Shreveport mayor speaks on guaranteed income program

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - The week of Jan. 10, applications opened for the Shreveport Guaranteed Income pilot program.

On Wednesday, Jan. 12, the mayor sat down with KSLA News 12 to discuss how the program works.

“People at the poverty line, they can’t afford food, they can’t afford housing,” Mayor Adrian Perkins said.

Out of those eligible, 110 families will be selected to receive $660 per month for a year. Fifty percent of those applicants (which is 55 applicants) will be from the following ZIP codes: 71101, 71103 , 71107, 71108 and 71109, according to the city.

Mayor Perkins said interest is high. “In the first hour, we had 100 people apply for this program. As of yesterday, we had over 12,000 people apply for this program.

“That shows you the need here in this community, unfortunately. And it shows you the interest in this community, as well, for people to participate,” he continued. “There’s a lot of financial suffering that’s still going on; the pandemic’s not over.”

The pilot program is meant to assess the effects of guaranteed income, as well as serve as research for the city.

The city’s website explains how it will work:

“An outside, independent entity will conduct a lottery to select participants from the eligible pool of applicants. Once participants are selected, a second lottery will sort eligible applicants. Participants will be randomly selected into a ‘treatment intervention group’ and a ‘control group,’ or a non-participant group. The intervention group will receive the guaranteed income. The control group will not receive the guaranteed income, but will be invited to participate in future research activities. The control group allows us to understand the impact of guaranteed income over time amongst two similar groups of people: one who receives guaranteed income and one who does not. People assigned to the non-participant group will not receive a guaranteed income through the program and will not be invited to participate in any further research activities.”

The application period will last from 8 a.m. Jan. 10 through 11:59 p.m. Jan. 17. Those interested in applying can click here.

Applicants must be Shreveport residents who are single parents with an income below 120% of the federal poverty level. The program defines a single parent as a mother, father, stepparent, grandparent, caregiver or legal guardian with a school-age child. The resident must be functionally single, whether married or unmarried. If unmarried, the resident cannot be living with a partner.

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