San Mateo County OKs Pilot for $1,000 Monthly Aid to Domestic Violence Survivors

In what may be a first in the country, San Mateo County officials approved a yearlong pilot program to offer guaranteed basic income to survivors of domestic abuse.

The $1,000 monthly payments will go to 20 individuals with at least one child. In total, the county set aside nearly $350,000 to fund the program. Payments have no spending restrictions and will start up in the new year.

County Supervisor Noelia Corzo, who co-sponsored the legislation, said the goal is to help survivors escape their abuser by easing the financial burden of doing so.

“In many, many cases, financial abuse and financial dependency is at the core of what keeps victims and survivors with their abusers, and I think this a really impactful step in the right direction,” Corzo said at the supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse will operate the program through June 30, 2026. To be eligible for the pilot, participants must be enrolled as CORA clients and be living independently or in the process of leaving an abuser.

Participants must also have a minor child living with them and earn 30% or less of the area median income.

“We want to be that helping hand to survivors in a time of great risk for them,” Corzo said. “Most victims of domestic violence that don’t survive it were killed while leaving their abusers.”

One public commenter, who didn’t state their name at the meeting, said CORA was critical when she left her abuser.

“I’m alive, and I’m here today because CORA was there for me, and a program like this, that would take care of basic needs and allow the freedom of choice for survivors who’ve had so little choice… is the greatest gift that I can imagine,” she said.

However, another commenter, who also described herself as a survivor, raised concerns that CORA needs greater oversight from the county.

The legislation is based on a similar guaranteed income pilot program for transitional-age foster youth, which the county approved last July. Supervisor David Canepa, who sponsored the legislation with Corzo, said the success of that program was a large factor in the creation of the pilot for survivors.

Guaranteed basic income specifically for survivors of domestic abuse is not something that has been done before anywhere else in the country, Corzo said.

“There are other government agencies that are exploring this, but they have not hit go like we are about to,” she said. “I’m really grateful that our county will be the first to get this done.”

Karen Ferguson, CORA’s CEO, highlighted the fact that the money comes with no strings attached.

“The question we are asking to parents facing complex decisions in the face of intimate partner abuse if you receive steady financial support for a year, does this allow you to make choices that you are fearful to make otherwise?” Ferguson said in a statement. “If we find the answer is yes, this could be a game changer in understanding how we address the resources needed for an individual to leave abuse behind.”