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Austin will be the first major Texas city to experiment with giving cash to low-income families to keep them housed as the cost of living skyrockets in the capital city.
Eight Austin City Council members voted Thursday to establish the “guaranteed income” pilot program and contract with a California nonprofit to run it.
Austin joins at least 28 U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh, that have tried some form of guaranteed income.
Locally, the idea came out of efforts to rework how the city tackles public safety in the wake of protests over police brutality in 2020.
Austin officials are working out how exactly the program will work and which families will receive the money.
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