After Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this year sued a major Texas county to stop it from giving out cash assistance to needy families, El Paso County backed out of a program in which it had agreed to provide cash payments to some low-income El Paso households.
El Paso County Commissioners Court late last year agreed to spend $500,000 of federal grant money for a program that was meant to give out $500 per month for a year to 135 El Paso households. The county’s funding would have paired with a similarly-sized donation from the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation.
However, as Paxton’s ongoing lawsuits played out this year against a similar assistance program in Harris County, home to Houston, El Paso County delayed rolling out the cash payments before abandoning the effort altogether this fall.
“Though El Paso County has been a previous partner in direct cash initiatives, state lawsuits targeting a guaranteed income program in Harris County made moving forward for (El Paso) County complicated at best, and untenable at worst,” Ivanna Neri, senior partnership director with UpTogether, told El Paso Matters. The nonprofit organization has administered cash assistance programs in El Paso in recent years.
UpTogether and the Hunt Family Foundation this summer decided to proceed without public money and began a scaled-back cash assistance program in October using $300,000 from the foundation and another $100,000 from an anonymous national donor.
Without extra cash from a local government, the program is providing $500 per month to 120 families for six months, from October through March. Applications for the program are closed.
“This program empowers hardworking families in El Paso by giving them the financial flexibility to address urgent needs while working toward long-term goals,” Woody Hunt, chairman of the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation, said in a statement. “By providing a financial lifeline, we’re not just stabilizing families – we’re investing in the future of our community.”
A spokeswoman for the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation didn’t respond to questions about Paxton’s lawsuit or the cash assistance program moving forward.
So-called guaranteed income programs aim to reduce poverty by giving cash monthly to struggling families with no strings attached, an idea that has become in vogue for philanthropists and policymakers over the last decade.
In Paxton’s suit against Harris County, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said the state’s constitution bans “most grants of public funds to private individuals.” The cash payments represent an “impermissible gift” to certain people, and the lottery system Harris County initially used to select who would receive payments violates Texas’ equal protection laws, according to the attorney general’s lawsuit.
The Texas Supreme Court earlier this year sided with Paxton. Harris County attempted to re-design the Uplift Harris assistance program after the decision, but Paxton said last week he secured a stay preventing the program from advancing and sending out cash payments.
“Harris County is not above the law and cannot ignore the Texas Constitution,” Paxton said in a Dec. 13 news release. “They made a blatant attempt to end-run a Texas Supreme Court ruling by duplicating their unlawful handout program, and we have successfully blocked them yet again.”
The Texas Attorney General’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment about the case or the cash assistance program in El Paso.
In a statement in June defending the guaranteed income program, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said the state’s constitutional rule barring gifts using public funds are meant to stop “cronyism and gratuitous gifts of tax dollars. They aren’t intended to stop governments from providing public benefits.”
The impetus for guaranteed income in El Paso stems from the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when the advocacy group El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, or EPISO, worked to help El Pasoans who were living outside the city limits – but within the county – and couldn’t access government aid.
EPISO and UpTogether lobbied the El Paso County Commissioners Court to establish an assistance program that provided $1.1 million of cash aid in 2020 and 2021. The Hunt Family Foundation provided much of that funding as well.
From November 2020 through February 2021, UpTogether said it provided $500 payments to 1,078 households in El Paso County for a total of $539,000. In 2021, the program provided $2,400 to 245 households over six months, totaling $588,000.
“I’m grateful to the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation and UpTogether for pushing forward. These programs have been proven to provide invaluable assistance to people, and make the entire community stronger,” David Stout, Precinct 2 County Commissioner, said in an email. “I am hopeful that El Paso County will have future opportunities to participate.”
To pay for its part of the cash program, El Paso County planned to use funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed in 2021 to help cities and states recover financially from the pandemic. El Paso County received $163 million and planned to draw $500,000 from a $4.3 million ARPA-related economic development fund to pay for the program.
The El Paso County Commissioners Court moved forward with the cash assistance plan late last year after some members of the El Paso City Council in October 2023 pushed for a program similar to the county’s that would have doled out $500 monthly payments to around 80 El Paso households for a year. The City Council shot down the program after then-Mayor Oscar Leeser cast a tie-breaking “no” vote.
When city leaders in Austin earlier this year decided to reboot a cash assistance program there for another year, the city’s legal department decided Austin could proceed without facing a suit from Paxton because Austin is a home-rule city – and not a county – and has more rights to administer the program.
Neri said UpTogether and the Hunt Family Foundation decided to go ahead with a smaller version of the program over the summer, after it became clear Paxton’s lawsuit could derail the program in El Paso.
“We know there are a lot of people who are working really hard and still cannot meet their basic needs,” Neri said in an interview. “So, we felt the need to really move quickly and try to drive investment to people as soon as possible.
“It’s very unfortunate that this is happening,” she said of Paxton’s lawsuit. “We believe in cash transfers and the power of it, and have seen the impact.”
For the smaller program that’s underway, Neri said her organization and EPISO selected 120 participants in September who applied, live within El Paso County and earn 80% or less of the average income in El Paso.
One current participant is Yeraizaed Torrez, a 22-year-old retail worker that EPISO and UpTogether highlighted.
“This has been a blessing,” Torrez said in a written statement “I was able to fix my car, which is helping me explore better job opportunities and build a stable career.”
Research on cash assistance programs in the U.S. have shown mixed results, and getting some extra cash every month often doesn’t solve every problem in a participants’ life. Still, Neri said her evaluations of past assistance programs in El Paso show participants often spend the extra money on expenses such as gas for their vehicle, or on earning an educational certificate.
“The hope is that people are able to stay stable, and that they can start building some assets so that they can have a better life,” Neri said. “There is a need to address more root causes for poverty, where we are not so focused on trying to fix the person.”
After the current program ends in March, Neri said UpTogether and EPISO will gauge the effect that no-strings-attached cash payments had on the wellbeing of participants. After that, the group will look for other sources of funding to provide cash assistance to more El Pasoans in the future.
“This program shows the incredible impact that trust, collaboration, and direct investment in families can achieve,” Dolores De Avila, a leader with the EPISO/Border Interfaith group, said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing efforts like this to empower families and strengthen our community.”
The post As Paxton lawsuits target cash assistance programs, El Paso County backs out of plan appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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