Archives: Voices

Bipartisan legislation could elevate SSI into the 21st century, encourage savings, and make life easier for people with disabilities 

Eddie felt he had met the love of his life after meeting Jen, becoming her boyfriend, and eventually proposing marriage – she said yes. But then reality – in the form of America’s antiquated SSI system – intruded. Eddie, who lives in an adult foster home, has an Intellectual and Developmental Disorder. Jen has a spinal condition that requires 24-hour medical assistance. Both receive Supplemental Security Income benefits. Both say they could lose benefits, including SSI, if they got married because of punitive rules that disqualify single people or married couples if they earn too much or save too much. 

To count all kids, Census Bureau should improve the count of adults with low literacy 

Ensuring a fair and accurate Census is important for a variety of reasons. First, political entities from school boards and city councils to state legislatures use the decennial Census count to draw political districts, all the way up to Congress. Second, Census numbers drive funding decisions – if a particular community or neighborhood is undercounted, that geographic entity can miss out on funding, not just for a year or two but for an entire decade until the next count occurs.

CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, December 1, 2023

Immigrants strengthen our economy edition. Immigrants once again are under attack in Congress in a number of different ways. Just one example is a proposal under consideration in the Senate that, under the guise of ”border security,” would make it difficult if not impossible for potential immigrants to apply for asylum or parole status, undermining our moral and legal commitments to refugees and asylum seekers. Ironically, were this bill to pass, it could actually harm border security in the long run because many would-be immigrants, desperate to escape from domestic violence or communities torn asunder by gangs, drugs, rape, and other forms of violence would feel they had no option but to try to enter this country illegally. 

It takes strength to survive poverty — and a safety net to escape it

As a 32 year-old mother, I understand the extreme challenges my single mom faced better than ever. But I’ve also seen the life-changing difference a strong social safety net can make. Above all, I’ve learned that poverty is a policy choice, not a personal one. We can reverse it — if we choose.

Ten Things We’re Thankful for This Thanksgiving 

Higher costs for basic needs continue to make life difficult for many Americans – so does the end of many pandemic-era programs that helped people access health care, put food on the table, afford child care, and so much more. Wars rage in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and elsewhere. It seems as if more refugees are displaced every day, and sometimes it feels like climate change might make refugees of us all. And yet: there are things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here are ten things that come to mind to those of us at CHN: 

CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, November 20, 2023

The giving thanks edition. This week, Americans will gather with their family and friends in a spirit of camaraderie and companionship – and hopefully, some really good food! Many of you may have things for which you are thankful. A roof over your head. Food on the table. The ability to meet household expenses. Time away from work to be with your loved ones. But millions of Americans don’t have that minimal security.

Just before Thanksgiving, 13.2 million people with children in the U.S. did not have enough to eat 

Thanksgiving will not be a time of plenty in millions of American households with children this year. The number of people with children who reported that in the previous week their households sometimes or often did not have enough to eat rose by 2 million, from 11.2 million to 13.2 million over the past year.  In survey periods covering September 20 – October 30 of 2023, close to 16 percent of people with children said they did not have enough food, up from nearly 14 percent who responded during the periods covering October 5 through November 14, 2022.   

Two years in, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is making a difference 

After her husband passed from Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2019, Kim Guess suddenly became a single mom who needed to support her family. The Kalamazoo, Michigan resident launched a dance group fitness studio named Guess Who’s Dancing. Later, she became the part-owner of downtown Kalamazoo’s first Black-owned event venue space, the Xperience. But there is a problem. The roads surrounding her business are among the city’s top 25 most dangerous roads. They are all one-way, unsafe for pedestrians, dangerous at night due to a lack of streetlights, and difficult for her customers to navigate their way to Kim’s business. 

Update: 260 Groups Tell Congress: Keep Government Running and Protect Human Needs

The Coalition on Human Needs is asking local, state, and national groups to sign  a letter asking Congress to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government open and running beyond Friday, November 17. If Congress fails to act by midnight next Friday, we will face a government shutdown. The deadline for signing is noon ET Monday, November 13.

How the expanded Child Tax Credit reduced poverty – why we need the Supplemental Poverty Measure 

Although children in all 50 states benefited from an expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), new data show that the effect was most felt among rural, low-cost states, some of which experienced drops in child poverty by more than 50 percent when the CTC was temporarily expanded during the pandemic. The data found that during 2021, when the expansion was in effect, child poverty dropped the most in rural, low cost-of-living states such as Alabama (down 52.5%), Maine (down 52.2%), Missouri (down 51.5%) and Wyoming (down 51.7%). 

New report: Ten million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage. Many shouldn’t have. 

Ten million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage as states are deciding who should continue to receive benefits, and more than 70 percent of those who lost coverage did so because of bureaucratic hurdles such as missing paperwork, not because they were shown to be ineligible.  It is likely that two-thirds of those who lost coverage became uninsured either briefly or for a longer period.  More than half of those losing benefits are likely to be people of color.