$1000/mo with no strings attached: Can guaranteed basic income help solve poverty in LA?

Starting in January and throughout 2022, the City of LA plans to give 3,200 families in poverty $1,000 a month — with no conditions. The $38 million program is called “BIG:LEAP.” To be eligible, families must live in LA, have at least one dependent child, and earn income at or below the federal poverty level.

“If they gave me this, it would really help me a lot because I would have enough time to go look for a job,” says LA resident Bonnie Morales. “After the pandemic, we have gotten no break. It’s the rent, the bills, the rent, the bills, the baby, food.”

Theater students at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo uncovered stories about the history of their campus, and transformed them into a collection of short plays called “Camarillo Tales: Echoes in the Hills.”

And LACMA is currently displaying the famous Obama portraits plus a whole exhibition called “Black American Portraits,” while Kehinde Wiley is curating a show of other artists’ work called “Self-Addressed” at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery.