The United States currently faces an economic crisis of climactic proportions. Working families who were already teetering on the brink of financial insolvency now face mass unemployment and a deeply uncertain future. In an economy in which women make up nearly two in three workers in low paid jobs — nearly half of whom are women of color — the burden of this economic collapse will fall disproportionately along gendered and racial lines. We need a new New Deal that does not leave out domestic workers and farmworkers like the first one did, but rather sets workers up for stability both during this crisis and in the recovery to follow.
Archives: Voices
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship
Week after week, the toll of the pandemic grows, damaging the health and economic security of millions. Joblessness is skyrocketing; shocking numbers are running out of food, losing health insurance, and failing to pay rent. Congress’ response must match the severity of the downturn to prevent another Great Depression.
A New COVID-19 Crisis: Lockdown and Intimate Terrorism
“Violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest – in their own homes.” These words, spoken by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, shine light on another devastating condition that has been flourishing under the reign of COVID-19, domestic abuse. The fact is that lockdowns and quarantines, while effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus, have the potential to trap those with abusive partners.
Coalition on Human Needs: Speaker Pelosi’s HEROES Act Responds to Our National Emergency
When four in ten families with children do not have enough money to buy a month of food, that is an emergency. When 33 million workers have filed unemployment claims, and many more have not even been able to get through to states’ overwhelmed systems, the need for action is urgent. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has worked with House members to introduce legislation aimed at preventing the pandemic from triggering a full-blown Depression. The scope of their response is needed. Congress must act.
Coronavirus and gig workers: When the band stops playing
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.”
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.