#low income family caregivers

[momlovesyoubest]

Care Economy Revived By Kamala Harris

Care Economy Bill Failed in 2003 to be revived by Kamala Harris In 2023, President Biden tried to pass a bill on the care economy, but Senator Joe Manchin blocked the bill, saying it was “welfare economy legislation.” So, we have no new Medicare programs covering dental, vision, and hearing, leaving all but the 10% or union members with rotting teeth or $8,000 bills to dentists they cannot…

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #37

Oct 4-11 2024

President Biden announced a new EPA rule that will require all lead pipes in America's drinking water systems to be replace with-in 10 years. This builds on the $15 billion the Biden-Harris Administration has already invested in replacing lead pipes nation wide. The administration's focus on this issue has allowed local governments to greatly execrate their lead pipe replacement plans, before Biden took office the city of Milwaukee's timeline for replacing its lead pipes was 60 years, they're now on track to do it in 10. The EPA says there's no safe level of lead in the human body.

Vice President Harris announced she plans to expand Medicare to cover home health care. Currently those who need long term care, are covered by Medicaid, the health program for the poor so have to spend all their savings before they can qualify. This change would allow more seniors to stay in their homes and offer support to caregiving family members. Medicare also covers the disabled thus proving a game changer for the disabled Americans and their families. The Vice President also endorsed expanding Medicare to cover the costs of hearing and vision care.

Medicare released a preliminary list of 101 generic drugs which it would cover that would cost no more than $2 for a month for enrollees. People have long lobbied to allow Medicare to pay for generic drugs which has been resisted by drug companies. Thanks to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and in line with a Biden Executive Order Medicare is now working on bring low cost generic drugs to seniors. The list targets some of the most common prescriptions thus will bring savings to the most people.

Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden announced that the Biden-Harris Administration had blown past its goal of hiring 250,000 student support staff for 2024. The joint effort by the Department of Education, AmeriCorps and Everyone Graduates Center managed to hire 320,000 tutors, mentors, student success coaches, postsecondary transition coaches, and student support coordinators nationwide, its goal for the end of 2025.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $420 million to help get rid of lead paint and other lead hazards from homes. HUD estimates that over 3 million households that have children under the age of 6 live with lead hazards. HUDs grants will go to all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico with particular focus on low income housing.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPost:

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday proposed a major new initiative: expanding Medicare to cover the cost of long-term care at home. Such a plan could mean the option of staying at home, rather than in a nursing facility, for the millions of seniors and people with disabilities who need help with the daily tasks of life. It could also mean physical and financial relief ― and new opportunities for school or work outside the home ― for the millions of working-age Americans who today provide so much of that care on their own without much in the way of outside assistance. If the proposed legislation is enacted, such a program would represent a substantial boost in federal support for caregiving and, by any measure, one of the largest one-time increases in American history. Harris made her announcement during an appearance on “The View,” the nation’s top-rated daytime talk show, and presented the initiative as a way to help the “sandwich generation” ― that is, the working adults who have aging parents while still caring for children. Roughly a quarter of the American population falls into that category, according to Pew Research.

“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle ― they’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents ― and it’s just almost impossible to do it all,” Harris said. “Especially if they work, we’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress.” Harris pledged to finance the home care initiative fully, in part by tapping the savings from yet another reform she has proposed: expanding the federal government’s power to negotiate drug prices directly with manufacturers. The federal government acquired that power just two years ago, thanks to Democratic legislation that Harris supported.

[...]

The Home Care Struggle Today

Dollars alone don’t capture the scope of the proposal ― or the change it could mean for individual families. Nearly 20% of seniors require some kind of help with bathing, eating and other daily life functions, according to the available research. The percentage is even higher for older seniors, plus there are non-elderly people who need these services because of disabilities. But Medicare doesn’t cover this kind of long-term care, except in limited circumstances, nor does private insurance. And few families have the income or savings to pay out of pocket for these supports and services, which over the course of a year can easily generate bills into six figures. That leaves Medicaid, currently the nation’s single largest payer of long-term services and, for millions of Americans, a true lifesaver. But Medicaid is available only to people with low incomes, which means that families cannot qualify until they have “spent down” whatever savings they have or figured out ways of transferring those savings to relatives. (An entire legal specialty exists purely to guide people through this process.)

And that’s not the only issue with Medicaid. States manage the program, even though the federal government covers most of the cost, which means eligibility, benefits, management and reimbursement for long-term care vary enormously depending on where people live. That’s especially true when it comes to home care. Many states cap enrollment, creating long waiting lists for services and forcing people into nursing homes (which Medicaid covers more uniformly) even when they would prefer to remain at home. The alternative for many families is to provide care on their own, which is nice in some cases and terrible in others and somewhere in between for the rest.

[...]

But the version Harris is putting forward now is different from the old one. The previous proposal would have essentially taken the existing Medicaid program and made it bigger. Harris envisions Medicare taking on home care for its beneficiaries, which to many analysts and advocates for the elderly seems like an improvement, in part because Medicare is not limited to those in the most dire economic circumstances. “The care that people need ― the long term-care ― is part of their overall health care needs,” Georgetown public policy professor Judith Feder, a co-author on one of the recently published papers sketching out a proposal, told HuffPost. “Nobody should have to be impoverished because they need health care or long-term care. It needs to be a true guarantee of security, not simply a last resort.”

Whether a home care program was part of Medicaid or Medicare, moving from Harris’ campaign pledge to actual policy would require answering all sorts of complicated questions and confronting all sorts of difficult trade-offs, over not just money but also issues like how to balance support for professional care workers and those who prefer to provide care on their own. There would also be questions of whether and how to restructure Medicaid’s long-term care supports, how those would integrate with the new Medicare initiative and what that would all mean for the providers of care, who, undoubtedly, would have a thing or two to say about it. But the potential complications go hand in hand with potential benefits, which include everything from additional savings to Medicare (because some studies suggest home care reduces hospital expenses) to shifting more care out of nursing homes and back to the home setting.

Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is making a major proposal to help seniors and their caregivers by expanding Medicare to include home-based care.

See Also:

Vox: Biden’s push for child care failed. What lessons are there for Kamala Harris?

[magicalblerdpenn]

Hey y'all. If you're based in the United States, please call your Congressional reps and ask them to approve this bill funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program. It helps low income households like mine get a discount on their internet bill. As a freelance writer who works from home while being a family caregiver, this has helped me save money. Without this funding, the Affordable Connectivity Program will end in April.

[mariacallous]

All the attention in Washington is on the looming government shutdown, and understandably so.

