Can Monthly Cash Payments Make Our Economy More Equitable?

Neighborhood Centers, a Houston anti-poverty program has a simple philosophy: “The people are the asset, the source of potential solutions, not the problem.” The non-profit has scaled nationally, employing its bottom-up approach to disburse funds in poor communities.

Around the world, students borrow money to pay for college, but, in the United States, students are more likely to fall behind on loans. Australia may offer some lessons: borrowers in Australia only start paying back their loans once their earnings reach $40,000, and beyond that they pay four percent of their income until the loans are repaid. The system does not penalize borrowers when they face economic hardship.

Over two million baby boomers own their own companies, and with retirement looming, the government stepped in with a solution. A portion of a 2018 federal bill included language that will push the Small Business Administration to help baby boomers transition ownership of their companies to their employees if they wish. This will mitigate job loss often associated with a retiring business owner putting the company up for sale. Employee owners on average make a higher salary and have higher job stability, supporting the idea that employee ownership is beneficial for everyone involved, as well as for the econom

The online Reparations for Black-Indigenous Farmers map connects farmers across the United States in an effort to support those who have been historically oppressed. Those who participate voluntarily pay reparations to the over 50 Black and Indigenous farmers’ projects that have been listed as a way of (re)building centuries of discrimination.

The Golden Girls shelter has been providing meals, medical aid, and other support services for women with children who are experiencing homelessness. Since the Golden Girls living space opened, the program has served a total of 50 women ranging in age from the early 50s to late 70s. While at the shelter, staff members help them complete paperwork so they can receive Social Security payments, pensions, or alimony, and apply for affordable housing. They’re also provided medical care, counseling, and assistance finding jobs.

Affordable housing communities serve various low-income populations from seniors to veterans to minorities and families. Gaining a safe and affordable place to live — with rent capped at 30% of their gross income — can help turn people’s lives around as affordable housing communities like Hope Cooperative connects residents with services like healthcare, job, and life skills to get back on their feet.

A partnership between Minnesota’s state parks and libraries in low-income communities is providing free entry passes to the parks to allow those who could not otherwise afford to visit a chance to do so.

The two-year pause on federal student loan payments in the United States during the pandemic allowed Black women, who share a disproportionate amount of the country’s student debt, to redirect the money they would typically use for repayment toward other needs.

The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust uses conservation easements to conserve agricultural land in the state. These agreements happen when a landowner sells or donates the development rights to their land to the trust forever. They are allowed to keep farming the land, but it must remain undeveloped.

Through the Omama program, Roma women provide individual lessons to Roma children under the age of six living in settlements and disadvantaged communities, where they may not have access to crucial early childhood education. The lessons, which focus on motor skills, cognitive development, and Slovak language proficiency, have benefited roughly 900 children so far.