The new pilot program, approved by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, will send out payments of a thousand dollars per month to homeless high school seniors with no strings attached. The goal is to help them make a transition into higher education or jobs.
Roughly 2,500 students in Santa Clara County faced homelessness in the 2020 to 21 school year, according to county data.
The county adopted the pilot program after a bill to create a similar effort throughout California failed to pass the State Senate. The author of the bill, State Senator Dave Cortese, sought to help the 15,000 unhoused high school seniors statewide.
As a Santa Clara Supervisor in 2020, Cortese created a basic income program for young people exiting foster care. County supervisors recently renewed the program to extend into 2023.
Cortese says the newest pilot program makes the county the first in the state to refuse to graduate high school seniors into homelessness.