Barring a last-minute spending agreement on Capitol Hill ― which is to say, barring a last-minute outburst of sanity by the extremist House Republicans preventing an agreement ― the federal government will officially run out of spending authority at 11:59 p.m. Saturday night.

Agency workers will be furloughed, except for members of the military, air traffic controllers and other essential employees who will have to work without pay. And while the federal government will keep issuing checks for automatic entitlements like Social Security, within a few days it will have to cut off funds for the Women, Infants and Children system that provides food benefits to 7 million low-income Americans. A prolonged shutdown would affect still more federal services, and likely deal a blow to the economy as well. But whether or not a shutdown happens, and however long it lasts, a whole other kind of fiscal shock is about to hit the country. And while its effects will materialize more slowly than the shutdown’s, they could be more long-lasting.

I’m talking about the end of billions in emergency funding for child care that the federal government has been providing since 2021, as part of its COVID-19 relief efforts. The money was a lifeline for providers who were getting hammered, first by a decline in customers because of illness and public health closures and since then by the need to pay the higher wages it takes to compete for workers in a tighter labor market.

That money also runs out at midnight Saturday, creating what has come to be known in Washington as the “child care funding cliff.” The term is slightly misleading: Because of the way the disbursements move from the U.S. Treasury to states and then to individual providers, the effect will be gradual. But it will be real and it will likely be significant, because providers still need money. They and the families that rely on them were struggling even before the pandemic, because of the inescapable, seemingly paradoxical economics of child care: Reliable, quality programs require salaries high enough to attract and keep talented workers, but the tuition and fees to support those salaries are more than many families can afford on their own. And the gap is probably even bigger now than it was a few years ago.

In that sense, the emergency funding was more like a Band-Aid on a wound that had been bleeding for a while and is still bleeding now. With no more Band-Aid — i.e., no more emergency funding — providers will react by reducing hours or staff, or charging more to families that are already struggling to pay, or shutting down altogether.

Predicting the precise impact is difficult, because the child care market is in such flux. A widely cited estimate by The Century Foundation says the end result could be as many as 3.2 million fewer child care slots. Critics say that’s wildly inflated.

But whichever view is closer to reality, it’s hard to imagine so much money coming out of the sector without providers and families feeling it. The economy could take a hit too, if affected parents cut back their own working hours or drop out of the labor force, though it’s likely many would simply return to more stressful double shifts as workers and caregivers — in other words, a replay of what happened to so many at the peak of the pandemic.

Precisely because it will take a while for the federal money to stop working its way through to providers, Congress still has some time to approve new funding, as Democratic leaders and their allies have been proposing with increasing urgency. But they won’t prevail unless even more elected officials — and the public at large — come to see child care as the kind of national priority the U.S. has never made it.

[houseofbrat]

Seeing as he’s benefitted so much from this flexible working opportunity, is he going to come out and champion this for the general public? Acknowledging his privilege would go a long way here I think. People can’t help what they’re born into but they can do a lot with the platform they’re given.

I wonder if he will do that as well. As it seems another PR fiasco waiting to happen. The Queen was dying of cancer but had all her children working full time.

Whenever articles like this come out I am reminded of what Wills was like when he actually had to work and had weeks off at a time to the dismay of his colleagues.

‘He’s hardly ever on shift. He was very enthusiastic to begin with but it tailed off. It’s supposed to be four on, four off but with the Duke it’s more off than on. He had at least four weeks off over Christmas, which has to be staffed the same as normal weeks. It’s fine that he gets a bit of special treatment but it’s beginning to really annoy some people. The rumour is that he’s just a bit bored of it.’ ”

And then the royal household shot back at claims we was lazy by saying he needed mandatory rest days for his job resulting in the Civil Aviation Authority having to shoot back and saying “When they are having rest days their time is their own, and they can do what they want, including carrying out royal duties.”

I can’t imagine this level of unprofessionalism.

The whole thing I’ve felt about this is what a stark contrast it is to the plebs they rule over - from preventative chemo when we have people waiting months on the NHS (from personal experience experience - I had a scam last year to see if I have a form of gynaecological cancer. I was told the scan was clear. Last month I was told that the scan was actually inconclusive and needs redoing as they couldn’t see the part the needed to but no one told me until nearly a year later) to partners who get punished for taking time off work to care for a loved one.

I understand that they are rich and powerful enough to do what they want. But it’s rather galling to see such a stark contrast between ruler and subject.

He really does seem like he’s not interested in the whole thing doesn’t he?

He's only interested in the income and power that comes with it, he'll never give it up he's spent his whole adult life trying to do as little as possible. The moment he got access to the Prince of Wales duchy $ he was no longer beholden to his father and can now redefine expectations. The bar has been set pretty low and he has the British Tabloid Media propping him up and running PR for him, there's also evidence that they spend a fair chunk of cash employing bots online propping them up and attacking anyone who says anything negative. Between the BTM and the royal sychophants he's been getting away with it and will continue to. Countdown 3,2,1 to one of those sycophants leaving me a comment .....

I think he should have to follow around people who have to keep working while also caregiving for sick or elderly family members while also juggling raising kids and keeping up on other obligations. I’m sure he would be shocked — most of us can’t step back to the extent he gets to do so. As the future king, he should understand the lives of the majority of the people. Read the room.

Considering their work is mostly just turning up and being “seen”. How exactly is work from home gonna help anyone?

He’s going to do some twitch streaming.

I just learned that 600 organizations sponsored by QE2 have not yet been taken over.  Some are very important but there are no signs of any restructuring, selection and elimination plans.  People criticize W for this instead of C because W is the one who shows no interest in continuing to show up and sponsor organizations.  William currently only works as Chairman, managing the principality and two projects Earthshot and Housing for the Homeless.  W does not take over King Charles' projects like he is PoW, so King is basically overloaded and cannot take over anymore. 

If he wants to work without being seen, then the real question is what type of "behind the scenes work" is he actually doing? Because every time he talks about a topic in public, he only seems to speak popular talking points that even someone without knowledge can say. He doesn't speak like someone who really knows the topic of discussion in depth.

That's why Earthshot being a "passion project" is laughable. His speeches are so shallow. It's the same with Kate and Early Years and those lame five questions that took some ten years to come up with. Everything they say is like a total no-brainer. So, what work are they really doing behind the scenes?

I think people whose spouses have cancer should be able to take health leave and its v sad for people who live in a country where they can't. But I would give him a lot more grace if he and Kate weren't famously Duchess Dolittle and Workshy William. This has been a habit for years. Its not like Anne got sick and disappeared from public life

Yep. He has been on Easter holiday since March 23 to April 17. Plus, January entirely off. It doesn't look good.

