Coalition on Human Needs: We will continue to oppose blank check funding and lawless actions by ICE and Border Patrol
June 10, 2026
CHN to Senate: ‘Not only is our income at risk, but our lives’
CHN Staff,
March 13, 2020
Update: On Wednesday, March 18, the Senate passed and President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. On Friday, March 13, the Coalition on Human Needs sent a letter to all 100 Senators urging passage of comprehensive legislation to address the COVID-19 disease outbreak. In a related move, CHN also urged its supporters to call their senators and demand passage. The letter, signed by CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein, states that passage of the legislation “will be a step towards putting the needs of low-income and vulnerable people first.” But it warns that even with swift passage of pending legislation, a more “fully adequate response” will be needed very soon.
Babies are counting on an accurate Census
Mollyrose Schaffner,
March 12, 2020
The Decennial Census occurs once every ten years and babies count on us to get it right. Overlooking and undercounting young children has serious consequences. The population most likely to be missed in the Census is the same group of children most likely to live in poverty, experience homelessness, and live in stress. These babies can’t afford to be missed.
New Strategies from Connecticut Count All Kids Project
David Elliot,
March 4, 2020
In Connecticut, child advocates are engaging in a variety of approaches to make sure that young children, especially young children under the age of five, are counted in the 2020 Census. The efforts are crucial because in 2010, there was a net undercount of an estimated 3.3 percent of Connecticut’s young children. About 22 percent of the state’s residents – 804,000 people – live in hard-to-count tracts. About 12.4 percent of children (23,075) live in households where they are not the child of the householder, and nearly one in ten (9 percent) live with a grandparent – factors that make it even more difficult to ensure an accurate count. So what are child advocates doing? Lots! Here’s a rundown – and, quite possibly, some ideas that advocates in other states will want to try.
Would coronavirus disproportionately hurt low-income people? Yes.
David Elliot,
March 3, 2020
The coronavirus does not discriminate based on income or class. Just ask the more than 700 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess who became ill. One could probably surmise that most passengers aboard that cruise ship boasted above-average wealth (and the crew members, generally in the opposite income category, also were affected). But for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the virus itself, we know that even a moderate pandemic could hurt lower-income people more than others. This fact was borne out in recent days by news articles reported by three major publications.
Forty years after passage of Refugee Act, our country’s refugee program is in tatters
David Elliot,
March 2, 2020
Seven-year-old Biar Atem was in a field helping tend his father’s cattle when the explosions began. The second civil war had come to his South Sudan village. Two million people would die; millions more would be displaced, including Atem, who became part of the roughly 30,000 “Lost Boys of South Sudan,” who walked barefoot for 1,000 miles to reach refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in camps for well over a decade, Atem was allowed to settle in the U.S. in 2001. The law that allowed them to come here is known as the Refugee Act of 1980. On Tuesday of this week, this legislation marked its 40th birthday
