Karin Smith, a 52-year-old resident of Jupiter, Florida, is not someone you would think would be at risk of eviction. Until March, she was earning $96,000 a year as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Education. Then, on March 14, she lost her job and told her landlord that she would have trouble making the monthly $1,650 rent payment. The landlord initially agreed to a payment schedule, she said, but then on April 2 told Karin she would be evicted if she was even a day late.
Archives: Voices
Hunger persists for Florida families under stalled stimulus package
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — There are urgent calls for legislators to act quickly to ensure all Florida families can meet their basic needs during and after the COVID-19 crisis. Census data show about half of Florida’s households include someone who lost income through the pandemic. Trudy Novicki, president and CEO of Florida Impact to End Hunger, says the federal cutback is discouraging as she looks at the growing needs of Floridians. “Needs are going up, SNAP, people applying for food stamps has increased threefold since the pandemic began and it’s not ending,” she states.
Census undercount could cost Arizona jobs, billions in funds
TUCSON, Ariz. — An undercount in the 2020 Census could cost Arizona thousands of jobs, billions of dollars for social programs, and even a seat in Congress. And there’s concern that the Trump administration’s order to end the census count a month early could do just that. Experts said not getting an accurate count would hurt many of the state’s most vulnerable residents. But two out of five Arizonans have not completed their census forms yet, one of the lowest rates in the country.
Sen. Sanders, Rep. Larson call for strengthening Social Security after GAO study examines disability wait times
Americans are dying by the thousands as they wait for a decision on whether they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. That’s the finding of a brand new report issued last week by the General Accountability Office (GAO). The report, which was issued on the eve of Social Security’s 85th birthday, was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT).
Interning in the time of COVID-19
When I applied for an internship with the Coalition on Human Needs in February, I was expecting my experience to be slightly different than what it has been. I knew I wanted to do advocacy and non-profit work and gain experience in the realm of policy. I was eager to work in D.C. and join a network of people advocating for those facing issues that I cared about. Today, I write this from my bedroom in Baltimore, Maryland, working from my laptop at home like I have been since March. COVID-19 has brought upon a situation that I can imagine almost no one was expecting.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship August 13, 2020
Zeroes Edition. This week’s stats show some high numbers – millions more COVID-19 cases, billions of dollars in unemployment benefits now expired for 3 weeks, and 19 million children in households threatened with eviction and hunger – but a lot of zeroes. These convey the likely impact of President Trump’s executive actions, at least in the next couple of months.
West Virginians to bear brunt if Census count deadline isn’t extended
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — With the Trump administration cutting the U.S. census count short by a month, advocates for families say West Virginians will pay the price, unless lawmakers pass a pandemic-relief bill that extends the deadline. In 2016, West Virginia received almost $7 billion based on census results, according to Deborah Weinstein, executive director for the Coalition on Human Needs. She said it’s critical census takers get more time to count; otherwise the state will lose millions of dollars in vital funding over the next ten years.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship August 6, 2020
How much more will people lose before Trump and McConnell provide help? The House enacted its HEROES bill on May 15. The Senate has not yet acted; its majority caucus is divided. Since the House acted, the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has soared from 1.4 million to 4.8 million. We have gained back some of the jobs lost, but are still at least 13 million below the February peak, and now, as weekly unemployment claims have well exceeded 1 million for 20 weeks, job growth sharply slowed in July. About 30 million jobless people are now going without the $600/week extra unemployment compensation, and that is making it much harder for them to pay rent or buy food.
COVID-19 relief: North Dakota groups push Congress to move more quickly
BISMARCK, N.D. – As COVID-19 cases continue to spike in North Dakota, social service support groups are asking the U.S. Senate to act quickly before its August recess and approve more emergency assistance. Many North Dakotans are on the brink of hunger and homelessness because of COVID-19-related shutdowns, according to Cheryl Ann Kary – executive director of the Sacred Pipe Resource Center, which provides services to Native American families in the Bismarck area.
With $600 UI benefits lapsed, MomsRising members, Senators call for extension
Sharmah Wardlaw of Atlanta, Georgia worked as a concierge at a local convention center, a job she had held for 15 years, when the coronavirus pandemic set in. Suddenly, no conventions, no visitors – and for Wardlaw, no work. She relied in part on the additional $600 in federal unemployment benefits – payments that ended last month. “Without the $600 a week boost, we won’t even be able to keep up with the rent,” she said. “We are praying that Congress extends it. Otherwise we don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Human needs advocates compare Senate’s HEALS Act to House’s HEROES Act – and find it sorely lacking
As millions of Americans lose access to additional unemployment benefits, face the dire threat of eviction and homelessness, and increasingly grapple with food insecurity, advocates from across Iowa and the U.S. last week came together to call upon the Senate to move quickly to pass robust legislation in response the COVID-19 crisis. The Facebook Live event, hosted by Tax March Iowa, included Sister Richelle Friedman, CHN’s Director of Public Policy and an Iowa native
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship July 31, 2020
Eyes Upon the Senate Edition. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) let the clock run out on the $600/week Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUC) and the federal moratorium on evictions. As you read this, neither are in place. It will take perhaps two weeks for states to reprogram to restore a flat level of PUC; months more to try for a certain percentage of prior earnings, as the Senate “HEALS” Act eventually calls for. Now, McConnell is abandoning the $1T HEALS Act to try to get a bill that provides $200/week in extra pandemic aid, and does nothing else – no help for those facing eviction, no state/local aid, no SNAP increase, no Medicaid funds, no cash stimulus payments, no vaccine research, treatment, or testing funds, no child care, no paid leave.