Nerys Ramirez is a single mother of a teenage son and young daughter based in Concord, CA. Like many families in the area, she struggled to meet her household’s basic needs despite working two jobs. So when her daughter’s school informed her about ELEVATE Concord — a guaranteed income pilot program led by the City of Concord and local non-profit Monument Impact— she didn’t hesitate to apply. 

The program provided cash to 120 randomly selected single parent families with no strings attached. Families received a one time payment of $2,500 for initial stability funds, followed by  $500 monthly payments for a year. 

The funds came at an extremely critical time for her and her family.  “When the program started, I was behind on my bills,” Nerys said. “Even the first deposit that the program made… it was something magical… because I came home and my water had been cut off.” That same day, Nerys used the funds to pay the city to get her water service restored. After addressing her water bill, Nerys used the money to cover her other bills during the year-long program. She was able to buy much-needed items for her kids, like a pair of shoes, more food, and invest in household items like a griddle to cook Salvadoran meals. She also bought her daughter her own bed and table to do her homework. 

One of the most meaningful changes  for Nerys was having more time to spend with her family. Before the program, she worked two jobs to make ends meet; one at a bakery from 3:00 AM to 11:30 AM and another in the afternoon at a local restaurant. Once she started receiving funds through ELEVATE Concord she stopped working in the afternoon and dedicated that extra time to her family, “In the afternoon, since we have more time, we watch TV. Then we do homework, spend time together. When the weather gets warmer, we go out to the park. My son goes to soccer three days a week, which he loves; it's his favorite pastime. We go with my daughter to watch his practices. We spend our free time in the afternoons together.” With extra time in the afternoons, Nerys was also able to focus on some personal enrichment projects, such as English classes and participating in a photography documentation project through ELEVATE Concord.

Nerys’s experience of working two jobs to provide for her household is not an uncommon experience in the region: 38 percent of workers in the Bay Area do not make enough money to cover their household’s basic needs such as housing, food, and transportation costs. In Contra Costa County, where Nerys lives, 70 percent of Latina female-headed households do not make enough to meet their basic needs and 6 percent of Latina workers that work full time have a family income below 200 percent of the poverty level. According to Nerys, “An eight-hour job isn't enough because you have to pay rent, you have to pay bills, you have to buy the most essential things, and we can't buy some other things... I mean, it's harder.” 

Since ELEVATE Concord concluded, Nerys is starting to feel the financial impacts without the guaranteed income program. She’s buying fewer groceries, struggling to afford clothes her son sometimes needs, and may have to pick up a second job again. 

Nerys emphasizes the need for more of these programs for families with children especially, the freedom of being able to meet her family's basic needs with the additional financial support was life changing, “There are families who have to work more than 16 hours, how much time do they spend with their children? [ELEVATE Concord] changed a lot, it really changes one's life with our children because the most important thing here is the children, our children, the family, and raising them, so that they are good, so that they have a future, a good future.”