San Francisco is now offering a monthly stimulus program exclusively for transgender residents.
The city's mayor, London Breed, announced that San Francisco would start accepting applications for the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program on Wednesday.
GIFT is exclusive to the city's transgender residents and is led by the Transgender District, a neighborhood of the city for transgender people. The program will pay 55 transgender residents $1,200 per month for up to 18 months.
"Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (G.I.F.T.) will provide economically marginalized transgender people with unrestricted, monthly guaranteed income as a way to combat poverty our most impacted community members face. The Transgender District and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, in partnership with municipal city departments in the City and County of San Francisco, will provide 55 Transgender residents of San Francisco County with $1,200 a month in guaranteed income for a year and a half. The program will prioritize enrollment of Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex (TGI) people who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, youth and elders, monolingual Spanish-speakers, and those who are legally vulnerable such as TGI people who are undocumented, engaging in survival sex trades, or are formerly incarcerated," the program's website reads.
The program announced as well on its website that it was accepting applications from Nov. 15-Dec. 15.
According to KRON 4 News, the pilot program is the first of its kind.
The program's payments will be both regular and unconditional for qualified applicants to give steady income to the recipients, who can then spend it as they wish. The mayor's office also stated that in addition to the temporary income, GIFT will also provide other resources, such as financial coaching and "gender-affirming medical and mental-health care."
"Our Guaranteed Income Programs allow us to help our residents when they need it most as part of our city's economic recovery and our commitment to creating a more just city for all. We know that our trans communities experience much higher rates of poverty and discrimination, so this program will target support to lift individuals in this community up," Breed said.