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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.