Cleveland-area native Devin Cotten devised the idea for a Universal Basic Employment program after working with impoverished families in Cleveland for years in his role at the Burten, Bell, Carr community development corporation in the city's Central and Kinsman neighborhoods. (Ryan Loew/Ideastream Public Media)
Cleveland is on track to be the first city in the country to launch a jobs guarantee program.
City Council approved a proposal Monday to develop a $21 million pilot program designed to eradicate poverty, called Universal Basic Employment, that officials say is the first of its kind in the country.
Cleveland-area native Devin Cotten devised the idea after working with impoverished families in Cleveland for years in his role at the Burten, Bell, Carr community development corporation in the city's Central and Kinsman neighborhoods.
"We subsidize literally everything — roadways, housing developments, businesses — literally everything," Cotten said. "But we failed to subsidize the individual agency and prosperity for the nearly 40 million Americans currently living in poverty."
What is Universal Basic Employment, and why do leaders think it could work in Cleveland?
Cleveland is the second poorest large city in the U.S. behind Detroit, according to Census data. Nearly one in three people and over half of the city’s children under five live below the federal poverty line.
Cleveland’s median income is about $30,000, but some neighborhoods like Central have a median income of just over $10,000, in part due to systemic problems like racial segregation and redlining that impacted generations of Cleveland families, particularly people of color.
Cotten said he wants to right those wrongs.
The UBE idea is similar to the more widespread Universal Basic Income programs, a concept that guarantees residents a certain amount of money from the government every month. Those programs have spread nationwide and are now in place in more than 80 cities.
But instead of giving residents money, UBE would give people who work a historically low-paying job in Cuyahoga County a wage of at least $50,000 a year. As currently planned, the pilot will first include only 100 people.
When it comes to fixing poverty, Emily Campbell, the director of the Center for Community Solutions said the answer is quite simple: money.
Ensuring jobs that pay enough for people to survive will not only benefit individuals but bolster poor neighborhoods and the local economy, Cotten said.
"We want to prove to the government that it's exponentially cheaper to fund a jobs guarantee up front than to deal with the direct costs of poverty, like the social safety benefits net and indirect costs like crime," Cotten said.
Unlike existing social benefits programs, which are designed to address the symptoms of poverty, United Way’s Ken Surratt said a program like this could be more effective.
"It gives people more flexibility and autonomy over their income," said Surratt, the organization's chief development and investment officer. "It's earned income. There's no limits on how much you're supposed to pay for food. There's no limits on how much you're supposed to pay for your housing."
What is the proposal before City Council?
Cotten's organization, Universal Basic Employment, in partnership with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, requested $600,000 from the city for a two-year research and development phase of a pilot program to identify potential barriers, fundraise and determine wraparound support.
The resulting pilot program should be ready to launch in 2026. That is expected to cost $21 million, which Cotten expects to fund through federal or state grants and private investments.
United Way and UBE will select a neighborhood and 100 of its residents, as well as small businesses in the area that will host the jobs and test the program for three years.
Council passed funding for the development phase on Monday.
What happens when the pilot program ends?
Cotten said he knows Cleveland cannot financially sustain such a program long-term. The goal, then, is to use the program as an example for state and federal legislation.
"We know that we are spending a lot of public dollars [on the social safety net], but they are not yielding the results," said Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones, who sponsored the legislation. "This is an opportunity to use the resources that we currently have to ... get more positive results that gives families dignity."
More long term, Cotten and Howse-Jones hope UBE will spur investment in poorer neighborhoods where grocery stores and other businesses have left because people should be making enough money to support those kinds of businesses.
"There are much better impacts, not only to the family, not only to businesses, but to communities when you invest beforehand, which will then allow communities to be much more stable, you will probably have... an increase in home ownership within communities," Howse-Jones said.
Update: On May 22, United Way of Greater Cleveland announced that it has launched the research and development process.
This story was originally published by WKSU/Ideastream Public Media on May 9, 2024.