Rachel Mingo has 11 reasons to be concerned about the lead poisoning scandal in Flint, Michigan. First, there’s her and her husband, who together recently bought a home in Flint. Then there’s her 2-year-old daughter Madilyn and her three-year-old son Maverick. Finally, there are her seven brothers, all single, all…
Archives: Voices
Senate Must Act to Help Flint Residents
At a fundraising event live-streamed from Flint, Michigan this past Sunday, Flint schoolchildren spoke to their neighbors and the nation. Jeremiah described his headaches, memory loss and stomach pain, and his three months of missed school. The children were resilient and brave, and they need and deserve urgent and continuing…
‘We Ate that Food and Swallowed Our Pride’
[Editor’s note: Today Sherry Brennan works as a high-ranking TV executive. But it wasn’t always that way. Growing up, Sherry’s family received SNAP and WIC benefits, and Sherry benefited from the National School Lunch Program as a high school student in Austin, Texas. This past weekend, Sherry was part of…
Since 2010, Human Needs Programs Suffer Congress’ Budget Ax
This piece originally appeared in The Hill’s Congress Blog on February 29. Advocates for human needs breathed an audible sigh of relief this past December when Congress reached a budget agreement that prevented the next round of sequestration cuts from taking place. And congressional action helped: of 164 human needs…
Human Needs Report: House Budget Delayed, Slow Response to the Flint Lead Poisoning Emergency, and a Bill to Fight Opioid Addiction
CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report, our regular newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. This edition includes articles on the House FY17 budget delay, the Flint, MI lead poisoning emergency, and a bill to fight opioid addiction moving in the Senate. See below for the full…
Truth in Payday Lending: James’ Story
This post was originally published on the National Council of La Raza’s blog on February 24. This week we begin a brand new series to highlight the struggles many Latinos have endured because of payday lending services that have trapped them in a vicious and costly cycle. The Consumer Financial…
Pfizer’s Tax Dodge and the Impllications for Human Needs
One hundred and sixty-six years after its founding in New York City, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is about to renounce its American identity. But not its American profits. Pfizer, which makes the popular drugs Celebrex, Lipitor, Lyrica and Viagra, among others, wants to merge with fellow drug firm…
Fact of the Week: 85 Percent of Critical Human Needs Programs Have Lost Ground Since 2010
Out of the more than 160 programs tracked by CHN that assist low-income people, 139 saw funding cuts from FY2010 through FY2016 after taking inflation into account. But it wasn’t just inflation eroding the value of the funding. New research by CHN found that nearly half of the programs (67…
Sharon, Tamara, and Living on $2 a Day
Back in December we hosted a webinar featuring Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Schaefer, the authors of $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, as well as a panel of experts on poverty: Sharon and Tamara, who have experienced abject poverty first-hand and survived to share their…
Health Care’s Coming Crisis: Out-of-Pocket Costs
This post was originally published by Washington Monthly on February 8, 2016. Americans have a lot to gripe about when it comes to health care. But there is one very legitimate complaint: the rising cost of co-pays, deductibles, what individuals pay for insurance premiums, and other out-of-pocket (OOP) costs that has…
Human Needs Report: Special FY2017 Presidential Budget Request Edition
CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report, our regular newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. This special edition includes articles the President’s FY2017 budget request, a breakdown of the budget by select departments, and related tax policy analysis. See below for the full analysis and links…
CHN Praises President Obama’s FY17 Budget Request
Below is the Coalition on Human Needs’ statement on President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget request released today. Let us know what you think of the President’s budget by leaving a comment below, and stay tuned for a special edition of the Human Needs Report to be released in the coming days with…