Kathryn of Santa Rosa, California and her husband are both musicians, working gigs in California’s tourism-rich wine country — until the pandemic happened, drying up their work. “We were having a great start to our bookings for the year when news of the coronavirus started coming in,” she says. “We performed our last job on March 6. All jobs were cancelled and all inquiries for future work stopped coming in. Our business relies heavily on corporate travel in the fall. With a probable return of COVID-19 in the fall, we anticipate little to no work for the rest of the year.”
Archives: Voices
New Unemployment Report Shows Record-Breaking Hardship – Congress Must Respond
The gravity of our national situation cannot be denied. With 20,000 – 30,000 new COVID-19 cases every day in the U.S., we will not be able to fully open our economy for some time. We are experiencing a pandemic-induced economic depression. April’s stunning unemployment report showed a total of nearly 44 million either out of work or involuntarily part-time. For Latinx, nearly one in five were unemployed (18.9 percent); for African Americans, 16.7 percent; for whites, 14.2 percent; for Asians, 14.5 percent, using the narrowest official definition of unemployment.
One day before planning to strike, nursing home workers in Illinois win key concessions
Thousands of frontline nursing home workers in Illinois have won a tentative yet significant victory after workers reached an agreement with the Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities. The agreement, which still must be approved by rank-and-file workers, was reached on Thursday, May 7. On Friday, 6,000 caregivers at 64 nursing home facilities in Illinois had been prepared to strike. The agreement is good news for both SEIU Healthcare members as well as residents at more than 100 nursing homes – both nursing home residents and employees have been disproportionately harmed by COVID-19.
Housing and Health Care: Working Together to Address COVID-19
We are in the midst of a health crisis – the COVID-19 pandemic – where we know people experiencing homelessness are at a greater risk of infection due to a variety of factors like the inability to socially isolate, being unsheltered, and having increased underlying health conditions. To address the pandemic, the homelessness system must work across silos, particularly health – a sector that has the ability to test and care for our vulnerable populations during these trying times.
CHN’s latest Human Needs Report examines congressional work on COVID-19, FY21 spending, Census progress
CHN today released its latest edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, work on FY21 spending bills, a delay in the 2020 Census operations, and more.
In the age of COVID-19, don’t forget our incarcerated youth
The last few weeks have seen COVID-19 outbreaks in multiple juvenile detention facilities throughout the country. The largest of these outbreaks has been in Virginia’s Bon Air juvenile detention facility where a quarter of all the cases reported at youth facilities nationwide have occurred. This outbreak was predicted by advocates concerned with the welfare of those in juvenile detention and could have been prevented.
Front-line workers demand COVID-19 aid for beleaguered local, state governments
This week, AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, a CHN member organization, is calling on Congress to pass a robust aid package for state and local governments in the next round of COVID-19 relief legislation. A new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities underscores the urgency of this request: over three years, the shortfall in state government revenue alone will be $650 billion, not counting losses to local governments.
Coronavirus and the elderly: Stories of hopelessness, solitude, isolation, and despair
When we at CHN asked our online supporters to share their stories about the coronavirus pandemic, we heard from a number of elderly people with a wide range of concerns. Some expressed a sense of hopelessness, solitude, isolation, and despair. Others feared that if they get sick, they will not be treated and will instead be sacrificed for younger patients who are deemed more likely to survive. Others still worry about an ongoing lack of testing and whether the resources will exist for them to be able to access treatment.
‘We need an army to do this.’ Experts say contact tracing may disrupt COVID-19’s spread
What is contact tracing and how can it be used to interrupt COVID-19’s deadly path around the world? Imagine going about your daily life with bright red paint on your hands. Everything and everyone you come into contact with is affected. If you brush against someone in the supermarket, they might get a little bit of paint on themselves. They might bring it home to their own family, who could then spread it even further. Contact tracing has the potential to interrupt COVID-19’s chain of transmission by identifying those who are infected, and then locating and notifying their recent contacts.
CHN’s Deborah Weinstein: Congress takes some needed steps — but a fearful nation needs more.
The latest COVID-19 legislative package should keep some workers in jobs and keep some businesses from folding. The funds for health care providers and for testing are needed. But this is far from all that is required to get millions of unemployed workers, retirees, and families out of the disastrous economic situation we’re in. Congress must continue its work via three essential routes: ensuring everyone can get medical treatment and protection against the coronavirus; supporting the incomes of millions of struggling people; and shoring up the state and local institutions of government that are needed to continue the services we depend upon.
Coronavirus and the 2020 Census: Revisiting the “Best Laid Plans”
Across the country, in every state and U.S. territory, literally thousands and thousands of community events were planned this spring as part of a massive effort – sometimes coordinated, sometimes not – to ensure an accurate count of young children in the 2020 Census. Then the coronavirus pandemic happened. So child advocates, hoping to avoid the massive undercount of young children that occurred ten years ago, have had to adeptly shift to adjust strategies. Here’s a snapshot of how advocates in Alabama, Indiana, Nevada, New York, and Oklahoma are quickly pivoting.
Nearly 400 groups tell Congress: Invest in robust spending to improve Americans’ lives
Nearly 400 groups, including the Coalition on Human Needs, this week urged leading appropriators in Congress to allocate a greater share of funds in fiscal year 2021 to programs controlled by the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Even as Congress grapples with special funding to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, it remains necessary to support the basic programs that protect health and provide the tools for economic recovery.