In 2017, approximately 92 percent of children who received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits also utilized other government assistance including Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, WIC, TANF, SSI, and Social Security. Most commonly, children received Medicaid/CHIP benefits in addition to SNAP (89 percent of SNAP recipients here), while only one in ten also received TANF. The… Read more »
Category: COVID-19
Successes of Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program provide model for summer nutrition, if made permanent
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
To compensate for missed school meals amid remote learning, the federally funded, state-administered Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program has provided food stamp-like benefits to families and children who would otherwise rely on free and reduced-price school meals. Although designed as a pandemic response, the program has also addressed a critical gap in providing food… Read more »
Push to incentivize New Englanders to return to work continues
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
As multiple industries face a hiring crunch, New England business leaders are seeking support from the state to incentivize workers and address the labor shortage. #covid-19 #workforce
“Remote work won’t save the heartland”
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
Enabled by more available remote work options, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred both employees and employers to flee cities in favor of more rural locations. Yet a new post from Brookings finds that rather than redistributing economic opportunity evenly nationwide, most companies are simply relocating to secondary tech hub cities like Austin, Denver, and Nashville, rather… Read more »
White homeowners are disproportionately refinancing their mortgages or selling their homes for equity
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A new study from the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, Atlanta, and Philadelphia utilizes anonymized data on 5.6 million mortgages to identify pandemic-era disparities in mortgage payments and home refinancing activity. The research reveals that Black homeowners have been more likely than white homeowners to have late or missed mortgage payments in the pandemic and… Read more »
Remote work and child care closures hasten need to revamp fragile child care system
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A Bipartisan Policy Center report describes new survey results assessing how parents’ work arrangements are interacting with their child care needs. Results suggest that 81 percent of working parents with children under 5 who have the option to work remote are utilizing that option. Most parents (60 percent) would like to keep this option to… Read more »
Pandemic impacts review finds decline in ECCE program enrollment, setbacks to young child learning and development
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
The University of Michigan and the Urban Institute have partnered to synthesize the pandemic’s effects on young children and on the early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs that serve them. Reviewing 63 studies on COVID-19 and early childhood disruptions, the authors find consistent documentation of ECCE enrollment declines, a mix of in-person and remote… Read more »
CLASP report advises on embedding equity into early childhood policy
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A new report from CLASP describes the ways in which the data collection, analysis, and dissemination practices underlying early childhood research and policymaking are shaped by systemic racism and white supremacy. As a result, these practices reinforce inequity via siloed and inadequate data processes and related decision making. The report highlights ways that racist structures… Read more »
Vaccine mistrust predicts vaccine refusal among Black Americans
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A new analysis of the nationally representative American Life Panel, collected by RAND and published in the Journal of the National Medical Association, finds that about one-third of Black respondents do not plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This intent is driven chiefly by mistrust in the vaccine, concerns about side effects, and uncertainty about… Read more »
The Tight Housing Market Boxes Out Government-Insured Borrowers, Widening Homeownership Gaps
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A recent post from the Urban Institute highlights the ways in which lower income borrowers are disadvantaged in the current housing market. The authors suggest that the pandemic-era housing market favoring sellers facilitates discrimination against buyers using loans from the Federal Housing Administration and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Urban’s analysis of government and government-sponsored… Read more »