My friend has breast cancer (we’re in the UK). She’s having chemo and is the same age as Kate. She has to have fairy major surgery after the chemo and has had to go back to work because she has to save her sick leave for the recovery from the operation. This is during chemotherapy. This country is completely broken and lacks compassion for everyone (like most of the Western World) but then expects an exception to be made for the royal family who are loaded and don’t even use the NHS and have an enormous amount of monetary resources.

I have huge compassion for Kate. I think she’s been incredible over a long period of time in a job I would absolutely loathe personally (whether people say she wanted the gig or not) - but I don’t think William has had her back very much recently from what I can see objectively, particularly over the recent PR debacle. And, being honest, I wonder why that is. I think we’re fed total BS by the press over who these people really are.

I don’t think you can be raised like William or Harry and have any kind of perspective. It’s just logical that you can’t. They had a terrible childhood to be honest. And there are people who hold responsibility for that.

But yes, absolutely, if Kate wants him there, he should be allowed to support his family, no questions asked. I just wonder if she really does?

Can someone who knows actually share what his duties are and how he can work while not being seen?

Can someone who knows actually share what his duties are and how he can work while not being seen?

He looks at the country with somber frowns on his face and in return the country looks back at him with approving nods. That is what we call a symbiotic relationship.

How quickly William forgets the way he and Kate were ripped apart prior to the great Sussex Split.  He can do what he wants, but this is inevitably not going to go well and he is definitely no longer a young and handsome sympathetic figure.

Yeah that one reporter said it perfectly when they were speculating about why Will didn’t go to that funeral that William feels he can do what he likes because the press let’s him get away with everything.

"Working from home"? How stupid do they think people are? waits to see the defense(s) royalists come up with

Is she sicker than anticipated? Because Charles seems to have actual cancer versus "cancer was present" and "preventative chemo," and he is "working" more than William.

Also, don't forget that Camilla has also been out and about and "working," during his treatments.

Something is weird.

The press’s analysis of him is willfully ignorant as usual. It used to be the kids, now it’s Kate’s diagnosis. Will is telling us his approach to royal “work” is not and will not be the same as the King or Queen Elizabeth. This is his plan for the monarchy.

They've been doing it since he left Eaton. It's one invented excuse after another. Anything to excuse his refusal to do any royal "work" so they don't have to criticize him, and he can keep his "Golden Boy" image.

let him enjoy a normal college experience!

he's only in his 20s! He's got time!

He's an ambulance pilot, let him have fun with that for a bit!

He's not the heir! He's only the son of the heir!

he just got married!

He's only in his 30s! He's got time!

he has babies at home!

he has small children at home!

he's not the King, his father is!

His wife has cancer!

What's next?

Will is telling us his approach to royal “work” is not and will not be the same as the King or Queen Elizabeth.

Mmhmm well the press and royalists' response to Will telling them he' would rather be a lazy, hands off King is for him to reconsider his entitlement and privilege - reality check for this 40 something year old Prince

Bingo. Start as you mean to go on...which means doing nothing and collecting taxpayer money while you do it.

William’s work ethic is going to be a catalyst to reform the UK government :/ EII had to be seen to be believed - William believes in not being seen? The republicans will gain momentum with a King who does nothing.

To repeat what I said a month or so ago when they claimed William was focused on “his work, not social media:” what work?

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Summary

This project, led by an Indian NGO Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT), is on a mission to organise and empower women in low-income households to increase their resilience to impacts of climate change. To date, MHT’s initiatives have helped 25,000 low-income families across seven cities in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The project is centred around an integrated model wherein women take the lead through collective action and technology incubation to devise locally relevant, pro‐poor, gender-sensitive and climate-resilient solutions. For example, women were trained to be energy auditors who encourage households to switch to more efficient products, forming a women-led distribution network of green energy and building products. Other solutions include using sprinkler taps to reduce the flow of water, harvesting rainwater, and other behavioural changes leading to more than 60% of households reporting to have increase in water quantity and more than 32% having sufficient water during summers.

Though projects like these, MHT is empowering women to take action against four major climate risks: heat waves, flooding and inundation, water scarcity, and water-vector-borne diseases. These slow‐onset events attract less attention but frequently impact poor people, particularly women, the most.

Key Facts

Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT) has helped organise 114 Community Action Groups, who have reached out to 27,227 women in 107 slums. Of the women they’ve worked with, 8,165 women were recorded to demonstrate an increase in “knowledge seeking behavior”. 

Over 1,500 women have been trained as climate-saathis, who are responsible for communicating the issue of climate change with their community in their local language. Through this communications exercise, the proportion of participants who viewed climate change as an act of god reduced from 26 % to 9 %.

To date, around 28,000 energy audits have been undertaken in slum communities, which have saved families over USD 700,000 per annum in electricity costs. These money and energy saving interventions have included installing over 200 modular roofs and 500 roofs with solar reflective white paint, while having also led to a reduction of 105 tonnes of CO2e per annum. 

The Problem

It is estimated that over 190.7 million people live in informal settlements in South Asia. These settlements are often densely populated and highly vulnerable to even the slightest changes to our climate.

MHT’s project is building the resilience capacities of over 25,000 low-income families living in slums and informal settlements across seven cities in three South Asian countries, including: Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Ranchi, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar (India); Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Kathmandu (Nepal).

Their initiatives empower women to lead local mitigation efforts to prevent key climate risks such as heatwaves, flooding and inundation, and climate change related incidences of water-vector borne diseases. These types of slow-onset events tend to attract less global attention, while also disproportionately impacting low-income households. Women are commonly the primary caregiver and responsible for household management, which renders them more vulnerable to these types of stresses.

The Solution

MHT has championed a women-led empowerment model for building climate resilience in the slums of South Asia, focused around organising groups of women in their communities. Their model builds upon the conviction that if the urban poor are provided with requisite knowledge to undertake vulnerability and risk assessments, and are equipped with available resilient‐technologies, they will be able to devise and implement locally relevant and pro‐poor, climate-resilient solutions

The project model emphasizes women taking the lead through collective action and technology incubation in order to devise these locally relevant, gender-sensitive and climate-resilient solutions. To make this possible, MHT, assists with facilitating the required infrastructure, institutional and financial mechanisms.

Helping the Planet

Through empowering women, this project is also helping reduce the emissions associated with the production of electricity in these communities. For example, one of MHT’s core initiatives trains women to become energy auditors and educate households on the nuances of energy use such as bill calculation, wattage consumption and energy wastage. As energy auditors, these women also encourage households to switch to more energy efficient products.

