How to greet 2020? We look to suffragist Alice Paul and Rep. John Lewis for inspiration.
Archives: Voices
NELP report: New year to usher in minimum wage increases; fight for $15 pays dividends
As we prepare to ring in the new year, there is some good news to report. Across the country, a record number of states, cities and counties are raising the minimum wage, evidence that our national conversation and debate over income inequality is having tangible results. The welcome news was delivered in a new report published Monday by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a CHN member. NELP reported that in January alone, 21 states and 26 cities and counties will raise the minimum wage. And there’s more good news to come: later in 2020, four more states and 23 additional localities also will raise their minimum wages.
CHN welcomes new board members
CHN recently welcomed four new members to its Board of Directors as well as one new Board officer. The new members will begin their service on Jan. 1, 2020. They represent disability advocates, the anti-poverty community, labor rights, and immigration and economic justice advocacy. All CHN Board members work for organizations that are CHN members.
CHN’s latest Human Needs Report: Final spending bills, parental leave for federal workers, ACA’s future, and more
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s final FY20 spending bills, a year-end tax package, a judge’s ruling on the ACA, efforts to preserve SNAP benefits and lower prescription drug costs, and more. You can view a PDF up the report here.
For homeless Americans, Dec. 21 is the longest night of the year
Saturday, Dec. 21 is the first day of winter and the longest night of the year. It is also the day that many affordable housing advocates have chosen to remember the many homeless people who die each year. Sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Consumer Advisory Board and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, the National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day has been commemorated for nearly three decades now.
CHN on Congressional spending bills: Important progress and missed opportunities
The appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives will provide important help to many Americans in areas such as child care funding, affordable housing, Medicaid, and more. But Congress missed some opportunities to make our tax code serve those who need help the most, and it failed to block the Trump Administration’s abusive anti-immigrant and anti-discrimination policies. The need to help more people escape poverty and to stop inhumane attacks on immigrants remains urgent, and the members of the Coalition on Human Needs will redouble their efforts towards just and commonsense policies in the new year.
A missed opportunity: Congress fails to expand tax credits to help children, low-income workers
Moments before midnight Monday, Congressional leaders reached an agreement on an end-of-year tax package that leaves out millions of poor people. In particular, despite a tenacious push by Speaker Pelosi and allies and a welcome demonstration of at least some bipartisan support, some children in poor families remain too poor to get help from the tax code. Advocates had hoped that Congress would expand the Child Tax Credit to cover families who are either too poor to qualify, or qualify for just a fraction of what other families receive. Also needing help were low-income workers without dependents, the only group whose tax payments can push them deeper into poverty.
CHN in the news: How the Trump Administration’s new food stamp restrictions will hurt people in deep poverty
This week, CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein appeared on both TV and radio to discuss the Trump Administration’s latest effort to cut SNAP benefits — this time, a rule that would take away benefits from as many as 688,000 Americans. Weinstein appeared on the nationally syndicated Leslie Marshall show, and she appeared on a shorter segment on Fox News.
Cutting food aid promotes hunger, not work
You may have heard about the Trump administration’s latest attack on very poor Americans: a punitive new restriction that will cut SNAP benefits for 688,000 people. Growing up, my family got food stamps — and oh, I hated it. I hated standing in line at the grocery store, knowing we’d be paying with coupons that would brand us as “poor” to anyone who noticed. And yet I loved the fact that we had food. As a growing kid, I knew what it was like to come home to a bare kitchen. Those dreaded vouchers meant we got cheese, milk, fruit, eggs, cereal, beans, tortillas, and yes, sometimes even ice cream. That food — and the stability that came with it — sent me on my way. Because I wasn’t hungry in school, I could pay attention. And I excelled.
Coming soon: WE COUNT!
A new resource aimed at making sure young children and hard-to-count populations are counted in the 2020 Census is about to be printed, and advocates hope it will help ensure an accurate tally. You may find it a useful part of your efforts to make sure young children are counted in the 2020 Census. WE COUNT! A 2020 Census Counting Book is an engagingly colorful, culturally sensitive 32-page book aimed at both young children and their parents. Its purpose is twofold: it is meant to be read aloud to young children to help them learn to count and, at the same time, it teaches adults to correctly count the members of their households on the 2020 Census form, despite their different living situations.
Alabama and the 2020 Census: ‘Whose child is missing?’
About one in four children in Alabama live in poverty, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. More than 17,000 young children in Alabama were not counted in the 2010 Census, which, measured by percentage, was much higher than the national average. About one in three households lacks access to the Internet. And the state is rural – very rural, explains Rhonda Mann, Deputy Director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children, a group that is conducting groundbreaking work to make sure all kids are counted this time around.
CHN: Taking food away from very poor people does not promote work. It simply makes them hungrier.
Taking food away from very poor people does not promote work. It simply compounds their hardships. The Trump Administration today ignored the will of Congress, the judgment of states, more than 100,000 concerned comments, and its own estimate of the harmful impact on close to 700,000 people. It will time-limit food assistance to only three months every three years if people are unable to get steady part-time work.