The Build Back Better Act will boost families’ economic stability and reduce racial inequities in income, housing, education, and health care that harm Black and brown children every day. By passing this critical legislation, we are finally meaningfully investing in our children and families.
CDF urges Congress to prioritize robust investments within the Build Back Better Act for housing vouchers, public housing, and the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) because these vital housing programs most directly meet the needs of the poorest and most marginalized children and youth in our country.
Since the Children’s Defense Fund last published our annual State of America’s Children report in February 2020, our children have experienced a year of unprecedented upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a racial reckoning years in the making. Every aspect of children’s lives has been impacted by these shifts more quickly than data can track; even the most recent available data sets do not fully encompass how this past year has shaped our lives. This, of course, includes our 2021 State of America’s Children report. Because, as one element of the report makes clear, “Our Children are Not Immune.”
We urge Congress to enact new pandemic relief legislation that can effectively reduce the harsh scope of the health and economic crisis engulfing our nation. Congress must approve (1) cash and other assistance to prevent devastating and long-term losses to the jobless and families; (2) protections and resources to create conditions for a safe return to work; (3) state and local aid to ensure adequate health care, education, and many other essential services; and (4) Congress must protect mainstays of our democracy from being undermined by the pandemic: safe voting; the U.S. Postal Service; and the decennial Census.
If enacted, the “Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act” would provide states, localities, territories, and tribes with flexible resources to provide direct support to households in need with short- and medium-term rental assistance or to cover up to 6 months of back-rent and late fees. The funds may also be used to stabilize households by helping to address the cost of security deposits and utility deposits and payments, among other expenses.
We believe that the long-term impact of COVID-19 and the outcomes of future pandemics will be catastrophic if we do not provide robust investments through annual appropriations. Therefore, we urge Congress to commit to improving the lives of Americans by significantly boosting the allocation for the Labor-HHS-Education bill for FY 2021 to support needed services for the American public.
As you work quickly with your Congressional colleagues to pass new legislation to address the devastating public health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, the Children’s Defense Fund urges you to include in the next package a number of critical provisions to protect our nation’s children and families.
Any comprehensive response to the coronavirus should include emergency assistance funding to help prevent housing instability and homelessness as a result of the outbreak. An emergency assistance fund would provide both short-term financial assistance and stability services to help households with the lowest incomes overcome an unforeseen economic shock that threatens their housing stability.
A society must be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable—and most valuable—members: its children. The State of America’s Children 2020 makes it abundantly clear that by this measure, America is falling shamefully short.
CDF submitted comments on the proposed rule on HUD's implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Disparate Impact Standard. We urged HUD to immediately withdraw the proposed rule and instead advance housing policies that strengthen - not undermine - the disparate impact theory that allows for stable, safe and affordable housing for all.