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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, According to 2018 Census estimates, in Atlanta's
3Old Fourth Ward, the neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr.
4grew up and later preached, 37 percent of Black children live
5in poverty while no white children do; and
 
6    WHEREAS, As the Old Fourth Ward has quickly gentrified
7over the last two decades, nearly half of the remaining Black
8households are living on less than $25,000 a year; and
 
9    WHEREAS, This trend of disproportional poverty among
10racial lines along with gentrification is happening across the
11country; and
 
12    WHEREAS, In Georgia, Black women make 63 cents for every
13dollar that white men make; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Later this year, the Old Fourth Ward will become
15home to one of the largest guaranteed income experiments in
16the U.S. and the largest to ever specifically focus on Black
17women; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The GRO Fund is partnering with GiveDirectly, a
19nonprofit that has been giving unconditional cash transfers to
20people living in poverty for a decade, to run the program,

 

 

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1which will later expand to predominantly Black suburban and
2rural areas in Georgia; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The In Her Hands program plans to enroll 650
4Black women who will be randomly divided into two groups, one
5getting $850 a month for two years and the other receiving an
6upfront payment of $4,300, followed by recurring $700 monthly
7payments; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The new program will test whether it is more
9helpful to give a larger sum of cash initially rather than a
10monthly payment alone; and
 
11    WHEREAS, When the program expands to rural parts of
12Georgia, it will also help organizations understand the value
13of cash transfers in another setting, since most programs in
14the U.S. have happened in cities so far; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The lessons from the project could help inform
16better policy, support a redesigned social safety net, and
17help make the case for a federal guaranteed income program;
18and
 
19    WHEREAS, There is ample evidence that giving out cash,
20with no strings attached, can be transformative; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In a village in Kenya, the first place that
2GiveDirectly worked, recipients have used the money to pay for
3food and healthcare, to start businesses, and to let their
4children attend school instead of working; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In Houston, the nonprofit distributed prepaid
6debit cards after Hurricane Harvey; this is arguably the most
7efficient way to make sure that people get what they actually
8need following a disaster, rather than the usual model of
9handing out donations of clothing or laptops that may or may
10not be useful; and
 
11    WHEREAS, In Stockton, California, one of a handful of
12cities that have tried a basic income experiment for
13low-income residents, recipients spent money on basic needs
14like food and utilities and, unsurprisingly, experienced more
15stability in their lives; more people were able to work or
16become involved in their communities; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Having a predictable flow of money not only helps
18people living near the poverty line with day-to-day needs but
19also provides stability when faced with surprise financial
20costs, such as medical bills; and
 
21    WHEREAS, In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last book Where
22Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, he wrote "The solution

 

 

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1to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed
2measure: the guaranteed income"; therefore, be it
 
3    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
4HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
5we support the creation of a guaranteed income pilot program
6for women at or below the poverty line in the communities of
7East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights; and be it further
 
8    RESOLVED, That this guaranteed pilot program should be
9funded by the Department of Human Services through cannabis
10revenue; and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
12delivered to the Department of Human Services.