Heroes Like You Can Save It and Support Working Class Families
Support Uplift Harris
Last April, Harris County passed a historic guaranteed income program. One of more than sixty pilot programs across the country, Uplift Harris allotted more than $20.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds to assist 1,600 of the lowest income families in Harris County.
Unfortunately, our corrupt Attorney General Ken Paxton could not keep his greedy hands off of poor people’s money. To score points in his political vendetta against Harris County, Paxton sued to stop the program, receiving a temporary injunction from our heavily biased Texas State Supreme Court just a few weeks after the program was passed.
Now, Harris County’s Public Health Department has redesigned Uplift Harris to overcome the roadblocks imposed by the AG’s frivolous lawsuit. Though the newly redesigned plan doesn’t provide the complete flexibility that struggling families deserve, it still provides a vital hand up to the 1,600 families that have already been selected so they can more easily afford rent, electricity, groceries, medical bills, and other essential needs.
This reworked program is the better option of two recommendations before Harris County Commissioners Court. A second program calls for selecting entirely new families, which could leave those originally selected in the cold, and perhaps even jeopardize the program altogether by sending the process back through a cumbersome RFP. This second option would also completely redo the applicant pool, yanking back assistance from people who were already promised funds under the old program.
The fact is that only by tailoring the program to include the original families can we save guaranteed income here in Harris.
Guaranteed Income Programs Work
As I have said in the past, guaranteed income programs work. They are an effective method of fighting poverty, especially in a county like Harris, where working class folks must deal with one disaster after another. It is hard enough to make ends meet when roads, schools, businesses and other vital institutions that allow people to live and work get shut down from the likes of Hurricane Beryl or random derechos. The least we can do is follow through on assistance we have already promised.
Take Action!
The best way to save Uplift Harris and support guaranteed income here at home is to contact your county commissioners and the county judge and tell them to approve a plan that would give the originally selected families a fair shot by supporting Harris Health’s plan to revamp the program.
You can make a difference in the Tuesday, August 6th Harris County Commissioners Court vote by sending an email and leaving a message now using the contact info and script below. Feel free to use the script as a general template for calls and emails, but also to make the script unique to your own concerns.
Your personal voice and individual motivation to support policies, whether it is out of your own conscientiousness, past experiences, or policy beliefs, can truly make a difference in how our elected officials vote, especially at the local level.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can also sign up to speak at court in person.
“Hello, my name is ______, and I am a constituent of ______. I am calling you today to urge you to support Uplift Harris in the wake of Ken Paxton’s vicious attacks on the program. Uplift Harris will assist 1,600 families in Harris County that are most in need of assistance to pay rent, utilities, grocery, and healthcare bills. Despite Attorney General Paxton attacks on Uplift Harris, Harris County Health has redesigned it to comply with the court’s restrictions so that these families can receive payments… as long as the Commissioners Court votes for it.
As leaders in our community, we need you to stand up for Harris County.
Please vote in favor of Harris Health’s revamped version of Uplift Harris.”
CONTACT INFO
County Judge Lina Hidalgo
713-274-7000
Judge.Hidalgo@harriscountytx.gov
Commissioner Rodney Ellis
713-274-1000
Comm_Ellis@cp1.hctx.net
Commissioner Adrian Garcia
713-274-2222
Commissioner@pct2.hctx.net
Commissioner Tom Ramsey
713-274-3000
Pct3@pct3.com
Commissioner Lesley Briones
832-927-4444
Service@hcp4.net