“Children remain more likely to be poor in America than any other age group, with nearly one in five in poverty in 2015. As with adults, children of color experience poverty at much higher rates that their white peers. In fact, African American and Latino children are roughly 2.5 times…
Archives: Voices
How 2 minutes of your time – today – can help millions
“Not long ago, Renee Bergeron—a single mother from Duluth, Minnesota—was between paychecks and took out a small payday loan to help cover her rent. Once her payday came around, Bergeron found—much to her dismay—that she was unable to pay her basic bills and also make her loan repayment. As a…
How a tax credit changed my life
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on RESULTS’ blog on September 29. CHN’s recent report, The High Cost of Being Poor in the U.S., also calls for the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit to low-income workers who aren’t raising children and for making it available to such workers…
Fact of the Week: 600,000 employees will gain paid sick days
If you’ve been to a doctor’s office or pharmacy lately, you’ve seen the signs announcing that flu season is here, and urging you to get your flu shot now. On my daily commute, I walk by no fewer than three CVS pharmacies, all warning me to get my shot before…
Partially Happy New Fiscal Year!
Congress has enacted temporary spending to last through December 9, and the President has signed the bill. It’s very good news that there is no interruption in funding for housing, emergency food, education, child care, and a host of other important programs with the October 1 beginning of the new…
Resources from around the Coalition: Poverty data edition
In the wake of the Census Bureau’s release of data on poverty, CHN members have been hard at work organizing their analysis of the data into reports and articles. Many reports echo a similar sentiment: a lot of progress has been made in improving the poverty rate, but there is more…
What to know and do if you ever face homelessness
According to the public policy organization Demos: one in seven Americans will face homelessness at some time during their lives. In addition, 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day and will continue to do so for the next 15 years. Americans approaching retirement age are looking at the prospect of not being…
The high cost of being poor in the U.S.
Today, fresh off the new U.S. Census Bureau poverty numbers, we released The High Cost of Being Poor in the U.S., which explores challenges the 43.1 million adults and children still living in poverty face. These challenges include high costs in areas such as rent, food, child care and predatory…
Impossible Choices.
Of course we know that hunger exists in America – and that an estimated 15.3 million children in our country, or one in five, live in a household where there is a real risk they will go hungry. Often studies of childhood hunger involve very young children – up to…
Important gains in median household income, poverty rate, and health coverage. Yet there is more to be done.
Today the U.S. Census Bureau released important new data on poverty, median household income, and the number of Americans covered by health insurance. Below is a statement by CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein responding to the new data. “The official poverty rate is down, median household income is up, and…
Five pints of Guinness
By now you probably have heard the news: The European Union has ruled that Apple has received billions of dollars in illegal tax breaks from Ireland’s government and owes $14.5 billion in back taxes. Although Ireland already has a (relatively low) 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, the EU’s European Commission…
Ignoring an epidemic
This is what the expansion of an epidemic looks like. The Zika virus has now been detected in 67 countries, including most of the Americas. In the 50 states of the U.S., more than 2,500 cases of Zika have been reported, affecting every state except for Alaska and Wyoming. Almost…