- Instead of eliminating poverty, the "War on Poverty" has become a war on the poor.
- We must listen to what poor people say they need. After all, they are the ones fighting poverty.
- Guaranteed-income programs are the bold intervention we need to increase economic mobility.
- Jorge O. Elorza is the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
In January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the beginning of our country's "War on Poverty" by saying, in part: "Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it."
Johnson's war was ambitious, radical, and intensely optimistic about what we, as a nation, could achieve. It imagined that every American would be offered the stability and opportunities we all need to thrive.
Yet in the intervening decades, the War on Poverty has instead become a war on the poor. Instead of providing low-income members of our community with the opportunity and stability that Johnson imagined, our society has largely mistaken our neighbors in need of help for the enemy itself.
If we are to advance in the War on Poverty, we must first have a clear-eyed understanding of what it is: Poverty and economic instability are the results of systemic underinvestment in marginalized communities, not individual failures. They are systemic failures, and they require bold interventions, not bootstraps or bandages.
We must also be clear about who the frontline fighters in this war are: not politicians or policymakers but the people living in poverty. As the frontline soldiers in this war, these people, families, and communities are the experts on the enemy and what it will take to defeat it. We should listen carefully to the expertise they bring to the table and make sure to provide the resources they tell us they need.
This is why I announced the launch of the Providence Guaranteed Income pilot program, which will provide $500 a month for one year to 110 Providence households living in poverty. The pilot, which is entirely philanthropically funded, will be rigorously evaluated by researchers at the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania to help us understand the influence this assistance has on recipients and their communities.
The power of guaranteed income
Guaranteed-income pilots in places like Stockton, California, have demonstrated the power of guaranteed income as an anti-poverty tool. The study in Stockton found — predictably — that recipients of guaranteed income experienced significantly fewer fluctuations in their month-to-month income and greater ability to handle a financial emergency. It also helped us to zoom out and see how poverty becomes one of the biggest barriers to economic mobility.
After one year, recipients of guaranteed income experienced significant improvements to their physical health, as well as a boost to their mental health that is comparable to the clinical effect of antidepressants. That means recipients had more capacity to work, pursue job-development opportunities, and help their children with their education — all crucial activities for both intra- and intergenerational economic mobility.
Moreover, over the course of the first year of the study, the number of recipients employed full time grew 12%, compared with only 5% in a control group. With $500 a month, people were able to secure more reliable transportation to get to work, enroll their children in more consistent childcare, and take time off from their jobs to seek out better opportunities.
Guaranteed income by no means led people to work less. Rather, it gave people the tools they needed to get over the barriers to stable, full-time income that kept them trapped in poverty. Once recipients were able to stabilize their finances, they could begin building the futures they wanted for themselves, their families, and their communities. I firmly believe low-income residents of Providence deserve this same opportunity.
Sixty years ago, Johnson told the nation that the cause of poverty lied "in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities." Since then, our wealth has continued to grow, but too many members of our community are kept from developing their own capacities by poverty's own barriers. Guaranteed income offers us a way to deliver on Johnson's promises — a way to not just relieve the symptoms of poverty but also cure and prevent it. Not surprisingly, that way starts by trusting and empowering the people who are already fighting the war on poverty every day.