Taking A Look at Palm Springs’ New UBI Program for Trans & Non-Binary Residents

According to a study conducted by UCLA’s Williams Institute, "LGBT people collectively have a poverty rate of 21.6%, which is much higher than the rate for cisgender straight people of 15.7%." That stat compounds even more for the transgender community, with a poverty rate of 29.4%. Because of this, Palm Springs, CA, one of the Queer meccas in America, has decided to pilot a test program granting a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to trans and non-binary members of the Palm Springs community. Here is our breakdown of what the program means, and how it can be improved upon.

Let’s start by defining Universal Basic Income. UBI’s are government programs where every adult citizen receives a set amount of money at regular intervals (usually once a month). The goals of UBI’s are essentially twofold: to replace need-based social programs that require process-slowing bureaucratic involvement, and to help alleviate poverty. Both are admirable goals, to be sure, but the fine-tuning of the details is what will make or break a program like this.

The program was proposed by Palm Springs councilwoman Christy Holstege and there are a few things that make this program different than other need-based programs. First is that this program is directed specifically at LGBTQ+ people. That’s unfortunately less common than one would expect, given the statistically higher rate of poverty and hunger in the LGBTQ+ community. The other reason this program is different than many is that there are zero restrictions on how people can use the help. In contrast for example, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP -- formerly known as “food stamps”) places some limits where you can use the money and what you can buy.

But where does the money come from? To start, this is joint-force operation between Desert AIDS Project (DAP) and Queer Works. Both are Coachella Valley (where Palm Springs is located) organizations that try to help the Queer community. According to DAP’s website, their goal is “to ensure people living in the Coachella Valley with HIV and AIDS lead healthy and happy lives, by receiving the comprehensive and compassionate care every human being deserves.” Queer Works’ missions statement says its goal is “to ameliorate disparities faced by transgender, gender non-binary, and intersex people, as well as help reduce similar disparities among our lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities.” The groups hope to fund the program’s budget by requesting a portion of the $35 million allocated to UBI pilot programs in the state of California.

I know many will read this program and say, “why only for trans and non-binary people?! What about cis Queer people?!” Those are understandable concerns. While DAP and Queer Works plan to prioritize the transgender and nonbinary community with the program, Jacob Rostovsky, founder of Queer Works, says the trans and non-binary communities are just the start and they do plan to make this program available to others who could use financial help.

Something interesting about this program is that mayor of Palm Springs Lisa Middleton is against it. This is of particular note because she is transgender. In fact, Middleton is the first openly trans mayor in the state of California, with only two others in the country. She doesn’t oppose trans people getting UBI necessarily, but she does think it shouldn’t be a local decision. Middleton said she thinks it should be handled at a "county, state and federal" level because of the sheer volume needed. “I specifically stated that I did not believe such programs could scale up to adequately respond to the over 37 million Americans living below the poverty line, the over 6 million Californians or the over 400,000 in the County of Riverside living below the poverty [line]," Middleton wrote in an email. She does acknowledge the notable struggles of the trans community, however. "Transgender Americans suffer extremely high rates of under and unemployment. [They] face enormous challenges living full and authentic lives,” Middleton said. It's worth noting that even if she is against the program, she did vote to affirm the funding needed, saying, "My vote to affirm that evening was procedural to provide $200,000 to DAP in order to help them in the application for state funding.” She also noted that she “did not commit to any future funding of guaranteed income programs."

 

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Similar programs have been started targeting the larger LGBTQ+ community, compared to Palm Springs’ focus on trans and non-binary citizens. West Hollywood, CA, for instance, launched the nation’s first program of its kind, aiming to provide guaranteed cash to senior citizens who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Their 2019 Community Study found that while residents 55 years and older only make up 23% of the city’s population, they represent 44% of the residents living in poverty. In addition to that, 14% of the city’s overall population lives below the federal poverty level. San Francisco, however, is looking to create a similar program to Palm Springs'. Last year, the city’s mayor said she will allocate $2 million to fund the program. If it is approved by the Board of Supervisors, as many as 150 trans citizens of SF will receive up to $1,000 every month.

Will Palm Springs’ program be a success? Time will tell. But it seems like this is only the beginning of country-wide UBI test programs. What do you think? Are UBI programs a good way to lift communities out of poverty? Is a national UBI inevitable? I certainly don’t know, but as is true with almost every other aspect of our society and our species, we are decidedly at a turning point of a major evolution.

Questions? Comments? Email [email protected].