Alisha

Alisha is an Oakland native who lives in Deep East Oakland where she raises her 8-year-old grandson, whom she legally adopted when he was 8 months old.

When asked what her financial situation would be like if she wasn’t part of Oakland Resilient Families she said, “Basically I would’ve been looking for avenues as to like, maybe, take up another class in college so I can get the financial aid to help me pay off some bills. I would’ve been comin’ up with some kind of solutions besides trying not to borrow from people or add onto my credit debt. So those are the things I probably would’ve been up against if it hadn’t been for the guaranteed income program.”

“It has been a great help. It has allowed me to free up some money. It has helped me pay off some bills, I’m building my credit, and I’ve also been able to put some money away for my grandson’s college fund. So it’s really a great help and I just hope that from this other people will look at Oakland and see these types of guaranteed [income] programs do work.”