We are deeply saddened at the passing of Susan Rees, a great builder of the Coalition on Human Needs who served as Executive Director from 1983 to 1991.
We are so grateful Susan’s family has suggested contributions be made to CHN in Susan’s memory to continue the fight for justice.
If you would like to contribute to honor Susan Rees, please use the form below and email Radha Rath at rrath@chn.org to let us know you are contributing in Susan’s memory.
You may also contribute by mail at the following address: Coalition on Human Needs, 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 411, Washington, DC 20006.
Tell Congress: End the crisis in child care and early education!
Click hereto send a message to your members of Congress and tell them to take action to end the child care and early childhood education crisis in the United States.
The child care crisis in the United States continues to dramatically impact the lives of children and their families, stretching household budgets and causing parents to miss work when quality care cannot be found.
Even when child care slots can be found, working families face an incredible financial strain to afford child care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the crisis in child care far worse.
Just 29% of parents report the child care arrangement they had at the start of the pandemic was open without any changes
57% of parents reported that the lack of child care options and increased child care responsibilities in the home have directly impacted their ability to work over the last month.
Even before the pandemic, child care was unaffordable for many families. The cost of child care exceeds $10,000 a year in many parts of the country. Nearly half (47%) of parents can only afford less than $200 a week for child care and 22% say they can afford no more than $50 a week.
The pandemic has made it incredibly difficult for families to find and afford quality child care, and even as the pandemic recedes, those issues remain a top concern.
We have a historic opportunity for Congress to fund child care and pre-school, and reform the system in a meaningful way.
The Biden administration’s American Families Plan aims to invest in child care, sending $225 billion over 10 years into federally supported child care programs. Under the President’s plan, the cost of child care would be capped at 7 percent of a family’s earnings for millions of working families. In addition, Biden’s proposal would provide $200 billion for voluntary pre-school programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, and continue expanded tax credits to make child care more affordable for families.
In order for Congress to act, they must hear from us.
Click here to send a message to your members of Congress and tell them to take action to end the child care and early childhood education crisis in the United States.
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CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship April 16, 2021
The infrastructure is more than roads and bridges edition. Infrastructure can be physical – roads, bridges, housing, broadband, and safe water, for example. But we also must invest in human infrastructure – care work and job training are prime examples. As the U.S. begins what experts fear could be a long and arduous trek to economic recovery, we have important choices to make. Will we go small, essentially applying a band-aid or two to an economy ravaged by pandemic and recession? Or will we make the sound and robust investments we need to rebuild in a way that would promote opportunity and racial and gender equality and make the post-World War II generations proud? The choice is ours. The path we choose will say much about who we are and our aspirations as a potentially great nation.
Meanwhile, there is good news to share but troubling news as well. The good news? The CDC reports that 24 percent of all Americans are now fully vaccinated, and 38 percent have received at least one shot. The concerning news? Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell warned that re-opening the economy too quickly could fuel another rise in COVID-19 cases, arguing that the country has not completely turned the corner and the pandemic still poses great risks to economic recovery. And Anthony Fauci, pressed in a hearing on when restrictions should be lifted, said that should be when new cases are down below 10,000 per day. On April 15, there were over 74,000 new cases, and the 7-day average for new cases was up 8 percent over two weeks before.
27%
The shocking increasein drug overdose deaths during a one-year period that included the first six months of the pandemic, according to new White House data released this month. Between August 2019 and August 2020, 88,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. Tweet this.
More than 3X
Black women are more than three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as white men, a new study finds. Through the pandemic, experts have assumed that men are more likely to die from COVID-19 than women. While this might be true overall, such an outcome does not transcend all racial boundaries. Tweet this.
1,400/7
The nation’s prisons, jails, and detention centers have been among the most dangerous places when it comes to contracting COVID-19 and dying from it, the New York Timesreports. Over the past year, 1,400 new infections and seven deaths were reported, on average, per day in these facilities. Tweet this.
+20%/+35%
The Tax Policy Center estimatesthat households making less than $25,000 annually will see an after-tax income gain of 20 percent due to the American Rescue Plan – and about 35 percent if they have children. Tweet this.
9 million
The numberof adults living with children who said their households sometimes/often didn’t have enough to eat during the previous week, or 11.2 percent. That number was higher for Latinx and Black households with children – about 19 percent, or nearly one in five. It was about 7 percent for white households with children and 5 percent for Asian households with children. Tweet this.
4 million
The numberof renters with children who said they were behind in their rent – about 20 percent of renters with children. (For renters in households without children, it was 10 percent.)
39%
The percentof Americans who say they have postponed at least one major life event because of the pandemic. That includes buying or leasing a car, buying a home, getting married, having a child, or taking another significant step. The rate was 59 percent among Americans aged 18-34, 40 percent among those aged 34-55, and 23 percent among those 55 and older.
62%
The percentof bankruptcies caused by medical bills. Nationally, about a third of Black adults have past-due medical debt, compared to just under a quarter of white adults. In California, 31 percent of people of color have some type of past-due debt in collections, compared to only 19 percent of whites.
87%
The percentof world-wide vaccinations administered in high-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.
300 million
The number of excess vaccine doses the U.S. is expected to have at the end of July, according to a new report released this week.
April 16, 2021