Dangerous Gaps: As inequality rises, 30 percent of Americans live close to the edge and huge proportions of minorities and young children are poor
CHN Staff,
September 26, 2019
Not everyone is benefiting from economic growth. New state and local survey data from the Census Bureau show a poverty rate of 13.1 percent in 2018, down from 13.4 percent over the previous year. While the downward trend is good news, the data continue to show troubling disparities. Income inequality rose nationwide. More than 30 percent of all people in the U.S. have incomes less than twice the federal poverty line (just under $40,000 a year for a family of 3). In 24 states and Puerto Rico, at least 30 percent of people had incomes this modest – above poverty, but on the edge.
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.
