income census areas, said Christina Fernandez, assistant to the city manager.

The Guaranteed Income program provides $ 500 per month to over 135 eligible families for 12 months. The city will enter into a contract with the YMCA to administer the program. It prioritizes foster children who move out of care, single heads of household, families with underage children, and those living in the city’s lowest-income census blocks. If there are more than 135 applications, the program administrator will implement a lottery system.

“After we’ve made the targeted outreach that is at this stage of bringing in the people who might qualify for this program, we’ll sit down with each and every one of them,” said Jane Chandler, director of clinical services at YMCA of San Francisco, called.

Along with this comprehensive intake process, they will get financial literacy programs and various resources available to them as they learn more about how to budget money and find specific programs to qualify for, she said. Once they are deemed eligible, they will be given a card for their payments.

Fernandez and Chandler also compared the City of Stockton’s Universal Basic Income Experiment and found that the rate of participants who could find full-time employment rose from 28% to 40% and that less than 1% of those funds were used on alcohol and Tobacco.

“With this financial security, they could spend most of their money on essentials like groceries, housing and gas,” said Fernandez.

Nagales raised concerns about whether individuals might be disqualified if they are already participating in a state or federal program.

Since there is no universal waiver of guaranteed income programs in the state, they are working to figure out what the extensive admission process might make them ineligible or reduce their public benefits, Chandler said.

“We found that living had the biggest negative impact,” she said. “Because that income is considered income in the housing world, most guaranteed income programs have created innocuous funds. In that case, this fund could be used to pay that rent. “

She also said it could affect grocery stamps, and they’re investigating exactly how.

Councilor James Coleman said he was glad to see people previously incarcerated could apply for the program.

“You have a criminal record and cannot find work and then you have to resort to poverty crime,” he said. It’s a really endless cycle of poverty. And this would be a way to help people recently laid off get back on their feet and become members of our communities. “

And he brought up a 2017 study that found that 57% of Americans couldn’t afford an unexpected $ 500 emergency and pointed to the need for such a program.

Undocumented people are also entitled to this program. Even if someone doesn’t have Social Security or an I-10, they can get a savings account using CFR, Chandler said.

Mayor Mark Addiego said he wanted to raise funds to reach as many families as possible. The amount was increased from $ 800,000 to $ 1 million.

“If we can show success and show how it really changes people’s lives, maybe others will step in and find the motivation to continue this program beyond a year,” he said.

In doing so, data is collected. One is from CFR, which is the electronic data on how people spend money on the cards, and the other is self-reports and survey narrative questions to understand how people are spending the money and why, Chandler said.

People voluntarily choose to share this data and are compensated for it. Data collection occurs at the beginning of the program and occurs quarterly after six, 12 and 18 months after the last payment.

The city will fund the program with funds from the American Rescue Plan. The staff would like to conduct training and contact the community in July and August, and August to September would be an application period. It is expected to start in mid-October.

California lawmakers approved the first federally funded guaranteed income plan in the US on July 15 for a total of $ 35 million. The monthly cash payments go to qualified pregnant people and young adults who have recently left the foster family, with no restrictions on use. The city plans to apply for this state funding program.

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The city of San Francisco, in partnership with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), has announced that it will grant 130 local artists $ 1,000 per month for six months as the arts scene there and around the world continues amid the ongoing Covid- 19 crisis. Funding, which comes from a $ 870,000 city scholarship approved by the San Francisco Arts Commission late last year, is administered by the YBCA and is open to individuals in all areas of the arts including the visual arts, music, dance, creative writing, Film, theater and art education. Applications are accepted by April 15, recipients will be notified by April 20, and first payments will be made in May.

To qualify, applicants must be able to provide proof of residency in any of the thirteen of the twenty-seven San Francisco zip codes that are known to have the highest number of Covid-19 cases, as well as meet other criteria. Applicants must have an annual personal income of less than $ 60,900 and demonstrate that their practice is “rooted in a historically marginalized community,” according to the YBCA website. The financing is not tied to any conditions; Recipients don’t have to use the money to produce a project or show how they spent it.

“From the day the pandemic hit San Francisco, we knew this health crisis was going to hit artists, and painters in particular,” said San Francisco Mayor, London Breed. “The arts are really critical to our local economy and are an integral part of our long-term recovery. If we help the arts recover, San Francisco will recover. “

Districts where resident artists are eligible for the scholarship include the hard-hit Bayview and Mission. Latinos in the mission in particular have suffered as a result: Although they only make up 15 percent of the population there, Latin Americans are so far responsible for 41 percent of Covid-19 cases and 21 percent of deaths in the district.

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The Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, is proposing that the city introduce the first universal basic income program for transgender people as part of their budget for the next two fiscal years. Up to 150 attendees would receive $ 1,000 per month as part of the guaranteed income pilot for up to a year.

