By Fernanda Lopez Halvorson, County of San Diego Communications Office
The County is partnering with the San Diego Foundation on a new guaranteed income program for high-risk pregnant women as part of a new initiative called Born Well.
Born Well is focused on improving birth outcomes for mothers and newborns in high-risk communities. The San Diego Foundation is committing $1 million to support the public-private collaboration aimed at expanding access to prenatal and postpartum care, supporting service providers and strengthening coordination across agencies among other things.
The County is partnering on a portion of Born Well that focuses on a guaranteed income pilot program that will provide $750 cash payments per month to 25 expectant mothers for one year. Participants will be referred through the County’s Perinatal Equity Initiative program who are in their first or second trimester of pregnancy.
Guaranteed income programs provide direct, unconditional cash that gives families the freedom to spend money on their most immediate needs as they define them, such as food, childcare, medical needs or rent.
In San Diego County, babies in the highest risk groups can be six times more likely to die before they reach their first birthday and 60 percent more likely to be born premature than the lowest risk group. In California, high-risk mothers are also more than three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.
These disparities exist regardless of age, income or education and are linked to systemic barriers like unequal access to care, toxic stress and social and economic inequities.
“While we are seeing improvements in the number of infant deaths in San Diego County overall, the rate of infant deaths in the highest-risk groups are still far above any other group,” said Liz Hernandez, Director of Public Health Services. “There is more work to be done to improve disparities. This guaranteed income program is one step in reducing barriers for pregnant women at risk, like financial worries.”
County Guaranteed Income Programs
The County has been involved with other Guaranteed Income Programs in recent years. The Family Income for Empowerment Program started in April 2023 in partnership with Jewish Family Service. It serves low-income families referred by the County’s Child and Family Well-Being Department, providing $500 a month for 24 months of unrestricted cash payments.
In total, more than 450 families have participated in the program in cohorts. Some families have started to transition out of the program. Final outcomes from these cash payments will not be available until all families have completed the program but so far families have reported some positive changes. More families say they feel confident in their housing security. More families have also reported feeling like they can meet their monthly financial obligations.
Another County cash payment program was Recovery Action Fund for Tomorrow or RAFT, in partnership with Jewish Family Service. It provided one-time cash payments of $4,000 to help more than 2,200 low-income families and seniors enduring financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initial results from the program revealed that families were spending most of their money on housing. Additionally, 30 percent of funds spent by participants went to food and groceries, 23 percent to retail and sales (like Costco and Target), and 16 percent used it for transportation, including buying gasoline.
The County’s Pilot Shallow Rental Subsidy Program, while not a guaranteed income program because payments go directly to landlords and are specific to housing, has provided nearly 400 older adults with $500 monthly payments toward their rent for 18 to 30 months. The program started in early 2023 and expanded to add more participants last year. Some program participants have just begun to transition out of the program. All participants receive case management to help connect them to other resources.
The County’s Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics is looking into how these programs impact people’s lives and well-being. Preliminary results for some programs could be available by the end of 2025.