Palm Springs to put $200,000 toward transgender income pilot but council reservations remain
Palm Springs Desert Sun
The Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously Thursday to provide $200,000 to two local organizations that are aiming to launch a pilot basic income program that would provide money to transgender and non-binary residents. However, they stopped short of agreeing to provide the much larger sum of as much as $900,000 that leaders of the organizations behind the project say would likely be required for the project to ultimately go forward, and expressed reservations about doing so in the future. Guaranteed income programs are social welfare programs that provide regular “no strings attached” payments. Proponents argue that such programs affectively address poverty and perhaps do so better than other efforts that come with more limits and requirements. The funds were requested by DAP Health and Queer Works, a Coachella Valley-based organization dedicated to eliminating disparities faced by transgender and non-binary people. Non-binary people are people who identify as neither male or female.
