As climate change advances, the U.S. is experiencing more drought, more wildfires, more floods. And now it is hurricane season – one year after we witnessed a total of 30 named storms, a record. But the federal agency charged with providing emergency aid and rebuilding assistance to Americans with damaged homes is facing a storm of its own. In recent months, a number of studies have confirmed what housing advocates have known all along: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) distributes more aid – a lot more, in some cases – to white homeowners than it does to Black homeowners.
Archives: Voices
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship June 11, 2021
The Build Back Better edition. COVID-19 cases are down and more people are working. But all is not well in America. Staggering numbers remain out of work and now there is emerging evidence, that as Black and brown communities lag behind in vaccinations, COVID-19 could become a disease that overwhelmingly impacts communities of color. Vaccinations – which reached a peak of nearly two million per day in April – have slipped under 400,000 a day, endangering President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of the country vaccinated by the 4th of July. Fewer than one in four Black Americans have received their first shot.
2021 sets new mark for voter suppression laws; Texas threat still looming
Calendar year 2021 is not even half over – yet we already know that it will set a modern-day record for the number of voter suppression laws passed by state legislatures and enacted into law in one year. Between January 1 and May 14 of this year, 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the vote. That breaks a record set in 2011, when – by October of that year – 19 restrictive laws were passed in 14 states.
The Biden Budget: Responsible investments in our future
President Biden’s budget is responsive to our needs and responsible to our future. Instead of ignoring government’s failure for years to maintain and improve the basic building blocks of our economic security, the budget makes investments our nation badly needs.
CHN’s latest Human Needs Report: Special edition examines Biden Administration’s proposed budget
CHN just released a special edition of the Human Needs Report focusing on President Biden’s FY22 budget request. Read on for an overview of the request and details from select government departments that most directly impact people with low incomes.
Emerging from the pandemic: How we place America’s children and families on a path to prosperity
Emerging from the pandemic will neither be easy for America nor for America’s children. Many have experienced hunger and live in households anxious over possible eviction. Many have not been able to learn effectively without adequate access to the internet. Children of color and children in families with low incomes have been disproportionately harmed, sometimes by the deaths of loved ones from COVID-19. But the groundbreaking proposals put forth by the Biden Administration give us hope that America’s children and families will have the resources and programs they need to place them on a path toward recovery and prosperity.
COVID-19 brought unique challenges, both for college students and those outside the college track
With online learning transitions, many students lost the resources and financial assistance their schools provided them. Combined with decreased availability of short-term employment and increased risk of front-facing jobs, many education plans have been uprooted.
COVID-19 magnified America’s housing crisis for families with children
Homelessness and insecure housing have received attention from policy researchers as growing evidence of their harm has surfaced. Links between experiencing homelessness and poor health outcomes are long-lasting and harmful for marginalized communities and families, especially those with young children.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship May 28, 2021
They Don’t Care Why You’re Out of Work edition. So far, 24 states have announced they will terminate federal pandemic unemployment benefits sometime in June, months before they will expire. They don’t seem to have tighter labor markets than the other states; rather, the early ends to UI look tied to politics, not economics. And it sure may force some people back to work in low-paying and even unsafe jobs.
CHN’s Podcast Episode 1: Raising the Federal Minimum Wage
In our first episode of the Voices for Human Needs Podcast, hear from three policy advocates, activists, and organizers discuss the top-line impacts of raising the federal minimum wage through the Raise the Wage Act, the disproportionate impacts of a low federal minimum wage on women workers and BIPOC workers, and what listeners can do to organize in your communities in support of One Fair Wage.
COVID-19 and children: An ongoing nutrition crisis
When COVID-19 struck, hunger among children increased sharply. By March of this year, up to 8.8 million children lived in households reporting that their children did not have enough to eat in the past 7 days. Before the pandemic, in December of 2019, 1.1 million children were in households in which children did not have enough to eat at some point in the previous 30 days.
The long-term impact of COVID-19: Assessing the pandemic’s youngest victims
Possibly the broadest impact of COVID-19 lies in its economic ramifications. From the effect of lockdowns on labor practices and employment to the loss of community supports and services that require in-person attention, the pandemic pushed apart cracks in a faltering social safety net in America. As more households fall into poverty, children have become one of the pandemic’s biggest victims. Beginning today, a new Voices for Human Needs series of blog posts will highlight how the pandemic has harmed children and families in poverty, focusing on children of all ages and how key risk factors have evolved in the age of COVID-19.