These trained energy auditors also act as grassroots level micro-entrepreneurs, by forming a women-led distribution network of green energy and building products. Energy auditors promote the installation of energy efficient LED bulbs and lights, modular roofs, airlite ventilator, many other solutions.

Helping People

While women from low-income families are often the most vulnerable as they have the least access to information and resources, MHT believes they also have the greatest potential to be empowered to become agents of change.

The rationale for the project is to provide these women with the requisite knowledge to undertake vulnerability and risk assessments, while also equipping them with the available climate resilient-technologies. This means they will be able to identify climate induced vulnerabilities, minimize risk and adopt locally relevant climate resilient solutions. In turn, these women also can potentially play a role in influencing better city planning and governance for pro-poor adaptation and resilience actions.

Spillover Effect

Currently, MHT is in the process of training other grassroots organisations to reproduce similar women-led groups in areas such as Bhubaneswar, Dhaka and Kathmandu.

While many other urban resilience programs are top-down and externally driven, MHT has made a concerted effort to ensure their initiatives are low-cost, contextually-appropriate and participatory.  Urban poor that have been organized under this program gather critical planning data to design their own solutions and negotiate with other urban stakeholders, as well as test and manage implementation of these solutions.

Through empowering women to help improve their homes and communities, MHT’s initiatives have also triggered behavior change in communities towards making more informed decisions. This has in turn empowered them with the necessary knowledge to demand improved government services, thus proving that this concept can be expanded to other communities throughout the world.

[bitchesgetriches]

Three factors: Risk tolerance, social support, and financial adaptability

There are basically three factors involved in determining if you might not need an emergency fund. The first is your personal level of risk tolerance. How costly might a potential failure be? The second is how much social support you have access to. Do you have accounts or—gasp!—actual human people who could help you out in a crisis? The third is your financial adaptability. How quickly could you find another source of income and begin to recover?

Insert mandatory repetition of the phrase “personal finance is personal” here. All of these factors can be drastically different from person to person, family to family, and motley crew of space loners turned found family to motley crew of space loners turned found family.

You may be high in one category, low in another, and average in the third. That’s totally cool. Everyone is different. (But we’re all shiny.)

What is your risk tolerance?

Risk tolerance is essentially your answer to the question “is failure an option?”

If you lost your source of income tomorrow, what would the consequences be? Dire or survivable?

If it would be utterly catastrophic, you have low risk tolerance. For these people, a loss in assets or income might mean, say, losing custody of their children, or going without expensive lifesaving medications. If a financial crisis would be unideal yet endurable, you have high risk tolerance. Generally, people with high risk tolerance don’t have children, dependents, disabilities, or other critical vulnerabilities. Must be nice!

How much social support do you have?

Social support plays a huge role in determining whether you might not need your emergency fund. Social privilege, connections, and community wealth are among the best protections from true catastrophe. We talk about this shit all the time at Bitches Get Riches, yet we can never really say it enough, because it so often goes unsaid in the world of personal finance!

If a situation arose in which you needed to borrow $1,000 today, is there anyone you could call that could—and would!—say “sure, hold on, I’m Venmoing you right now”?

When I started this blog, my answer would’ve been: yes, three people. Today, I counted fifteen, and probably could’ve kept going. Which is an absolutely wild thing to think about. Because for so many people, the answer is zero! If you have low social support, you probably couldn’t come up with even one tenth of that amount. If you don’t come from an affluent and stable community with generational wealth to share, it lowers your options in a crisis. It’s one of the many reasons we will never shut up about the gender and racial wage gaps.

1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay Gap

Ask the Bitches: “Do Women Need Different Financial Advice Than Men?”

The Biggest Threat to Black Wealth Is White Racist Terrorism

I’m lucky to have high social support. It’s a privilege to be surrounded by people who are stable enough to help me. As I write this, I’m caring for my husband after his second major surgery of this year. Our friends organized an unbelievable conga line of homemade food and takeout delivery to ease the strain of caregiving and recovery. We’re getting incredible help from every direction because our community is healthy enough to give it to us.

Obviously, this isn’t just about interpersonal lending. Connections help you find good jobs, housing, and softer forms of support. Communities can—and should—be crisis buffers, but they can only fill that function if they’re stable and healthy. And this community doesn’t have to be huge to be impactful! Partners alone make a huge difference, as we discussed in our recent article about financial discrimination against single people.

One more thing: DON’T BE A SHITTY FRIEND. You should still pay your loved ones back for spotting you in a dire situation. Or better yet: repay them in kind the next time they need a hand getting through an expensive emergency.

How financially adaptable are you?

Finally, adaptability counts for a lot in emergencies.

Losing your job can be scary. But if you work as a generalist in an in-demand field, it’s a lot less scary. Like, the difference between Luigi’s Mansion and PT. If you were laid off from your job as a restaurant server or a nurse practitioner, you could have multiple competing offers by day’s end. But if you’re an alpaca shearer or a nuclear security sergeant, the total number of companies looking to hire such roles is far smaller. You might have to face the costs associated with a long job search, a cross-country move, or retraining to fully recover.

The same goes for having assets in general. Have you paid off all your debts? Cheers! Got mad money invested in easily accessible non-retirement accounts? Bravissimo! Developed skills or side hustles that can be monetized at a moment’s notice? Mazel tov! You’ve established a great baseline of financial adaptability that makes you much more prepared for rainy days.

If you have high financial adaptability, you can probably safely scale down the size of your emergency fund. But if you’re a specialist with low financial adaptability, it’s wiser to keep your emergency fund thick and liquid. (Barf—sorry.)

Keep reading.

