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Category: Louisville

  • How $500 a month in guaranteed income is changing young people’s lives in Louisville

    By: Bailey Loosemore

    It felt like winning the lottery.

    Weeks after a friend suggested she apply for a new Louisville program for young adults, Tashonna learned she’d been picked to receive $500 each month for a year — support that couldn’t have come at a better time as she pursued a psychology degree while helping out her family.

    The program is a guaranteed income pilot led by Metro United Way, which will distribute $900,000 total to 150 young adults in three Louisville neighborhoods through March, with no requirements for how the money is spent.

    And when she heard she’d been selected to take part, “the first thing that came to my mind was just pure joy,” said Tashonna, 24, who requested her last name not be published because some guaranteed income recipients have been harassed.

    Background: Guaranteed income programs are expanding across the nation. What can Louisville expect?

    Six months in, people involved with the program say it’s already having positive effects for the predominantly Black, low-income individuals receiving the money.

    One participant was able to move his haircutting business out of his home and into a professional space, said Colleen Reilly, project manager for economic mobility with Metro United Way.

    Another was able to start a construction certification course while expanding his yard maintenance business. And Tashonna was able to take on added family responsibilities without dropping classes at the University of Louisville.

    “The extra $500 does take a lot of stress off of you,” Tashonna said.

    “It gives you a really big cushion to just like make those decisions. If I have $500, do I still need another job or is this enough for me?”

    Louisville’s pilot is one of 30 selected for funding from Mayors For A Guaranteed Income, a group of city leaders advocating for a nationwide program that could help people pursue education or job opportunities by relieving their immediate financial strains through unrestricted payments.

    Such programs, proponents say, can help stop the cycle of poverty that disproportionately impacts Black residents by enabling people to reach their full potential.

    “This is part of our trust-based philanthropy model we’re leaning into,” Reilly said. “We trust individuals to know what they and their families need the most and that they will spend the money according to what they need.”

    Metro United Way and Mayors For A Guaranteed Income have split the $900,000 needed for Louisville’s program, while Louisville Metro Government contributed $100,000 toward administrative expenses.

    Metro United Way is tracking participants’ spending and outcomes, in coordination with other pilot programs. And Reilly said the nonprofit anticipates releasing an evaluation in early 2024.

    Louisville’s program — known as YA Lift! — was open to young adults ages 18 to 24 in three majority Black, high-poverty neighborhoods: Russell, Smoketown and California.

    More than 1,000 people applied for the program, and 150 were randomly selected to receive payments.

    According to program data, 91% of the recipients are Black, 4% are white and 5% identify as another race. Their average age is 21 and average household size is three.

    Maya White, a senior associate at Cities United, which partnered with Metro United Way on the pilot through Russell: A Place of Promise, helped develop Louisville’s program and said it’s an important step toward “investing in our future leaders.”

    ‘It’s been there too long’: Why some fear redesign isn’t enough to end Ninth Street divide

    Young adults in communities stifled by systemic racism and high poverty rates often don’t have the financial support they need to take risks or pursue careers that can change their income trajectory, White said.

    “So this is us providing an income lift or some cushion to say take care of your basic needs, and if there’s an opportunity for you to reach your potential, then do that,” she said.

    “… That’s what young people deserve.”

    Kal Carey, chief operating officer for YouthBuild, another partner in the pilot, met Tashonna through the program and said he’s already noticed a difference in “her spirit.”

    “She’s already a fine young person,” he said. “But I think it’s supported her motivation. It’s increasing esteem, reducing anxiety. People may not understand the level of anxiety young people face in getting their lives started.”

    Tashonna now works with YouthBuild’s Urban Conservation Corps, along with a second job at the University of Louisville and delivering food in her spare time.

    She said she hopes by the end of the program she’s found one job that pays enough to cover all her needs. And she hopes the program continues for others in similar positions.

    “When you think about whether we should have the $500 or not, think about your community and how you would want it to look,” she said. “Would you want it to be full of unhappy people with strife and struggle? Or would you want people to live peacefully?”

    This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.

  • Protesters and Lawmakers Demand Justice for Breonna Taylor One Year Later

    A crowd of local protesters and members of Until Freedom lead a march from Jefferson Square Park on March 13, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky.

    Hundreds rallied in downtown Louisville, Kentucky and marched through the streets on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was gunned down in her own home by city police officers — none of whom have been charged for her death.

    “This is not a celebration. This is the anniversary of something that should not have happened,” one speaker said at a Louisville event, where Taylor’s family, racial justice activists, and ordinary members of the community gathered to mourn the loss of Breonna and demand action from lawmakers and police departments beyond the small-scale reforms that followed the March 2020 killing.

    While Louisville in June banned no-knock raids of the kind that led to Taylor’s death, local activists say far more needs to be done to hold the officers responsible for Taylor’s death accountable, rein in law enforcement abuses, and remedy longstanding racial injustices. But the Kentucky state legislature, controlled by Republicans, is currently more focused on passing legislation to criminalize insulting police officers.

    “This is about justice. This is about our power to change this world for our children, for my daughter,” Sadiqa Reynolds, president of the Louisville Urban League, told a crowd of demonstrators on Saturday. “This is so we make sure that not another person dies at the hands of the police.”

    Kentucky state Democratic Rep. Attica Scott, the lead sponsor of legislation that would ban no-knock raids statewide, told NPR ahead of Saturday’s events that in the 365 days since Taylor’s killing, “justice has not been served.”

    “Folks on the front lines are very clear that they are continuing to call for all of the officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s murder to be fired, arrested, and charged for her murder,” said Scott. “They have not wavered from those demands.”

    Two officers connected to the raid on Taylor’s home — including the detective who investigators found fired the shot that killed Taylor — were terminated earlier this year. Brett Hankison, another officer involved in the raid, was fired last June and later charged with three counts of “wanton endangerment” for shooting into an apartment unit near Taylor’s.

    Hundreds of protesters, meanwhile, have been arrested at demonstrations demanding justice for Taylor and accountability for the officers who killed her.

    “I can’t believe it’s a year later and we’re still just asking people to do the right thing,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in an interview earlier this week. “Not to say all officers are bad, but there’s no accountability.”

    Lawmakers at the national level also marked the anniversary of Taylor’s killing on social media.

    “Today marks 365 days of injustice. Breonna Taylor’s murder was an injustice. The ensuing cover-up was an injustice. [Kentucky Attorney General] Daniel Cameron’s mockery of a grand jury hearing was an injustice,” tweeted Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). “The absence of charges for the officers who gunned down Breonna was an injustice. The treatment of protesters in Louisville and across the country was an injustice.”

    “That people no longer say Breonna Taylor’s name as often as they should is an injustice,” Bush continued. “A Black woman was murdered by the police in her home, in the middle of the night, and nothing has fundamentally changed. That’s why we won’t stop saying her name. That’s why we have to legislate in defense of Black lives in Congress.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.