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SAN FRANCISCO, CA- According to reports, a new crime-prevention program in San Francisco will pay people who are considered “at risk of shooting someone” $300 a month if they keep their hands off guns and don’t get shot themselves.
San Francisco will pay people to not shoot others: 'Cash for criminals' https://t.co/iYZuBF2pMu
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 1, 2021
To counter the rising crime rate, the City is launching a new initiative dubbed “Dream Keeper Fellowship” in October and will pay 10 individuals a monthly allowance for not engaging in shootings.
During an interview on Tuesday, August 31st, Sheryl Davis, executive director of the Human Rights Commission, described the program as not “transactional,” but instead an important “investment” in violence plagued communities.
Reportedly, the Fellowship participants will be paired with life coaches from the city’s Street Violence Intervention Program (SVIP) and will be called “community ambassadors,” whose work will be “to prevent violence,” seemingly by not committing it.
The participants will be required to work on improving their professional, personal, and community traits, and will be considered “partners” in engaging members of their respectful communities in decreasing violent activities.
Davis further explained that the program aims at eradicating the “root causes” of violence, which she said “in many ways are economic.” In addition to $300, participants may earn as much as an additional $200 per month for working on “improving their community.”
Improving their community includes working, attending school, or being a mediator in situations that could lead to violence.
Davis is hopeful the program will attract interest and make the future partakers more “civil-minded”, allowing them to “be part of the solution,” which in turn, would create safer communities in the long run.
The San Francisco Examiner stated that at its worst the program could be called “cash for criminals,” like its predecessors in cities around the Bay Area and that at its best, it could save lives and tax dollars otherwise spent on incarceration.
The theory is that the up to $500 stipend will serve as an incentive to participate and stay engaged. Davis said:
“We know that $500 in San Francisco is not a significant amount of money. But, if it’s enough to get you in to talk to folks and be able to make a plan for your life, then that’s huge.”
This is not the first time a city in California has tried to reduce gun violence by offering cash.
A similar anti-violence program in Oakland offers young adults up to $300 for achieving milestones. The different in San Francisco is that it would start people off with a baseline of $300 a month without having to meet any marks.
It is also not San Francisco’s first guaranteed-income program. The City recently rolled out similar efforts for pregnant mothers from marginalized communities and artists struggling during the pandemic.
The plan is to kick off the Fellowship program with 10 participants before expanding the stipends to another 30 high-risk individuals by the end of the year. They have already hired two life coaches to work with participants at SVIP and are looking to hire two more. Davis said:
“What we are actually doing is trying to address the root cause of some of what’s happened. Six thousand dollars per person, when you look at it annually, is nothing if it helps deter criminal activity compared to the amount of money it costs to incarcerate someone, let alone the impact of the activity itself.”
The effort comes as shootings are soaring in San Francisco, after years of declines. It is a pattern being seen around the nation during the pandemic, even in cities like Oakland that already have cash incentive programs.
San Francisco program pays people $300-a-month to not shoot each other https://t.co/MdWaEUPveZ via @MailOnline
San Francisco rolls out program to PAY people $300-a-month not to SHOOT each other in a bid to curb gun violence in woke city where 'crime is basically legal'— B Gallagher (@Gally66kg) September 2, 2021
About twice as many people have been shot in San Francisco as of late July compared to either of the prior two years.
During the same time period, police data show there were 21 gun homicides in 2021 compared to 15 in 2020 and 14 in 2019. The number of non-fatal shooting victims also rose to 108 from 51 and 50 in the previous two years.
