CHICAGO (CBS) — Town’s first ever assured fundamental revenue program will launch in April, with a lottery to find out which 5,000 low-income households in Chicago will get month-to-month $500 checks for one yr.
“Immediately’s announcement is all about supporting our residents who’re nonetheless struggling to make ends meet,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot stated in an announcement. “Our revolutionary, month-to-month money help program will assist to stabilize and make sure the wellbeing of residents which were struggling each earlier than and throughout the pandemic. I’m devoted to persevering with to carry aid to our metropolis’s hardest-hit communities and look ahead to rolling out this new initiative as quickly as doable alongside our latest fines and costs reforms and different Chicago Restoration Plan priorities.
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The Metropolis Council authorized a $31.5 million fundamental revenue pilot program as a part of Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion funds plan for 2022, and the mayor introduced Thursday the town will start accepting functions for this system in April at chicago.gov/cashpilot. Extra info is out there now at that web site, together with the choice to join an alert when functions can be found.
To qualify for this system, residents will need to have lived in Chicago for no less than one yr, be 18 years outdated or older, have skilled financial hardship as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, and have a family revenue under 250% of the federal poverty degree. That’s $57,575 for a household of three, in keeping with the mayor’s workplace.
Town is searching for a non-profit group to run this system and conduct outreach for enrollment within the assured revenue pilot. Metropolis officers additionally will accomplice with the College of Chicago’s Inclusive Financial system Lab to guage the impression of this system.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) proposed a assured fundamental revenue program final April, however his proposal was bottled up in committee after members of the Metropolis Council Black Caucus known as for a plan for the town to first pay reparations to the descendants of slaves.
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Lightfoot additionally opposed the thought on the time Villegas launched it, however later included a assured revenue program in her 2022 funds plan.
Meantime, in April the town additionally will launch a $4.8 million program to supply one-time $500 to home staff, in addition to a $10.7 million fund to supply one-time $500 funds to Chicagoans who had been excluded from earlier federal COVID-19 aid funds, together with undocumented immigrants.
Town additionally will kick off the mayor’s latest program to ease the burden of site visitors and parking tickets on low-income drivers.
Low-income motorists can be allowed to get rid of outdated ticket debt by paying off the unique nice quantity of tickets which have piled up over the past three years, with out curiosity or different late charges. Tickets older than three years can be forgiven.
For many who enroll in this system, they’ll repay any new tickets at 50% of the unique penalty, and curiosity and different penalties is not going to start to accrue till December 2023.
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Town additionally will launch a “fix-it” program for expired metropolis stickers or license plate stickers, permitting drivers 30 days to buy the required sticker inside 30 days of getting a ticket with out having to pay the penalty.