The program would cost $ 2 million over two years and be carried out in collaboration with the office of gay treasurer and tax collector José Cisneros. The selection of a community organization to coordinate with the city’s various transgender groups in recruiting and selecting applicants for the program will be the Mayor’s Office for Housing and Community Development under the direction of Gay Director Eric. D. Shaw.

“We will build on our guaranteed income pilot by adding a new program to pay members of our transgender community,” said Breed, who announced the program on June 1 to coincide with the start of Pride Month.

It is just one of the myriad LGBTQ-oriented programs included in their Budget Balanced Proposal for the budget years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The mayor released her budget on Tuesday June 1st at a ceremony at the newly renovated Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground in the city’s Chinatown.

Another new program that Breed is targeting for $ 900,000 in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, is to launch an LGBTQ senior telemental health program and expand senior digital access services. It is expected to provide services for up to 500 LGBTQ seniors while providing mental health resources for those who have become increasingly isolated, depressed, and anxious due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clair Farley, a transgender woman who is mayor and executive director of the city’s transgender initiatives office, told the Bay Area reporter that the idea for the universal basic income program came from her office’s transgender advisory board. The city hopes to start the program this October.

“We have been working over the past year to develop visions of how we can create more stability in the community, especially in the face of the aftermath of the pandemic, and how we can build a stronger safety net and foundation for the community,” Farley said. “The idea of ​​universal income was born to ensure people had access to food and shelter, as well as all basic health and mental health needs.”

Transgender people, who have been hardest hit by the COVID pandemic, will be prioritized for the program, with black and Latin American transgender women being a special priority, as well as people who may need assistance navigating benefits and financial literacy, said Farley.

“There will be a comprehensive program in partnership with the Treasurer’s Office to provide financial education and coaching,” she said.

Cisneros told the BAR his office was “proud” to be part of the pilot program.

“We work a lot with the mayor and project leaders to distribute the funds,” he said. “I believe these Basic Income Pilots are vital to learning how we can help people with financial difficulties get support and thrive.”

Applicants who are segregated from other available benefits for various reasons will also be preferred, Farley added.

“This pilot is a good opportunity to build more self-sufficiency and economic mobility if someone wants to go back to school or may not have access to other benefits due to immigration status or discrimination in the workforce,” she said.

As for the new telemedicine program for LGBTQ seniors, the city’s Department of Disability and Aging and Services will launch the call for proposals from community groups to manage. The idea came from a senior LGBT task force that convened again last year to help the city meet the needs of LGBTQ seniors during the health crisis, Farley said.

“The mayor really wanted to give our seniors a priority in recovery and consider how we can build stronger crisis support systems in the future and also make sure we fill those gaps,” she said.

According to the mayor’s office, Breed’s budget is set to respond to the city’s most pressing needs at $ 13.1 billion for FY 2021-22 and $ 12.8 billion for FY 2022-23 as they move along To recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic is advancing while maintaining long-term financial sustainability. Requesting cuts in the city departments was avoided as a projected deficit did not materialize due to the surprising strength of the economy despite the health crisis.

“San Francisco has demonstrated our values ​​and resilience over the past year, and I have no doubt that we will return even stronger from COVID-19,” said Breed. “As we move out of the pandemic, this budget will ensure our recovery is fair and that we provide solutions to key issues affecting our city. We are making significant investments to reduce homelessness, expand mental health support, and support the general public. ”Ensuring safety and addressing the social inequalities exposed by this pandemic, while making responsible choices that preserve our budget reserves we can continue to provide critical urban services and support to our vulnerable residents no matter what lies ahead.

It includes $ 1.8 million to continue the city’s Trans Home SF program, which provides rent subsidies and transitional housing for transgender people, Farley noted, as well as funding a program that supports LGBTQ people who are entering for the first time Buy your own home. The $ 2.2 million reinvested by the city police in violence prevention programs and re-entry efforts for former incarcerated black trans women will be retained in the mayor’s draft budget.

Farley said her office is still awaiting news from various city authorities about what LGBTQ-specific programs they have proposed for funding over the next two years. And she noted that the mayor’s budget proposals for arts grants, emergency housing, rent repayment assistance, family and youth programs, and small business investments will benefit the LGBTQ community as well.

“We’ll be getting details on certain line items in the next week or so,” she said.

By the end of June, the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the Board of Supervisors will hold public hearings on the budget and make recommendations to the full board. In July, managers will vote on the budget and then send it back to Breed for approval, usually by August 1st.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, visit http://www.ebar.com Monday morning for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column returns Monday, June 7th.

Stay up to date with the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes

Do you have a tip about LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email m.bajko@ebar.com

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