[alazyparallelworld]

SO YOU'RE IN A CRISIS

these resources are US centric. i don't know enough about overseas support, and this list is mostly complied from experienced hardship.

also, bc these are from my personal experiences, they pivot around my states of longterm residency. i've tried my best to provide general resources and use unspecific enough terminology. if you need help navigating resources (eligibility, applications, etc) in your state, my DMs are open and i would be happy to help.

eternal WIP. i am sure i've forgotten something. rbs are welcomed n appreciated. questions/corrections/etc should go in my DMs.

department of human services / department of social and health services | applicable to: low-income

housing (most applicable for eviction-notice crisis, NOT homeless or housed situations. there are still programs for unprovided/unsafe shelter emergencies, but they vary wildly. please DM me for more info.)

food (food stamps which bring a wide variety of benefits on their own, meal plans, etc)

cash (washington residents: if you qualify for SSI* you can receive cash assistance. other states: whether or not it is provided in your state, and the qualifier i.e needy families/food assistance, varies. please DM me for more info, whether or not you are a resident of washington.)

medical (public insurance, as well as other services i.e delivered meds, caregiving. please DM me for more caregiver-specific info.)

transportation (gas vouchers, necessary/medical transportation, discount on bus fare)

education: see etc below, as the most beneficial support will come from social workers.

child support: see etc below, as most beneficial support will come from social workers.

cellular (lifeline/ACP, a federal program in which you can acquire a fully paid smartphone or discount on wifi. you can transfer the wifi benefit to another internet provider)

etc: social workers are in-house, who can provide many services i.e housing situation, mental health support, job opportunities, applying for SSI, pretty much anything. if they cannot help you, they should transfer you to another worker who can, or provide you with another resource. through my social worker is how i got my housing paid. if you are on medicaid and/or food stamps, those benefits open a wide door to other benefits - this is how you qualify for lifeline/ACP, discounted amazon prime, etc.

*disability. to receive disability YOU CANNOT BE EMPLOYED FULLTIME. what follows is, almost always, automatic rejection. part-time is still susceptible to automatic rejection. do not turn to a lawyer for help; ask a social worker for help with the specifics of your situation. however, even if you are employed full/part-time, it is still beneficial to apply for SSI as this provides an earlier 'date of onset,' and is extremely helpful for a potential future claim. this is true in all states, AFAIK.

job corps | applicable to: low-income, 16-24 (24 maximum, unless in extraordinary circumstances)

housing (boarding rooms; roommate situation heavily varies)

food (3 meals a day, everyday, and vending machines)

medical (wellness center, staffed with nurses and doctor(s) - can provide medication and therapy)

transportation (drivers' license, will give rides to workplaces*)

education (GED, alternative HS diploma, training and certifications)

child support: dependent on center, alternative boarding for mothers* and their children

cellular: dependent on center, free 24/7 wifi is provided.

etc: there are significant drawbacks to job corps, which are very dependent on center-to-center. as it is federal property, no drugs or alcohol usage is permitted on campus. when arriving and returning to JC, campus security will administer a breathalyzer test. it is a 'ZT'/zero tolerance - you will be expelled if drug/alcohol usage is discovered. there's also a 'cash stipend,' but i don't know the exact amount or the frequency. when i went to JC ('17-'18) it was $20 biweekly, increased to $30 after ~12-16 months of enrollment. i was told that it has increased to $50, still biweekly. there is A Social Worker Lite upon graduation. they will check up with you, and for a time, will support you in finding stability. this includes housing and education. *IME, you cannot have a job and then enroll to job corps. but if you are employed while in job corps, they will provide transport. **IME, fathers/second parent/partners, cannot board with the mother or children. at my JC, the alternative boarding was only applicable to the biological parents - but in couples, the bio father would be boarded in the men's section.

community college / open admission colleges

near-universal acceptance rate, and some provide boarding. my CC provided holiday housing, including summertime. some CCs provide medication and therapy. there are opt-in meal plans, which are a part of your tuition. however, if you are under the age of 25 and applying for financial aid, you will need to have your parents' relevant tax records. even in extraordinary circumstances such as estrangement, the separation needs to be in legal documents and may be rejected anyway. and in the event that you are financially independent, some colleges will still require your parents' taxes.

food stamps and public insurance/medicaid

as mentioned before, these two are such qualifiers for OTHER benefits, they get their own separate piece. generally speaking, when filling an application for one resource on your state's website, there's an option to apply for others. TANF, medical caregiving, etc… save time and tick that option. if you're worried about 'fucking up' your application, see if your department has a social worker.

EBT discounts amazon prime, and your EBT card can be used in orders with EBT-eligible items. there's also a splinter called 'amazon fresh,' but that's only provided in some areas. if you receive EBT and/or medicaid, you qualify for lifeline/ACP. lifeline/ACP is a federal program, nationwide. sometimes other resources, i.e housing, transportation, and child support, can be locked behind receiving EBT and/or medicaid. wildly varies on state, situation, and the resource in question.

what medicaid covers… wildly varies on your state and situation. however, if you are need of an assistive device or treatment (a brace, cane, wheelchair, shower chair, physical therapy, medically necessary transportation, medical marijuana) ask your PCP for a prescription or referral. every time. avoid using money on what your PCP can provide - and these prescriptions are highly useful documents in SSI applications. your states' medicaid should cover most of these services - and talk to your routed insurance in the case of a denial. i'm aware this section is bulky and difficult to parse; please DM me if you need help understanding. this is a complex topic.

rent assistance

your local salvation army may pay for up to three months of rent. you can only ask for this assistance once a year. as aforementioned, your local housing authority / DSHS/DHS also can provide rent assistance. your state probably has its own program(s), which have different requirements, i.e income or age.

section 8/public housing | low-income, legally disabled/recipient of SSI

the application for section 8 is so daunting, i didn't do it independently. i had my social worker help me. i would heavily advise you do the same. section 8 housing is basically a waitlist for discounted/free housing, whether it be apartments or full houses. it is... extremely complicated. my advice is to apply for section 8, well before any significant financial changes. if your income goes up, you will have to reapply. i would suggest, if you are applying for SSI, to do both of these applications at the same time. there is a slim, but still possible, chance that you will get public housing before SSI.

emergency housing/unsheltered

some hotels/motels will offer temporary room, moreso if social worker requests it. you can google and find out what hotels/motels near you offer these services, and ask your social worker to contact them. your social worker may even provide transportation to the hotel/motel. i am Professional Enough that i was able to acquire a room for two strangers. (a small misunderstanding, as i was mistaken for a social worker. i rectified this mistake as soon as i realized - do not pretend to be a social worker. they will ask 'what company you're with,' and your name and contact information. lying is a very good way to get blacklisted.) this is an outlier, but if you're well-versed enough, you could do this yourself. get in contact with your local housing authority (what its called here) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. there is a massive waitlist for unsheltered people; it is easier and faster to acquire shelter when you're still in the eviction/about to be kicked out bubble. whether or not they can help you is usually, IME, more dependent on your age than your income. work fast, keep steady contact.

domestic violence

in certain states, survivors of DV can have their voter registration removed from public access. this 2020 PDF lists the eligibility for each state. AFAIK, when applying for your voter registration, this is not a mandated question. you will have ask the relevant programs for your address to be private.

