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USBIG NewsFlash Vol. 15, No. 72, March-April 2014

By Karl Widerquist  Posted by Scott Baker (about the submitter)       (Page 4 of 29 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   No comments

 

4. Basic Housing Grant in Utah shows promise

[Karl Widerquist]
A few years ago, the U.S. State of Utah has introduced a program calling Housing First, which fights homelessness by giving homeless people free housing. According to Jenny Swank of Nation Swell, recent reports estimate that Housing First "has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 74 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015the program could eliminate homelessness in the state by 2015." Although the housing grant is in kind rather than in cash, and although it is granted only to those in need rather than to everyone, this program is a step toward a basic income guarantee, because it is unconditional. Recipients are not required to work or to be available to work or to prove that they are unable to work or even to enter substance abuse treatment if they are abusers. Also, for the first time in the first time in the state, Housing First creates a legal right to housing. The apparent rational is: whatever other problems individuals might have, they are better off with homes. Assessments indicate the program is cost-effective, and other states are looking that the program and considering imitating it.

 

For more on the Utah program see:
David Weigel "Republican State Gives Free Houses to Moochers, Cuts Homelessness by 74 Percent," Slate, Dec. 20 2013. http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/12/20/republican_state_gives_free_houses_to_moochers_cuts_homelessness_by_74_percent.html
Terrance Heath, "Utah ending homelessness by giving people homes," Nation of Change, 23 January 2014. http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183
Jenny Shank, "Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea," Nation Swell. December 19, 2013. http://www.nationswell.com/one-state-track-become-first-end-homelessness-2015/

Utah's "Housing Works" website has information about the Housing First approach: http://housingworks.utah.gov/solution/index.html

 

5. BIG news from around the world

 

CANADA: Liberal Party members vote in favor of two resolutions supporting Basic Income

[Rob Rainer, BICN]

At the Liberal Party of Canada's biennial convention February 20-23, 2014, held in Montreal, party members voted in favour of two policy resolutions in support of basic income. Resolution #100 was passed as one of 18 "priority" resolutions: see Creating a Basic Annual Income to be Designed and Implemented for a Fair Economy. Resolution #97 was passed as one of 14 resolutions stemming from convention workshops: see Basic Income Supplement: Testing a Dignified Approach to Income Security for Working-Age Canadians . The 32 resolutions passed at the convention (out of more than 160 brought to the floor) are not binding upon the Party's leadership. However, there is a requirement for the leadership to respond to them. At the least, it is apparent that within the Liberal Party of Canada, as also within the Green Party of Canada , there is explicit openness to and support for basic income. We are aware, too, of degrees of support for basic income within the Conservative and New Democratic parties. This demonstrates once again basic income's appeal across the political spectrum.

 

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Campaign begins for a Basic Income Grant for the entire Southern African Development Community

 

Representatives from 20 organizations across 10 southern African countries have initiated a campaign for a Basic Income Grant (BIG) across the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC). The campaign got officially under way at a two-day "Campaign Strategy Workshop" in Johannesburg on November 18 and 19, 2013. The SADC is an inter-governmental organization comprised of 15 southern African nations. One motivation for an SADC-wide BIG is that although the region has extremely valuable resource extraction industries but at the same time has great poverty. A BIG will ensure that every person in southern Africa receives a share in the region's mineral wealth.

The SADC-wide BIG Campaign Workshop had four goals: First, it finalized a draft Campaign Strategy. Second, it discussed the principles of the SADC BIG Coalition. Third, it provided a form to present the economic research on the cost, affordability and financing of the SADC-wide BIG. Fourth, the workshop nominated the SADC BIG Coalition Steering Committee and discussed its functions. The Workshop summed up the coalition's goal as, "To ensure the roll-out of a universal SADC BIG to all SADC citizens including refugees, economic migrants and asylum seekers by 2020."

 

For more information on the workshop see: http://takuspii.wordpress.com/projects/ser-programme-2/sadc-big/

For more on the coming campaign, and for several reports on BIG in the SADC, go to: http://takuspii.wordpress.com/category/sadc-basic-income-grant/

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Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:
http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)
 

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