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Harris County will implement a new version of its guaranteed income program after the state rejected the county’s attempt to provide monthly payments to low-income families.
The new program, called Uplift Harris 2.0, will provide $500 per month through preloaded debit cards to nearly 2,000 families already selected in the previous version of the program. The new program will include restrictions on spending categories.
During the Commissioners Court hearing on Tuesday, District Judge Lina Hidalgo said the new program does not necessarily “conform to the spirit” of the original pilot program, but added that she is confident it will still benefit the families selected. However, she also acknowledged the fragility of the new program given the ongoing litigation surrounding the original program.
“This is an attempt to set up a new program and move forward,” Hidalgo said. “I don’t want families to have false hopes… We’ll wait and see what happens, but we’re doing everything we can.”
Hidalgo added that if the new program gets stuck in court, the money would be redistributed to county programs “to support people living in poverty.”
This came after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton came out against the program in April. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately sided with Paxton and declared the Uplift Harris program unconstitutional in June. County officials fought the ruling, pointing to similar income programs in Austin and San Antonio that were not challenged by state officials.
The program was originally intended to be funded with $20.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Eligible families lived in certain zip codes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
The application portal for the program closed in February with more than 82,000 applicants
On Aug. 6, commissioners weighed two proposals from the ARPA steering committee to improve the program, with most favoring the debit card option. After a brief discussion of the options, commissioners sent the item to the steering committee for a vote, county records show. The committee approved the debit card option on Aug. 7.
The new program passed Tuesday by a vote of four to one, with Harris County Third District Commissioner Tom Ramsey being the only one to vote no.