most applications for food stamps/insurance/housing/etc will ask if you are a survivor of DV. this has an increase of your cases' 'priority,' especially for housing. this applies to both fleeing and survivor situations.

furniture, clothing, laundry vouchers, hygiene products, household necessities | low-income, new residents

contact your local charities and/or relevant local nonprofit organizations. while there are online sites (i.e freegeek for electronics) these are very hit-and-miss. your local charities are more likely to have stock. several nonprofits offer vouchers for off-site laundry units, and sometimes for children hygiene products. furniture and other household appliances tend to ship directly to your home. for clothes and household necessities, you'll probably have to go to the office for pick-up. IME, clothes can be picked up any time at community closets, while i've had to schedule appointments to pick up bleach, tissues, etc. hygiene products are high-demand, low-supply. diapers are the 'worst offender' for low stock.

animal support

online grants for vet payment/assistance either are very specific, or have very long waitlists. most of the time, these grants apply to service animal canines (not emotional support, nor felines, or other animals) and/or serious conditions that already have a diagnoses - they won't pay for preliminary visits, bloodwork, etc. if your animal needs to be fixed, there are coupons for the procedure. you will have to se what vet accepts that specific coupon or not. for food, i would recommend, if you are financially able, to have a chewy subscription. this saves a lot of money in the long run - amazon's subscribe & save is an alternative, but not as cost-effective for high-quality food, IMO. your local charities/nonprofits may provide animal food.

[ausetkmt]

Veteran Homelessness

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that on any given night, tens of thousands of Veterans are homeless in the United States. This figure, though indicative of a significant problem, has actually been on a decline over the past decade, thanks to concerted efforts by government and non-governmental organizations. However, the problem persists, compounded by factors such as inadequate affordable housing, high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and difficulty in transitioning to civilian employment.

The profile of the homeless Veteran population is distinct and requires specialized approaches to address their unique needs. A study by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) reveals that the majority of homeless Veterans are single males from poor, disadvantaged communities. Veterans are more likely to live outdoors than non-Veterans, and younger Veterans from recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq often have severe mental health issues and physical disabilities, including traumatic brain injuries. Furthermore, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) points out that Veterans are at a significantly higher risk of homelessness due to low income, lack of support from family and friends, and mental health issues that interfere with maintaining stable employment.

Female Veterans, in particular, are an often overlooked subgroup in the homeless Veteran population. They face unique challenges, including the high prevalence of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and the difficulty of reconciling their military experiences with traditional gender roles. According to HUD, the number of homeless female Veterans has been steadily increasing, and their experiences of homelessness can differ markedly from their male counterparts. This rise highlights the need for gender-specific programs and services to address the particular needs of female Veterans.

Female Veteran Homelessness

The plight of homeless female Veterans represents a particularly poignant and often overlooked chapter in the broader narrative of Veteran homelessness. While significant attention has been directed toward the general issue of homelessness among Veterans, the unique struggles faced by women who have served in the military often remain in the shadows. This oversight is not just a matter of numbers, but also of the specific challenges and needs that are distinct to female Veterans. As they transition from military to civilian life, these women confront a landscape marked by obstacles that can, and often do, lead to homelessness.

One of the key factors contributing to the vulnerability of female Veterans is the experience of Military Sexual Trauma (MST), a form of trauma that disproportionately affects women in the armed forces. The aftermath of MST can be devastating, often leading to mental health issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. These conditions, in turn, can make the already challenging transition to civilian life even more daunting. The intersection of these mental health challenges with other systemic issues like lack of affordable housing, insufficient income, and limited access to healthcare creates a precarious situation for many female Veterans, leaving them at a heightened risk of homelessness.

Furthermore, female Veterans face unique societal and familial pressures. They often return to environments that may not recognize or adequately support their service and sacrifices. As primary caregivers in many cases, they bear the additional burden of securing housing and providing for their families, which can be overwhelming without adequate support systems. This situation is further compounded by the fact that many existing Veteran support services are not tailored to address the specific needs of women, particularly in areas such as gender-specific healthcare and housing.

The issue of female Veteran homelessness, therefore, is not just a matter of housing instability but is deeply intertwined with broader questions of mental health, gender-specific trauma, societal support, and the adequacy of Veteran services.

The Scale of the Issue

The issue of homelessness among female Veterans is becoming increasingly prominent, with current statistics highlighting a growing trend that differentiates their experiences from their male counterparts. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there has been a noticeable increase in the number of homeless female Veterans in recent years. While they constitute a smaller proportion of the overall homeless Veteran population compared to males, the rate of increase in homelessness among female Veterans is a cause for concern. As of the latest counts, female Veterans represent about 9% of the homeless Veteran population, a percentage that has been steadily rising.

In contrast, homelessness among male Veterans, while still constituting the majority of the homeless Veteran population, has seen a general decline in recent years. This decline can be attributed to targeted efforts by government and non-profit organizations. However, the number of homeless male Veterans still remains significantly higher in absolute terms compared to female Veterans. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) reports that male Veterans are more likely to experience chronic homelessness, and a significant portion of them have substance abuse issues and severe mental illness.

The differing trends between male and female Veteran homelessness can partly be explained by the distinct challenges faced by female Veterans. Issues such as Military Sexual Trauma (MST), the challenges of single parenthood, and difficulties in accessing Veteran-specific resources contribute to their vulnerability to homelessness. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) notes that female Veterans are more likely to be unemployed, face housing instability, and have lower incomes compared to their male counterparts, factors that contribute significantly to their risk of becoming homeless.

These statistics underscore the need for gender-specific approaches to addressing Veteran homelessness. While the overall numbers of homeless female Veterans might be lower, their increasing rate highlights a gap in the current support systems and services tailored to their unique needs. It's crucial for policymakers and support organizations to recognize and address these differences to effectively combat homelessness among all Veterans, irrespective of gender.

Key statistics on veteran homelessness, including specific data on female veteran homelessness:

Veteran Homelessness Statistics

Total Number of Homeless Veterans: Approximately 37,252 Veterans are homeless on any given night in the United States. (Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD, 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress)

Demographic Breakdown: The majority of homeless Veterans are single males from poor, disadvantaged communities. (Source: National Coalition for Homeless Veterans - NCHV)

Veterans vs. Non-veterans: Veterans are more likely to live outdoors and have higher rates of homelessness compared to non-Veterans. (Source: HUD)

Decline in Homelessness: There has been a 50% reduction in veteran homelessness since 2010, reflecting the impact of national efforts to address the issue. (Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - VA)

Female Veteran Homelessness Statistics

Proportion of Female Veterans: Female veterans represent about 9% of the homeless veteran population. (Source: HUD)

Increase in Homelessness: The number of homeless female Veterans has been steadily increasing, in contrast to the general decline in overall Veteran homelessness. (Source: VA)

Unique Challenges: Female Veterans are more likely to experience Military Sexual Trauma (MST), leading to higher rates of PTSD and other mental health issues. (Source: VA)

Economic Hardships: Female Veterans face higher rates of unemployment and poverty compared to their male counterparts. (Source: National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics)

These statistics provide an overview of the current state of Veteran homelessness in the U.S., highlighting the specific challenges faced by female Veterans. The data underscores the need for continued efforts and targeted support to address this issue.

