SF Launches $1,000/Mo “Guaranteed Income” Pilot For Artists
Mayor Breed Announces Launch Of Guaranteed Income Pilot Program For San Francisco Artists
The City is partnering with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to implement $1,000/month economic relief program for approximately 130 San Francisco artists hardest-hit by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Applications are open through Thursday, April 15, 2021.
Mayor London N. Breed today announced the launch of a new guaranteed income pilot program for San Francisco artists. As part of San Francisco’s economic recovery and efforts to support the arts, the cash relief program will support artists living and working in the City of San Francisco who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The City has partnered with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) to administer the program, and YBCA is now accepting applications for the pilot program.
Learn More at ybca.org/guaranteed-income-pilot/
Apply | How it Works | FAQ
The artist guaranteed income pilot program will provide monthly payments of $1,000 to approximately 130 eligible San Francisco artists for six months beginning May 2021. Applicants must meet eligibility requirements listed on the pilot program website, and are invited to apply online through the April 15, 2021 deadline. For this program, an artist is someone who actively engages with the community through music, dance, creative writing, visual art, performance art, installation, photography, theater, or film. Teaching artists, arts educators, and culturally-based craft workers and makers are also encouraged to apply.
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This pilot program is one of several guaranteed income programs the City is developing, implementing, and evaluating to identify how to best support San Francisco residents and promote economic stability and recovery. This pilot program will be the first guaranteed income project in San Francisco to focus solely on artists. The other guaranteed income programs include funding for San Franciscans training to become EMTs, Black and Pacific Islander expecting mothers as part of the Abundant Birth Project, and members of San Francisco’s Black and African-American community as part of the Mayor’s Dream Keeper Initiative.
How To Apply / Deadlines
- Fill out the application form
- Applications Open March 25, 2021
- Apply by April 15, 2021 at 11:59pm PT.
- Participants are notified if they have been selected by April 20, 2021.
- Confirmed participants will receive their first cash payment on or by May 21, 2021
- Subsequent payments will be made on the first Friday of each month from June 2021 to October 2021
Guaranteed income is an economic model that provides regular, unconditional cash transfers to individuals or households. This type of program differs from other social safety net practices by providing a steady, predictable stream of cash to recipients to spend as they see fit without limitations. This particular program provides cash payments to artists experiencing financial insecurity due to the pandemic.
Who is Eligible?
You must be:
- An adult (18 years of age or older) resident of San Francisco in an eligible zip code
- An artist whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community.
- For this program, an artist is someone who actively engages with the community through music, dance, creative writing, visual art, performance art, installation, photography, theater, or film. Teaching artists, arts educators, and culturally-based craft workers and makers are also encouraged to apply.
- Facing loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Income Qualifying – i.e. household income lower than $60,900 for single household, or $69,600 for two-person household
The eligible zip codes for this Pilot are: 94102, 94110, 94112, 94124, 94134, 94103, 94107, 94109, 94115, 94117, 94130, 94158, and 94108.
Eligible zip codes were determined by the city of San Francisco’s data on areas hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic (as determined by case count) and by input from San Francisco arts and culture organizations.
What Neighborhoods are eligible? Zip codes include portions of the Tenderloin, Hayes Valley, The Mission, Balboa Park, Ingleside, Excelsior, Bayview, Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, Portola, SoMa, South Park, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Russian Hill, Polk Gulch, Fillmore, Lower Pacific Heights, Lower Haight, Cole Valley, Treasure Island, Mission Bay, Chinatown. Please note that location eligibility is determined solely by zip codes, so not every portion of each of these neighborhoods will be eligible
What Neighborhoods are NOT eligible: Based on the zip codes, it appears that most residents of North Beach, Japantown, Castro, Noe Valley, Richmond District, Sunset District, Marina and Cow Hollow are ineligible
See the full qualifying details
The Office of Racial Equity at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, YBCA, and Grants for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Commission—deploying Arts Impact Endowment funds—have worked together to establish the program. YBCA has built a comprehensive and community-centered outreach strategy to ensure it reaches those hardest hit, including Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), immigrant, disabled, and LGBTQ artist communities. The program guidelines and outreach reflect the Grantmakers in the Arts’ Racial Equity in Arts Funding Statement of Purpose and San Francisco’s Cultural Equity Endowment Legislation.
YBCA worked with the following organizations and individuals in designing this pilot program: SOMA Pilipinas; members of the Racial Equity in the Arts Working Group; Asian Pacific-Islander Cultural Center; Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco; Dance Mission Theatre; Galería de la Raza; San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company; African American Art and Culture Complex; and poets and writers, Tongo Eisen-Martin and Kim Shuck.
Pilot Dates
- March 25 — Application opens
- April 15 — Application closes
- April 20 — Eligible applicants are notified they have been selected
- May 4 — Deadline for selected applicants to confirm participation
- May 11 — All applicants will be notified regarding the status of their application
- May 21 — First cash payment
- June 4 — Second cash payment
- October 1 — Final cash payment
This guaranteed income program for artists supports San Francisco’s economic recovery, and is part of the City’s broader efforts to support individual artists and arts and culture organizations, particularly under represented and often under resourced artists and organizations. In October 2020, the City’s Economic Recovery Task Force (ERTF) issued their policy recommendations for San Francisco’s recovery, which included recommendations to identify new funding and revenue sources for the Arts, to invest in BIPOC communities, and to catalyze neighborhood recovery through the Arts. This pilot program is aligned with the ERTF’s recommendations. In its intent and implementation, this program takes steps towards realizing all three of those recommendations to support artists and promote an equitable economic recovery.
The City, under Mayor Breed’s leadership, has supported San Francisco artists, and arts and cultural organizations with various grant programs throughout the course of the pandemic. Most recently, Mayor Breed announced $24.8 million from the City’s budget surplus will go towards preventing cuts to arts and culture programs. Early on in the City’s response, Mayor Breed directed $2.75 million for the Arts Relief Program, and later announced $12.8 million in Grants for the Arts funding for more than 220 arts and cultural organizations. The City is also providing arts organizations with funding to reopen safely and has funded the creation of an online Arts Hub, which serves as a one-stop-shop for artists and organizations looking for financial assistance, professional networking, and employment opportunities. Additionally, the City has launched the San Francisco Creative Corps pilot program, which has employed artists by commissioning them for COVID-related information campaigns.
