On November 20, 2025, Cook County made history: They approved $7.5 million in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget for a county-level permanent guaranteed income program. They are the first county in the nation to do so.

This is not only a victory for Cook County, but also a victory for anyone fighting for permanent  guaranteed income programs and economic justice across the country. This win shows what’s possible and that guaranteed income is not unrealistic nor beyond reach – especially when directly-impacted people take matters into their own hands to organize their community. 

For months, community members mobilized their neighbors around the guaranteed income program – they knocked thousands of doors, gave testimonies in front of the Board, and gathered petition signatures.

The July 2025 guaranteed income canvassing blitz organized by Community Change Action, Equity and Transformation (EAT), and the Workers Center for Racial Justice (WCRJ) in Chicago, IL was an integral part in winning this part of the campaign. The testimonies many of the members gave at Board meetings leading up to this vote represented not only their own experiences, but those of the community members they talked to over the course of several months. And those members not only wanted to secure the funds, but to have a say in how the program is designed so that it will help the people who need it the most.

Court B. a campaign leader, caregiver for her elderly father, and former recipient of guaranteed income, describes the impact of the July canvassing blitz:

“Ever since the blitz in July, I’ve talked to hundreds of people who have either more or less a similar story like me, where they’re a caregiver, struggling to make ends meet, and this program could help out a lot of people,” she said.

Court continues to describe what made the organizing campaign successful: “I think people don’t realize once you start talking to other people and you start emailing or talking to the elected officials who are supposed to support you, it makes it a lot easier to try and get policies changed.”

Economic Freedom Organizing Director with Community Change Action, Byron Hobbs, believed in the power of the people and predicted this win: 

Now that the funding for a permanent guaranteed income program has been approved, the next steps include shaping what the program will look like.

Aurora G., a campaign leader and mother describes the next steps for the campaign: “It’s a matter of us as a guaranteed income union making sure that our voices, perspectives, and needs are heard so that we can inform the people who are actually sitting at the table and will be finalizing what the details of the program will look like for next year.”

Organizers want to ensure that the funds are distributed monthly, no-strings-attached, to the communities that need it the most. 

But, it doesn’t stop there. The campaign is also advocating for a statewide guaranteed income program in Illinois. “Their experience, resilience, and wisdom will help co-create a future where we can truly abolish poverty in our county, our state, and ultimately our country.” Hobbs said in a statement.

This isn’t a pipe dream. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for guaranteed income in the 1960s as a tool for racial and economic justice, it was seen as radical, but now it’s realistic. 

Opponents of guaranteed income have argued that poor people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But as Dr. King stated in a 1967 interview, “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” 

In reality, funding a guaranteed income program that distributes unrestricted funds to help people meet their basic needs reinforces dignity. It’s reparations for bootless people who are unable to pull themselves out of poverty because of a system built on racial capitalism.

For other counties across the nation fighting to establish permanent guaranteed income programs, continue the fight. The win is near. Cook County is a launch pad for other counties and states to know what is possible.

Echoing words from campaign leader Court, until we abolish poverty, “Our fight will never be done.”