Feature: Letters to Congress

National Group Sign-On Letter Urges Congress to Quickly Enact No Less Than American Rescue Plan
February 5, 2021

On February 4th, over 100 national organizations including the Coalition on Human Needs called on the United States Congress to enact swiftly no less than what is called for in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Without speedy and comprehensive action, "...families that could have managed will be pushed into poverty and deaths that could have been avoided due to the pandemic will occur."

CHN letter to all U.S. Senators demands COVID-19 relief
September 25, 2020

CHN on Friday, Sept. 25 sent a letter to all 100 U.S. Senators demanding COVID-19 relief. It reads in part, "The pandemic has imperiled your constituents’ economic well-being and their health. COVID-19 cases are again rising, and as we enter the colder months, the threat will increase. The moratorium on evictions expires at the end of the year. If you leave now without acting, millions of people, unable to come up with one or more months of unpaid rent, will face eviction."

CHN’s letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend U.S. Census reporting deadlines
August 10, 2020

CHN's letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend statutory reporting deadlines for apportionment and redistricting data for the 2020 Census to April 30, 2021, extend the deadline to transmit state population totals to that date, prohibit the Bureau and the President from sending the relevant data to the Congress in advance of those deadlines, and to allocate $400 million to address Census Bureau operational challenges.

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Census Bureau: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016
September 12, 2017

This report presents data on income and poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2017 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC) conducted by the Census Bureau.

The High Cost of Being Poor in Massachusetts
November 1, 2016

Disappointingly, poverty in Massachusetts remains stuck, with 11.5 percent of Massachusettsans living in poverty in 2015, roughly the same as 2014 when 11.6 percent of Massachusettsans were poor. The precarious situation for the poor and near poor stands in the way of substantial progress. The fact is, it is expensive to be poor in Maine. Anti-poverty programs help alleviate costs, but more must be done to reduce burdens.

The High Cost of Being Poor in Florida
October 27, 2016

It is welcome news that the poverty rate in Florida declined from 16.5 percent in 2014 to 15.7 percent in 2015. But the precarious situation for the poor and near poor stands in the way of substantial progress. The fact is, it is expensive to be poor in Florida.