Many Californians could receive a check in the mail this October.

Stimulus payments will be issued to as many as 23 million state residents by California’s Franchise Tax Board via direct deposits and debit cards. Payments will start in October and continue through early 2023.

To qualify, you must have filed your 2020 state tax return by October 15, 2021, and been a California resident for at least six months in 2020. You must not be listed as a dependent on someone else’s return for the 2020 tax year, and you must be a California resident on the date your payment is issued.

The payments will be offered on a sliding scale, based on income and tax-filing status. Low-income tax filers with at least one dependent stand to receive the highest payouts.

You can go to the state’s Franchise Tax Board website to find out how much you will receive.

It’s a good thing there will be checks in the mail as inflation is one of the top problems facing the U.S. today and more than half of Latinos surveyed in a recent poll agreed.

56% of Latino households say recent price increases have caused them serious financial problems, according to a national poll from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and National Public Radio.

By comparison, 58% of Blacks and 69% of Native Americans said they faced serious financial problems due to inflation compared with 36% of Asian American and 44% of whites.

Around 55% of Black and 48% of Latino adults say they are currently facing serious financial problems compared to 38% of whites.

More than a third of Black and Latino adults say they are having serious problems affording food, compared with 21% of white adults. Nearly 40% of Native Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

Many families do not have emergency savings. Majorities of Black (58%), Latino (53%), and Native American (58%) adults say they do not have enough emergency savings to cover at least one month of their expenses, while 20% of Asian adults and 36% of whites.

White adults are also more likely to receive significant financial support from older relatives. The poll found  that around 14% of Black adults and 16% of Latino adults say they have ever received gifts or loans worth $10,000 or more from parents or older relatives.

The financial hardship is real and the stimulus checks will help. But they don’t address the systemic reasons why there is poverty or create long-term solutions.

Los Angeles County is experimenting with a basic income program, which will give $1,000 a month to 1,000 residents for three years. The demand is great. More than 180,000 people applied for 1,000 slots.

“Given the huge number of LA County residents who applied, it’s abundantly clear that a guaranteed basic income is an idea whose time has come,” Sheila Kuehl, supervisor of Los Angeles County’s third district, said in a statement.

Earlier this year the city of Los Angeles launched a program to give $1,000 a month for a year to about 3,200 families in poverty.

Stockton, California, ran a basic income program from January 2019 and February 2021. It gave 125 residents $500 per month. It led to increased employment. In February 2019, 28% of recipients had full-time employment. One year later, 40% of recipients were employed full-time. Participants also reported being less anxious and depressed.

Many families, especially Latino families, are struggling. We need solutions whether they are short-term checks or universal basic income.