Our community is stronger when we rise up together
At Hamilton Families, we believe our community is stronger when we rise up together to meet our collective challenges—and housing is right at the top of that list. Investing in diverse solutions like Rapid Re-Housing and guaranteed basic income helps us address issues like homelessness, affordable housing, and economic instability.
It’s that belief which has me fixated on a situation that took place a couple of months ago. A single mom in our Rapid Re-Housing program had her car towed and her case manager reached out to look for ways to pay the $500 fee to have her car returned to her from the impound lot. Unfortunately, we don’t have the means to support families with those kinds of requests, but we were able to secure funds from local donors over the next three days. But over those three days, the cost of retrieving her car had doubled.
Now, let’s think about the many factors that complicate what could have been a simple challenge to solve.
First, there’s the 200% “poverty tax” that this mom had to pay to have her car returned to her.
Secondly, fines and fees like these disproportionately impact low-income People of Color, which describes 80% of the families we serve.
Third, the average income for families entering our Rapid Re-Housing program is $1,500 a month, which means that many of our families struggle to provide basic necessities like food, clothing, transportation, and rent.
In this situation, had we been able to provide this mom with a guaranteed basic income safety net, she would have been able to use those funds to retrieve her car without seeking any intervention from our staff.
It is a simple fact, this car tow could have completely snowballed into disaster, potentially preventing this mother from getting to work or taking her child to daycare, and possibly causing her to lose both her livelihood and her housing. I'm grateful for my staff who build deep relationships with families in our programs and were able to manage this and many other situations to ensure that families remain stable during and after our program. I'm also grateful for donors who support in times of need and who invest in our big ideas and plans for the future.
You and I know that the Bay Area has an incredible record of social innovation and problem-solving. We can lead the way to a future where people have stable homes and are free to pursue their dreams, raise their families, and build the lives they want to live. We won’t get there right away, but we have to start now.
In community,
Kyriell Noon
CEO Hamilton Families
In the words of families and caregivers themselves come stories of hope =>
Giving families agency with Guaranteed Basic Income
With grant support from Google.org, J-PAL North America’s Bay Area Evaluation (BAE) Incubator supports Bay Area service providers with implementing and evaluating cash transfer programs to assess their impact on homelessness and housing stability.
In part four of the BAE Incubator partner series, Hamilton Families reflects on our experiences as an Incubator partner. Chris Constantine, our Director of Data & Evaluation, explains the difference a guaranteed monthly income could make for our participants.
The countdown begins! Soon we'll celebrate with you at our Annual Benefit Block Party 🎉
Dance alongside our CEO Kyriell Noon and help us ensure families in our community stay stably housed as we continue to help hundreds of families move into permanent housing in the coming year!