Four Ways California Is Leading on Social Reforms — and How Your State Can Too

In the face of shrinking budgets—for households, organizations, localities, and states—tackling profound structural issues like racism and income inequality might feel daunting. However, the crises of 2020 have laid bare how deeply economic precarity and racism restrict Americans' lives and opportunities, making this moment of national reckoning a critical opportunity for change. Since spring we have seen rapid, sweeping shifts in public opinion, and emergency policy measures in support of strengthening our social safety net and recognizing systemic injustices impacting people of color. At long last, equity-driven reforms that once felt like they could be years away are gaining traction.

As local leaders try to address the needs of their most vulnerable populations—and have those policy reforms last beyond the current crisis—they should look to California. While the state still faces urgent equity challenges—including this week’s rolling blackouts, which disproportionately impact low-income people—it is generating learnings that have national relevance. Here are four areas where California’s state and local initiatives are tackling racial and economic equity, that policy leaders across the country should take note of:

Bolster the social safety net

“Low-wage workers, particularly in the service sector, already faced disproportionate challenges before COVID-19, and are some of the most impacted by this crisis to date,” wrote the California Future of Work Commission in its April 2020 Update on Progress. This preliminary report outlines recommendations for how to build equitable and sustainable working conditions for Californians, and a safety net that is “consistent with all varieties of work and work arrangements, the realities of low-paid work, the needs of employers including small and medium businesses, and displacement of or disruption to work.” The commission also points to the potential of portable benefits models—for instance, where a person’s health insurance isn’t tied to their employer—as well as benefits structures, like retirement funds, for California workers in industries like construction and the arts, to support groups of workers who have been “legally or structurally excluded from critical benefits (e.g., domestic workers).”

Another buffer against the worst potential outcomes of economic precarity is Stockton’s universal basic income (UBI) pilot. The $500 monthly cash payments have been a stabilizing force for many families during the pandemic, and universal income experiments like this are expanding across the nation. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs recently announced the launch of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of city leaders committing to exploring local UBI programs. California continues to be a leader in the movement (with five mayors from the state participating), but its membership is growing, including mayors from South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Washington.

Integrate economic and environmental justice

There is a clear connection between economic development, environment, and resident health. Taking an equity lens in environmental work is critical, as people of color and low-income people are far likelier to live in polluted communities. California’s Regions Rise Together initiative is an effort to drive inclusive and sustainable economic development throughout all regions of California—not just the coastal areas that often attract the most investment. It has focused on clean tech and climate-related jobs, as well as regional planning that expands public transit and concentrates businesses and homes nearby, simultaneously addressing issues of housing, climate, agriculture and open space.

The Tahoe Prosperity Center’s Housing Tahoe initiative is another example of how to thoughtfully integrate social, economic, and environmental priorities. CEO Heidi Hill Drum shared more about the strategy at a recent virtual conference. “So that families are not living in old motel rooms that were built in 1950,” she said, “we have the opportunity to build new housing on state lands and do that in a green and sustainable way. We have an opportunity to meet the 100 percent renewable goal that was recently set by the city of South Lake Tahoe, and do solar installation and electric vehicle charging stations, and to...train our workers for those high-wage jobs.”

Finally, industry buy-in is critical to addressing economic security and environmental health. California’s Inland Empire boasts access to airports, seaports and highways, as well as vast stretches of land for warehouses, making it a perfect home for the burgeoning logistics industry. However, many trucking, warehouse, and other logistics jobs there do not provide pathways to family-sustaining compensation, and the industry has negative environmental impacts, like high CO2 emissions. To help address these issues, the Inland Economic Growth and Opportunity (IEGO) initiative has convened a cross-sector group to develop a sustainable and equitable logistics agenda for the region.

Distribute funding equitably across regions

Inland California communities have long been under-resourced in comparison with their coastal peers. Despite being home to over half a million Californians, the city of Fresno has seen disproportionately low levels of philanthropic investment, which is one driver of the poor outcomes Fresnans experience: nearly half of residents struggle to make ends meet, and the city ranks dead last in the state on measures of racial inclusion. The Fresno DRIVE initiative is changing that. With a vision of racial equity at its core, DRIVE has engaged over 150 stakeholders to generate a $4 billion community investment plan. This commitment to inclusive planning has already yielded major investments by the state and the James Irvine Foundation.

The success of the Fresno DRIVE and Regions Rise Together approaches led California State Assemblymember Rudy Salas to propose bill AB-3205, which would create the statewide Regions Rise Grant Program. Goals of the program include seeding more efforts around the state that involve multi-sector collaboration and that put inclusive economic growth agendas at the center of regional and state planning.

Engage residents in solving the problems they are closest to

Many economic development efforts are driven by the priorities and perspectives of policymakers and civic leaders, without much direct input from residents and community members. DRIVE has made efforts to do things differently, leading focus groups early in its process that gave feedback ranging from the effects of racism on residents’ economic opportunities to lack of access to transit. In January, New America CA led human-centered research with low-wage and automation-vulnerable workers to understand and elevate their challenges and priorities, findings that are being incorporated into DRIVE’s work. And the initiative’s “Civic Infrastructure for Low Opportunity Neighborhoods” group is working on connecting high-poverty Fresno communities to resident-led organizations, which will engage residents in neighborhood improvement projects, provide leadership skills training, and facilitate resident leadership of DRIVE projects.

The Future of Work Commission also has its eye on incorporating workers into the design of changes that directly impact them. The commission is exploring “giving workers a voice in the development of workplace technology” through a lab that combines workers’ expertise with that of tech companies and researchers, to test new technologies while understanding what they might mean for workers’ health and safety. Jobs For the Future’s California office is another leader in resident engagement, exploring business models that prioritize worker well-being by hiring workers themselves to be the field researchers.

It is clearer than ever that each American’s health and well-being is connected to that of their most vulnerable neighbor. In this moment, cities and states have an opportunity to act. Armed with the blueprints from communities that are already making strides to address inequity and strengthen the social safety net, we can shift conversations and resources toward long-needed, sustainable change, so that all people can be secure, healthy, and thriving.