The 2019 Human Needs Hero Reception: ‘We are not going backwards.’
David Elliot,
September 24, 2019
CHN members, supporters, friends, and activists gathered in the Gompers Room of the AFL-CIO headquarters last week for an evening of celebration, commiseration, and congratulations, even in the shadow the Trump White House just a few blocks away. This year, at the 2019 Human Needs Hero Reception, CHN honored longtime children’s and anti-poverty advocate Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman, Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, and also a longtime champion in the fight against poverty. The two received CHN’s Human Needs Hero Awards.
CHN urges Trump Administration to withdraw threat to SNAP benefits
David Elliot,
September 24, 2019
The Coalition on Human Needs this week demanded that the Trump Administration withdraw a proposal that would cause more than 3 million Americans to lose SNAP benefits – and many children to lose access to important nutrition assistance programs ranging from school lunch to WIC. In comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein emphasized the importance of SNAP as a tool for fighting poverty, and expressed strong opposition to the Administration’s effort to revise Categorical Eligibility, a long-standing option that 40 states use to better serve needy families.
First Focus report: Child poverty remains high while federal spending on children declines
Lear Burton,
September 24, 2019
First Focus on Children recently held its annual Children’s Budget Summit and released its signature Children’s Budget publication that analyzes how well children have fared in federal spending over the past 5 years. The poverty rate for children is 54.4 percent higher than it is for adults, so how well is the federal government doing in appropriating money to programs that benefit children? Unfortunately, we aren’t doing enough. The share of federal spending on children has dropped to an all-time low of 7.21 percent of the federal budget, a near 10 percent decline since 2015.
Are child poverty and America’s housing crisis up for debate?
David Elliot,
September 13, 2019
Thursday night the leading presidential candidates took the stage in Houston for the latest debate. Earlier this summer, Voices for Human Needs took note of the fact that candidates are rarely asked debate questions about how to address poverty. This week we witnessed a number of groups and individuals who argued that presidential debates should include questions about how to solve homelessness and America’s affordable housing crisis, and about how to best address child poverty.
Resources from around the Coalition: CHN members weigh in on Census numbers
David Elliot,
September 12, 2019
When the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual reports on income, poverty and health care coverage this week, CHN members were quick to weigh in with their own commentary. You can see a number of their press statements and blog posts (and lots of other resources) on our Census resource page. But meanwhile, here is a sample of what our members are saying.