Unique Challenges  

Female Veterans face a constellation of unique challenges upon returning to civilian life, many of which significantly contribute to their risk of homelessness. Central among these challenges are mental health issues, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) resulting from their military service, compounded by experiences of sexual trauma. The prevalence of PTSD among female Veterans is notably higher compared to their male counterparts, largely due to their increased exposure to Military Sexual Trauma (MST). MST, which includes any form of sexual harassment or assault experienced during military service, has a profound and lasting impact on mental health. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), women in the military are more likely to experience MST, and this trauma is closely linked to the development of PTSD.

The mental health impact of such experiences is deep and far-reaching. Female Veterans suffering from PTSD due to MST often experience severe anxiety, depression, and difficulties in forming trusting relationships. These issues can create significant barriers to successful reintegration into civilian life. Difficulty in maintaining employment, challenges in interpersonal relationships, and the struggle to access appropriate mental health care can lead to a spiral of instability, increasing the risk of homelessness. The VA has recognized MST as a key factor in the mental health of female Veterans, emphasizing the need for specialized care and support.

Moreover, the societal perception and understanding of female Veterans' experiences often add another layer of complexity to their struggles. Female Veterans who have experienced MST may encounter stigma and disbelief, both within the military and in civilian life, which can discourage them from seeking help. This stigma can be particularly acute in accessing VA services, which historically have been geared more towards male Veterans. The lack of gender-specific resources and support within the VA system further exacerbates the mental health challenges faced by female Veterans.

Military to Civilian Life

The transition from military to civilian life is a critical phase for Veterans, and for female Veterans, this transition is often fraught with unique challenges. The shift involves not just a change in employment and lifestyle but also a significant adjustment in identity and social roles. For many female Veterans, this transition is compounded by the absence of a supportive family structure. Unlike their male counterparts, female Veterans are more likely to be single parents, shouldering the dual burden of adjusting to civilian life and providing for their children. The lack of a robust support system can exacerbate the stress associated with this transition, leading to a higher risk of homelessness.

Additionally, female Veterans face specific health issues that are not as prevalent among male Veterans. Women who have served in the military often require gender-specific medical care, including gynecological and reproductive health services. However, accessing these services can be challenging. The Veterans Health Administration, traditionally oriented more towards male Veterans, has been adapting but may still lack sufficient resources for female-specific health concerns. This gap in healthcare services can lead to unaddressed or under-treated health conditions, further complicating the transition to civilian life.

The stigma associated with homelessness and mental health issues also poses a significant barrier for female Veterans seeking help. There is often a societal misconception that Veterans are predominantly male, which leads to a lack of recognition of the struggles faced by female Veterans. This gender bias can result in inadequate attention and resources being directed towards the challenges unique to female Veterans. Moreover, the stigma surrounding mental health, particularly issues like PTSD resulting from military sexual trauma, can dissuade many from seeking the help they need. The reluctance to seek help is often reinforced by fears of being judged or misunderstood by both the civilian and military communities.

This lack of awareness extends beyond mental health. Many female Veterans struggle with the perception that their military service was less challenging or dangerous compared to their male counterparts, leading to a minimization of their experiences and needs. This societal attitude can hinder their access to Veteran-specific resources and benefits, further isolating them. The failure to recognize and validate the service and sacrifices of female Veterans not only impacts their mental health but also their ability to successfully reintegrate into civilian life.

Systemic Issues and Barriers

The issue of female Veteran homelessness is deeply rooted in systemic failures that span across various sectors, from military support structures to civilian societal systems. One of the primary contributors to this problem is the lack of gender-specific resources within the Veterans' support system. Historically, the military and its associated support services, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), have been tailored predominantly to the needs of male Veterans. This gender bias is evident in numerous areas, including healthcare, where there is a notable deficiency in women-specific medical services, particularly for those dealing with the repercussions of Military Sexual Trauma (MST). This gap in service provision not only affects the physical health of female Veterans but also significantly impacts their mental and emotional well-being.

Mental health support for female Veterans is another area where systemic inadequacies are glaringly apparent. The mental health challenges faced by female Veterans, especially those related to PTSD and MST, require specialized care and understanding. However, the current support systems often lack the necessary expertise and sensitivity to address these issues effectively. Many female Veterans report feeling misunderstood, stigmatized, or simply neglected by a system that is not adequately equipped to handle their unique needs. This lack of effective mental health support is a critical factor that can lead to and exacerbate homelessness among female Veterans, as mental health is closely linked to the ability to maintain employment and stable housing.

Furthermore, the transition programs that assist Veterans in shifting from military to civilian life are often not designed with the specific needs of women in mind. These programs typically focus on employment and skill training but may overlook other crucial aspects such as family dynamics, childcare support, and coping with the dual role of being a Veteran and a primary caregiver. This oversight leaves many female Veterans ill-prepared to navigate the complexities of their new civilian lives, increasing their vulnerability to homelessness.

The systemic failures extend beyond the military and Veteran-specific institutions into broader societal structures. There is a pervasive lack of awareness and recognition of the service and sacrifices of female Veterans. This societal oversight translates into fewer community-based resources, support networks, and advocacy efforts focused on the needs of female Veterans. The combination of these institutional and societal failures creates a cycle of disadvantage for female Veterans, where their specific needs are neither adequately understood nor addressed.

Efforts and Initiatives for Change

The growing awareness of the unique challenges faced by homeless female Veterans has led to the development of both government and non-government initiatives aimed at addressing this critical issue. On the government front, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been at the forefront, implementing programs specifically tailored to the needs of female Veterans. One such initiative is the VA's Women Veterans Health Care program, which focuses on providing gender-specific medical and mental health services. This includes care for conditions related to Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and PTSD, which disproportionately affect female Veterans. Additionally, the VA's Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program offers a range of services designed to prevent homelessness among Veterans, including temporary financial assistance, housing counseling, and support in obtaining VA and other public benefits.

