Fighting Poverty, Empowering Families

Guaranteed Income is a monthly, supplemental cash payment to individuals living in vulnerable communities. It comes with no restrictions on how it can be spent and with no work requirements.

Programs in Stockton and across the country have consistently found it increased health, reduced stress, and income volatility, and increased full-time employment for recipients.

To be eligible, you must meet each of the following requirements: 

1. 1. Residence: Eligible participants must have a residential address in the zip codes of either 93706 (southwest Fresno) or 93234 (Huron). For more information on why these two communities were selected, please see below.
   2. Children 0 to 5: Eligible participants must be adults who are either pregnant or have one or more young children between the ages of 0 to 5.
   3. Income: Finally, eligible participants must earn $30,615 or less annually for 93706 (southwest Fresno) or $35,103 or less for 93234 (Huron). Eligible income levels are based on the low-income percentage (80%) of the Area Median Income (AMI) for each zip code.

*These amounts are based on your pre-tax or gross income. 

Immigration status has no impact on your eligibility.

If you are selected in the lottery process, you will be asked to provide documentation that shows your eligibility based on all three criteria.

Selected participants will receive a monthly payment of $500 for 12 months (1 year). The first payments are anticipated to be issued in mid-June. 

Payments will be issued through a prepaid debit card and automatically reloaded each month.

Applications Now Open. Apply here. Starting on March 18th, in-person applications can be submitted at designated locations in our project’s two priority zip codes:

1. 1. Southwest Fresno (93706):
      • Fresno EOC Local Conservation Corps (LCC) at the Neighborhood Youth Center: 1805 E. California Ave.
      • Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday, 8:30 am-5:00 pm, 
   2. Huron (93234):
      • Huron Family Learning Center: 36602 Central Ave.
      • Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday, 9:00 am-12:00pm, 1:00pm-3:00pm

Applications will be available in multiple languages. In-person support will be available at the designated locations. If you have any questions, you can email guaranteedincome@fresnoeoc.org

In order to mitigate any potential risk to eligibility for other benefits as a result of this money, we are working with the relevant public agencies to, where possible, apply for income exemption waivers. We have received a waiver from the California Department of Social Services to exempt this money from being counted as total household income for purposes of CalFresh and CalWORKs eligibility. If you are selected, a Fresno EOC navigator will discuss with you potential impacts for any other benefits you may currently receive.  

Your eligibility for any current benefits will NOT be affected by simply applying for this opportunity. 

According to the latest American Community Survey data, 93706 (southwest Fresno) and 93234 (Huron) are currently home to over 30% of residents experiencing poverty and have some of the highest levels of concentrated poverty in the city of Fresno and the westside of Fresno County, respectively. We hope to use the outcomes of this program to advocate for expanding the program to other areas of Fresno County in the future. 

Our research partners at the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State will use a lottery process to select eligible applicants who have completed the intake process to participate in the program. An equal number of 75 participants each will be selected from southwest Fresno and Huron.  

If a selected application is ineligible or withdraws their application, we will randomly select additional applications and review those until 150 eligible applications have been enrolled. 

Selected applicants will be contacted and informed of their acceptance by email, phone call, and text by a Fresno EOC Navigator. We expect to begin contacting conditionally selected applicants potentially as early as mid-May 2024. 

NOTE: It is important that, if contacted, you respond promptly. If we do not hear back from you within 48 hours of our first attempt to reach you, your application will be withdrawn, and another household will be randomly selected to take your application’s place. 

The California Wellness Foundation is providing half of this project’s funding, along with support from The California Endowment, Central Valley Community Foundation, Delta Dental Community Care Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, with a total of more than $1 million raised. The Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, which will administer the program, is also providing financial and administrative support.

Researchers affiliated with the Center for Community Voices (CCV) at Fresno State will conduct the local research evaluation, measuring the impact of the program on health, happiness, financial stability, employment, parental involvement, and other outcomes. They will use a randomized control trial (RCT) design for the study, with eligible applicants randomly selected to receive the cash transfers or participate in the control group. The CCV will also use a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) model to include participants in the study design and evaluation, and participants will be thought partners in how we take action on these findings. We plan to utilize the research findings and personal stories collected to help inform and build public support for sustaining and scaling investments like this in order to provide a safety net for more Fresno County households struggling to make ends meet.  

Eligible applicants not randomly selected to participate in the program may be invited to participate in the ongoing surveys. Survey participants (program participants and non- program participants who agree to participate in the surveys) will be compensated for their time through gift cards. 

Participants and an equal number of selected non-participants are encouraged to participate in surveys. Four surveys will be sent out over the 12 months of the program via text and email and will take an estimated 15 minutes per survey to complete. 

Survey respondents will receive small incentives in the form of gift cards for completing surveys. Your participation in the study is very important for supporting future guaranteed basic income and other anti-poverty efforts in Fresno! 

No, you do not need to pay the money back.