Durham City Of Second Chances
Photo by Rebekah Alvarenga | The Chronicle
A new Durham initiative will soon begin providing monthly $500 checks to 115 formerly incarcerated individuals.
The Excel Pilot Program is set to start administering payments on Jan. 5, 2022 and will continue to do so for a year. This effort is backed by StepUp Durham, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that seeks to
“transform [people’s] lives through employment and life skills training."
One of the goals of this program is to provide proof of concept for the potential implementation of a federal guaranteed income program. In this context, a guaranteed income is defined as a monthly cash payment given directly to individuals, free of conditions and work requirements.
While Durham is operating this program with formerly incarcerated residents, other cities across the country are running similar pilot programs on different populations. For example, a guaranteed income pilot in Columbia, South Carolina is focusing on Black fathers.
“We could have certainly chosen a random sample [to run the program on], but what we realized is that we really want Durham to be a city of second chances,” Durham Mayor Steve Schewel said. “One of the ways [to do this] is to provide opportunities for our citizens who are coming home from incarceration. We thought that they would be a group that would really benefit from guaranteed income.”
Schewel is part of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a network spanning over 40 cities advocating for a federal guaranteed income.
