Poverty Law News

Employment

Employment Problems in Louisiana and Mississippi
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network has published "Employment Problems in Louisiana and Mississippi: An Advocacy Manual." The manual outlines basic problem-solving techniques, answers common questions about workplace rights, and identifies situations in which legal advice should be sought. In addition, it includes descriptions of governmental agencies that address workplace issues, organizations that provide free and low-cost legal assistance for employment cases, low fee health clinics for workers, and resources for job placement, training and education.

Food Programs

Summer Is No Picnic for Hungry Children Missing School Meals
About 2.8 million children received meals at parks, schools, religious congregations, recreational programs, and other community sites through U.S. Department of Agriculture summer meals programs on an average day in July 2005. Unfortunately, that represented only 18 children for every 100 who receive a free or reduced-price school lunch in the regular school year, according to this report from the Food Research and Action Center. The summer of 2005 was the seventh straight year in which participation in the program declined.

Guide to the Disaster Food Stamp Program
The Food Research and Action Center has released its guide to the Disaster Food Stamp Program that highlights how responding quickly, planning ahead, utilizing technology, and conducting outreach are important ways that public agencies and social service providers can assist with disaster relief and connect needy families to valuable nutrition programs. The guide is a revised version of a prior FRAC publication that builds on the lessons learned in 2005.

Health

Court Invalidates Maryland Health Plan Mandate
The federal district court has held that the Maryland Fair Share Health Fund Act is preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Fair Share Act required for-profit employers of 10,000 or more people to expend no less than 8 percent of their payroll on health insurance or to pay the difference into a state Medicaid fund. The Brennan Center notes that the court rejected plaintiff's argument that the Act, which effectively applied only to Wal-Mart, was unconstitutionally discriminatory in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Utah to Use Private Donations to Pay for Medicaid
Stateline.org reports that Utah Gov. John Huntsman plans to use $2 million in private donations to fund dental coverage for 40,000 Medicaid recipients in 2007.

Housing

Moving to Work Demonstration
A series of reports by HUD'™s Inspector General have found serious flaws in the implementation of the Moving to Work (MTW) housing demonstration, including ineffective oversight by HUD and poor use of funds by some local housing agencies. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these findings, considered together with other risks posed by MTW, suggest that sharply expanding MTW'™s size and scope--”as some members of Congress are seeking to do--”would be unwise. Instead, MTW could be improved by strengthening accountability while maintaining the demonstration at roughly its current size.

Juveniles

Child Welfare Systems Affected by Disaster
The Government Accountability Office has published "Child Welfare: Federal Action Needed to Ensure States Have Plans to Safeguard Children in the Child Welfare System Displaced by Disasters."

Welfare

Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity Summit on Poverty
In November 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity held a summit on solutions to poverty. The full transcript from this event will be published in the forthcoming issue of Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, published by Chicago-Kent School of Law. Topics include family structure, poverty, and family well-being; moving out of low-wage jobs; and community economic development.

Analysis of Interim Final TANF Rules
The Center for Law and Social Policy has prepared an overview of the major regulatory provisions and the implications for state implementation of the changes in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

Rebuilding America's Lower Ninth Campaign
The Shriver Center has launched a media advocacy effort to reopen a national dialogue on poverty while advocating for effective federal antipoverty strategies. The Rebuilding America's Lower Ninth Campaign seeks to promote innovative solutions to ending poverty in the United States.