Multnomah County Already Has a Basic Income Program, Funded by the Federal SLFRF Program.

I recently listened to a OPB Think Out Loud podcast which highlighted fund raising for a planned Black focused basic income program that would be part of the Black Resiliency Fund. The goal is to provide as much as $2,000 a month to participants. 

In looking through SLFRF grantees in Oregon I discovered that Multnomah county already HAS a basic income program , the Mother's Trust Program 

This program is focused on providing $500 a month to single Black mothers and is linked to two unnamed culturally specific organizations. 

It looks like this program was approved by the County for part of year FY 2022 and for a full year in FY 2023.

Budget: Either $1.975M or $2.9M.

The FY 2023 Multnomah County budget document for the program says that it is funded with $1.325,000 of SFLRF funds for FY 2023, and $625,000 for FY 2022, so a total of $1,975,000. 

The annual cost for 100 households would be $600,000 or $900,000 for a year and a half so this $1.975 M in funding must cover multiple years and likely admin expenses to the two culturally specific organizations. 

However, the Treasury SLFRF report through March 31, 2022 reports (based on grantee inputs) that the budget for this activity is $2.9 Million with $482K reported as obligated and spent as of that date. 

It's not clear what other costs or years may be included in this nearly $1 M higher budget amount.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.