skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Connecticut Advocates to End Homelessness Decry Swipe at Funding

play audio
Play

Friday, July 15, 2011   

HARTFORD, Conn., and WASHINGTON - Amid all the talk of deficit reduction and the debt ceiling, 30 Nutmeggers promoting federal funding to end homelessness made their way to the nation's capital to speak to their members of Congress. At the same time, a congressional subcommittee dealt a blow to their hopes for funding.

The National Housing Trust Fund was set up in 2008 to provide communities with funds to build, preserve and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for very low-income households, says Carol Walter, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness.

"Affordable housing is a sound investment that stimulates jobs, that stimulates strong communities, that we need to invest in."

A subcommittee of the House Finance Committee just voted to eliminate the Housing Trust Fund, saying it's redundant with other federal programs. Walter disagrees.

"People who are on the street or who are very poor, just trying to make it and find housing that they can live in, don't believe that there's redundancy in our affordable-housing investments in this country. Far from it."

The Trust Fund was set up in 2008, but was never funded.

Politicians, she says, are talking about the deficit but not about revenues at a time when the total tax payments from the wealthiest are at their lowest levels since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

"If we're going to look to poor people to balance the federal budget and to get us out of this economic recession - which poor people did not create - it's simply pointing fingers at people who are the most vulnerable."

Homelessness has grown as wages haven't kept up with the cost of living, she says, and worsened as more people lost their jobs, increasing the number of homeless families.

"Children growing up, hopping from couch to couch, living in cars - this has exploded in the last three decades."

She says advocates will fight to prevent the Trust Fund elimination bill from progressing through Congress.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021