One Texas native is making the case for guaranteed income as advocates encourage the pilot program to become permanent.
Speaking to Fox News Digital about her experience as a recipient of the program, Austin native Taniquewa Brewster says she was supported through a critical transition period in her life and was able to get things together as a result.
“It helped me start out — it gave me time to take care of things that I needed to take care of. It’s hard when you’re working 40 hours a week, and you have five children,” she said. “I have five kids, and I am trying to make time to do other things, fighting for these basic human rights. I didn’t have a car at the time. I was using my sister’s car. She was making sure that I got from point A to point B, doctor’s appointments, helping, looking out, taking care of my children.”
As she was trying to juggle the responsibilities in her life, she was told about the Austin guaranteed income program.
“She was like, there are a lot of people that are going to be put in the lottery, so there’s no guarantee that you’re going to chosen,” the woman explained. “I got a call, and they were like, well, you were chosen for the guaranteed income pilot program. You’ll get $1,000 for one year … there’s no oversight, so, what you choose to do with the money is up to you.”
“I had lost my job. We were at the height of COVID,” Brewster pointed out. “That thousand dollars just came right in time, and it helped me in so many things in so many ways. And so now I’m fully employed.”
The program was launched in 2022 and utilizes taxpayer funds to help those who are selected for assistance. It aims to help those at risk of falling into poverty to better their lives and make use of systems designed to help people up, rather than funding
“The guaranteed income program received $1.1 million in taxpayer funding and an additional amount of $500,000 raised in philanthropic donations for the program. The program started out issuing $1,000 monthly checks to 85 households who were at risk of losing their homes,” Fox News reported.
“I was able to go back to school–finish an education. I became a certified leasing assistant–became a certified doula,” Brewser continued, adding that many people in the program were in similar situations as she was before she was selected, where she lived in an “underserved, low-income, marginalized neighborhood” impacted by “gentrification.”
“So many people were on fixed incomes. We just needed the resources. We were so underserved for so long. And it just helped us to realize that we do deserve things … That money really helped me to make the choices that I needed to make to grow. And I’ve seen the growth from being a part of the guaranteed income program.”
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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