Portland Nonprofit Will Provide Guaranteed Income

More than 7,500 people applied in the first 24 hours after the program went live Aug. 1.

cameron whitten (Aaron Lee)

By Nigel Jaquiss

Black Resilience Fund, a program of Brown Hope, a nonprofit started by social justice activist Cameron Whitten in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, began accepting applications Aug. 1 for an initiative to provide up to 50 Black families with a guaranteed basic income of up to $2,000 a month for three years.

Whitten secured a matching grant of $100,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation and is seeking to raise a total of $500,000 this summer. He says other large foundations are receptive to the concept of granting low-income families a monthly payment, an idea some economists have long supported and one that presidential candidate Andrew Yang highlighted in 2020.

The awards are income-based and vary by family size: from $1,000 for a single adult up to $2,000 for a family with three or more children.

More than 7,500 people applied in the first 24 hours after the program went live Aug. 1. “It’s a sign of the overwhelming need out there,” Whitten says.

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