CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Vote for Human Needs, October 21, 2024
The Vote for Human Needs edition. Democracy is under attack and CHN is fighting back. New, restrictive voter ID laws have been enacted in state after state. Many states are shortening the time we have to vote, or making it more difficult to have our votes counted. Often, the brunt of this oppression falls on people of color, students, the elderly, or first-time voters.
What are we doing about it? CHN has developed a number of tools you can take advantage of in the waning days of the election. Here’s a brief rundown of ways you can get involved – also in our Voter Engagement Resource Guide here:
- Sign up for one of four virtual letter- or text banking parties:
- October 22, 7:00 –8:15 pm ET – Letter Writing Party
- October 24, 7:00 –8:15 pm ET – Letter Writing Party
- October 29, 6:00 pm ET – Text Banking Party – Find your Polling Place
- November 4, 6:00 pm ET – Text Banking Party – Voting Reminder
- Send letters to infrequent voters through Vote Forward, using this link.
- Try a new approach called Vote Tripling. To conduct Vote Tripling, all you need to do is greet people, and ask them to send a text message reminding their friends to vote. Click here.
- Become a poll worker.
- Protect our right to vote as an Election Protection volunteer. Sign up here.
- Finally: we at CHN want to remind you of the availability of our nonpartisan Vote for Human Needs Voter Issue Guides. These cover the gamut – Care, Health Care, Hunger, Housing, Families and Lower-Income People, and Protecting Democracy. Many in our network – including nonprofits and social service agencies — have a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the issues that matter most. (For the social media toolkit, click here.)
If you want just a taste of what we’re offering up with our issue fact sheets, scroll down!
$10,000/
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Child care costs an average of $10,000 a year, exceeding the cost of rent in many areas. And the U.S. is one of the only developed nations without national paid leave – only one in four workers nationwide have access to paid national leave. Tweet this.
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<$24,000
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Direct care workers who take care of people including disabled and older adults earn less than $24,000 a year on average and usually don’t get benefits. Because Congress hasn’t agreed to pay direct care workers more and to hire more of them, nearly 690,000 people are waiting for Medicaid to provide home care so they don’t have to move into a nursing home. Tweet this.
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+45 million/
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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) covers more than 45 million Americans, and tax credits help lower costs. Most states have expanded Medicaid under the ACA for people with the lowest incomes, bringing the number of uninsured people to an all-time low. And the ACA has helped more than 100 million people by preventing overcharging, insurance denial, gender-based pricing, and service refusals. Tweet this.
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$700 |
ACA tax credits helped reduce premiums for those buying their own health insurance. Increased assistance saved the average person about $700. However, this extra help will end in 2025, potentially leaving millions without health care unless Congress votes to keep it. Tweet this.
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47.4 million/
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In 2023, an alarming 47.4 million Americans, including 13.8 million children and youth, lived in households without enough food. Not only does hunger affect people’s health and well-being, it also has far-reaching social effects. Hunger raises health care costs, makes it harder for children to focus on school, and reduces workplace productivity. It also hurts the economy. Tweet this.
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70% |
A whopping 70% of voters want more government action to fight hunger. But some politicians want to cut funding for nutrition programs that help millions of families put food on the table and help feed children in schools.
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12%/16%/
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In the past year, homelessness rose by 12% overall, 16% for families with children, and 15% for youth living on their own.
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1 in 4 |
Only 1 in 4 renters who are eligible for federal housing assistance can get it. Without stable housing, people have difficulty finding and keeping jobs or getting education and health care. The harm to families can be long-lasting.
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1 in 4/
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The Child Tax Credit helps families with the cost of raising kids but one in four children do not get the full CTC. Congress also needs to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which will help 14 million low-wage workers, including younger workers and those without children, preventing many from being taxed into poverty.
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4.8%/37% |
In the past 6 years, 28 billionaires paid an average of 4.8% in taxes, while many working families paid 37%. At the same time, the wealth of 741 billionaires in America grew by $2.3 trillion. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage hasn’t risen since 2009, and millions of workers struggle to make ends meet.
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