Online application opens for Palm Springs Universal Basic Income pilot program

Ema Sasic and Paul Albani-Burgio, Palm Springs Desert Sun
·4 min read
Transgender flags are visible in front of Palm Springs City Hall during the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Nov. 20, 2022.

Palm Springs residents are now able to apply for the Palm Springs Universal Basic Income pilot program.

Queer Works and DAP Health's UBI pilot program, funded by the city of Palm Springs, will provide 30 Palm Springs residents with a monthly cash payment of $800 for 18 months. The city is providing $500,000 for the program, according to Queer Works' website.

The application can be found at https://v66gaifb115.typeform.com/to/pjTL7UZB

The program will serve:

  • Clients of DAP Health and/or Queer Works, or those who enrolled in one of the organizations by March 14

  • Those whose incomes are up to 30% of Riverside County's median income, equating to less than $16,600 per year for a single-person household

  • Live, work at least part-time or spend a majority of their day in Palm Springs

The application will be open until March 25. Initially, the program was limited to transgender and nonbinary residents, but it is currently open to anyone.

The application begins by asking people to provide their name and contact information, as well as their preferred name and pronouns. It then asks several questions related to the criteria, including the applicant's income, whether they currently receive any government assistance and whether they are a client of DAP Health. The final few questions ask about whether the applicant is willing to participate in the required data collections, orientations, surveys and meetings with a benefits counselor required for participation in the program. It also asks when in the month the applicant would prefer to receive their disbursement.

Randomly selected participants will be notified between March 28 and 30, with enrollment and benefits counseling to take place in April. The first payment will be sent on May 15.

Queer Works and DAP Health will be working with Health Assessment and Research for Communities, Inc. to track the program's impact on participants’ lives and overall well-being. Program participants must agree to be part of the study, which will include monthly surveys and data collection.

According to a press release, the program is part of a larger effort by Queer Works, DAP Health and councilmember Christy Holstege to address economic and social challenges that low-income individuals and families in Palm Springs face.

For more information about the UBI pilot program, visit www.queerworks.org/ubi.

The Palm Springs city council voted 3-2 last summer to provide $500,000 in funding for the program. Former City Councilmember Geoff Kors, who voted yes, said he supported funding the program because it would provide a local test of programs that provide money to people without the layers of bureaucracy that typically come with other programs that provide financial assistance to struggling people.

Then-Mayor Lisa Middleton, meanwhile, said she was voting against it, because she did not believe guaranteed income programs would be able to "scale up enough" to provide effective and viable long-term solutions for poverty. Then-councilmember Dennis Woods also voted no, saying he felt the city was already spending big on services for people in poverty, including the planned homeless navigation center, and did not think it should prioritize a program that would help a relatively small group of people.

Woods, meanwhile, said he thinks the city is already spending big on services for people in poverty, including the homeless navigation center that's under development. Given that, he said, the city should not prioritize providing so much funding that would benefit a relatively small group of people.

That vote came after the council unanimously voted to allocate $200,000 to fund the process to put together an application to apply for $2 million from the state, which DAP Health and QueerWorks representatives were seeking to help fund the program.

The program, and the city's support of it, also generated national controversy, much of which was focused on DAP Health and Queerworks' initial pitch for a program that would only provide funds to transgender and nonbinary residents. Right-wing media personalities and outlets, including Fox News' Tucker Carlson, criticized and mocked the program, while publications such as The Washington Post and NPR also ran stories.

At the time the city allocated the $500,000, the organizers said the program would no longer be focused exclusively on transgender and nonbinary people, and that anyone who made under $16,600 a year and lived in Palm Springs could now be eligible.

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic. Paul Albani-Burgio covers breaking news and the City of Palm Springs. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and via email at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Application opens for Palm Springs Universal Basic Income pilot program