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San Francisco has launched a new pilot program offering guaranteed monthly income to a number of low-income transgender residents of the city, Mayor London Breed announced on Wednesday.
Known as the Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (G.I.F.T.) program, the new plan will provide “economically marginalized transgender people with unrestricted, monthly guaranteed income as a way to combat poverty our most impacted community members face,” according to its official website.
Specifically, the website states that the monthly guaranteed income of $1,200 a month for up to 18 months will be granted to 55 low-income transgender residents.
Those residents will receive the funds via a pre-loaded debit Visa card which will be reloaded every month.
The program is being run by the Transgender District, which was founded by three black transgender women, and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, in partnership with municipal city departments in the City and County of San Francisco.
Applications Close in December
Applications for the program are open from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, 2022, and applicants must be age 18 years or over and identify as transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, or intersex.
Individuals who apply for the program must also not be receiving more than $600 a month in income, must be living in the City and County of San Francisco, and must be willing to complete a survey every three months aimed at helping to improve the program.
The program will prioritize enrollment of “transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex 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 website states.
The program will run for 18 months from January 2023 to June 2024 and participants will not have to report to officials exactly what they are spending the money on.
Participants will also receive gender-transition treatment, mental health care, and an array of other benefits, according to multiple reports.
Inflation Hits American Families Hard
The program comes as inflation has soared across the country, impacting American households, which are facing increasingly costly energy bills and having to fork out more for everything from food to accommodation.
A report from The Heritage Foundation published on Nov. 10 found that working families have lost $6,100 in real annual income under “Bidenflation.”
“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, a Democrat, said in a statement. “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.”
This is not the first time that San Francisco has launched programs aimed at low-income residents.
Last year, the city rolled out a Guaranteed Income Pilot Program for artists aimed at “dismantling structural racism and oppression” in “the everyday lives of artists of color, their families, neighborhoods, and communities.”
In 2020, Breed announced the launch of a pilot program providing a basic income to black and pacific islander women during pregnancy.
According to a 2015 U.S. survey (pdf) of 27,715 transgender people across the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas, 29 percent of respondents reported living in poverty.
