L.A. Times breaks news on ‘The Compton Pledge,’ new guaranteed income initiative of JFI & partners

Today, the Los Angeles Times was the first to break the news on JFI’s newest guaranteed income initiative, in collaboration with the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI) and Compton Mayor Aja Brown: the Compton Pledge. The Compton Pledge is the largest city-based guaranteed income initiative in the United States, and intentionally designed to address urgent issues of racial and economic inequality.

Compton Mayor Aja Brown discussed her motivations for the initiative:

“I recognized that there’s a need for additional income, especially with the pandemic resulting in record high numbers of unemployment throughout the entire country. This is a great opportunity to address inequalities for Black and brown people and also additional opportunities for upward mobility.”

JFI PR and Policy Lead Halah Ahmad also spoke about JFI’s role in the design of the initiative to address key open questions around the most effective amounts and frequencies for larger guaranteed income policy design, emphasizing that existing research is clear that cash transfers are an effective anti-poverty measure that do not lead to people quitting their jobs and spending the money on temptation goods.

Read the full story here.

To learn more about the Compton Pledge, visit the website and sign up for updates. This Monday, October 19, 2020, we will release the full press release and fact sheet to the wider media. Reach out to media@comptonpledge.org for any media inquiries.

Thank you to Alejandra Reyes-Velarde for the great coverage.