Beyond these targeted health services, the VA also collaborates with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. This program combines rental assistance for homeless Veterans with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. While not exclusive to women, HUD-VASH addresses some of the key barriers to stable housing and is an essential resource for homeless female Veterans, particularly those with families.

In the non-governmental sector, numerous organizations are dedicated to supporting female Veterans facing homelessness. For example, Final Salute Inc. is an organization focused specifically on providing homeless women Veterans with safe and suitable housing. Final Salute recognizes the unique challenges faced by female Veterans and offers a range of services, including transitional housing, emergency financial assistance, and educational resources. Another notable organization is the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), which, while serving all Veterans, has specific programs and advocacy efforts aimed at addressing the needs of homeless female Veterans.

Grassroots efforts and local community organizations also play a crucial role in supporting female Veterans. These smaller organizations often provide more personalized support, such as assistance with job training and placement, legal services, and child care, all of which are critical components in the successful reintegration of female Veterans into civilian life. These community-based initiatives often fill the gaps left by larger government programs, offering a more holistic and tailored approach to individual needs.

Moreover, there has been a growing movement to increase awareness and advocacy for female Veteran issues at the policy level. Advocacy groups and Veteran organizations are pushing for legislative changes that would enhance the support and resources available to homeless female Veterans. These efforts include lobbying for increased funding for female-specific programs, improving the data collection on female Veteran homelessness to better understand the scope of the issue, and advocating for policy changes that address the unique challenges faced by women in the military and as Veterans.

In conclusion, while significant strides have been made in recognizing and addressing the issue of female Veteran homelessness, it remains a complex problem requiring a multifaceted approach. The collaboration between government agencies, non-profit organizations, and local communities is essential in providing the comprehensive support needed. Continued advocacy, awareness-raising, and policy development are crucial to ensure that the specific needs of homeless female Veterans are not only understood but effectively addressed. Through these combined efforts, there is hope for meaningful change and support for the women who have served their country.

Invisible Battles: A Woman Veteran's Solitary Struggle Against the Cold Streets of Denver.

Lesser-known yet significant aspects of female veteran homelessness that often go unnoticed

Rising Rates Among Younger Veterans: Younger female Veterans, particularly those who served in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, are becoming homeless at a higher rate than their older counterparts. This trend is contrary to the general pattern of Veteran homelessness, which typically affects older veterans.

Impact of Military Service on Family Dynamics: Female Veterans often face unique challenges in maintaining family relationships and custody of their children. The stress and demands of military service, coupled with the challenges of reintegration into civilian life, can strain family dynamics, sometimes contributing to homelessness.

Underutilization of VA Benefits: Many female Veterans underutilize VA benefits and services due to a lack of awareness or the perception that these services are not designed for them. This underutilization can be a significant barrier to obtaining housing and healthcare assistance.

Disparity in Homeless Services: There's a notable disparity in services available to homeless female Veterans compared to male Veterans. For instance, many homeless shelters and programs are primarily geared toward males, leaving female Veterans with fewer options that cater to their specific needs, including safety and privacy concerns.

Higher Education Levels: Surprisingly, homeless female Veterans tend to have higher levels of education compared to homeless male Veterans. Despite this, they still face significant employment challenges, partly due to the difficulties in translating military experience to civilian job skills.

Complex Medical Needs: Female Veterans often have more complex medical needs compared to their male counterparts, including gynecological and reproductive health issues. These needs are not always adequately met by existing healthcare services geared towards the general homeless population.

Lack of Gender-Specific Data: There is a significant lack of comprehensive, gender-specific data on homeless female Veterans. This gap in data hampers the development of targeted interventions and policies to effectively address their specific needs.

[help-for-low-income-seniors]

Home Care: Making a Difference in your Elder's Aging Life

Matters involving parents’ aging condition are major concerns among siblings specifically when their elders live on their own away from them and visits become a struggle because of distance. If during a visit, a parent or both of them exhibit signs of difficulties attending to their daily needs or managing even simple household routines, it is probably the right time to think of their living situation. It should also trigger you to gather the whole family and plan for the appropriate care for your elders.

Because the aging population is growing at a fast rate, elder care services are also sprouting in every corner, making it easier for you to find one just perfect for your parents’ needs. Sending them away from home to senior facilities would somehow be a viable choice especially if it would be impractical and out of the question for you and your siblings to accommodate your parents in your own home. But the thing is, most old people disapprove of living outside the comfort and familiarity of their own homes, and as much as possible, they want to preserve their independence and dignity as they age.

If this kind of situation arises, you and the rest of your family can make your parents’ aging life an uncomplicated one by discussing with them the changes that would inevitably take place. You can always opt for home care, a senior care service that provides the necessary assistance for your loved ones within the convenience of their own home.

Providing loved ones with home care

Even if you commit yourself to taking care of your elders, you’ll find it really taxing and the need for assistance is welcome especially when you must run your own errand or you need to attend to important matters. Home care provided by professional caregivers could alleviate some of your burdens, particularly with daily living tasks of bathing, grooming, eating, toileting, and even shopping. If you live far from your parents, home care gives you peace of mind that your parents have a companion and that somebody is taking care of them and attending to their needs. For as long as your parents do not experience serious health problems that require nursing homes, home care is the best option for their living accommodation.

Providing a safe and elder-friendly home

Once, the family has decided to give the elder a home care, the next thing you should consider is making the house more livable and less prone to accidents if not totally free from them. This means redesigning your parent’s house to create a living space perfect for their aging at home. Floors should be maintained with skid-free wax and if you must have rugs, make sure that they are secured with tacks. Their bathroom and toilet must have enough space to move about taking into consideration that they might need a wheelchair in the future. Mount grab bars in their bathroom, kitchen or in any place you deem necessary. Remove clutters especially in hallways that would possibly make your elders stumble. Install security and communication gadgets so your loved ones can easily get help when needed.

Aging of elders at home need not be complicated and worrisome as long as you give it a great deal of thoughts and serious planning. A home care with a professional caregiver and a living space designed to fit their needs are just about the essentials for your parents to endure and enjoy their twilight years.

Welcome to Stepping Up for Seniors, a dedicated organization committed to making a positive impact in the lives of low-income seniors who require assistance yet lack the essential family support and financial resources to access the help they need. Our mission is simple but profound - to provide a helping hand and bring hope to those in their golden years who might otherwise be left without the vital support they deserve.

Our organization is not just a helping hand; we are a lifeline for low-income seniors seeking support and care. With a team of dedicated professionals and a network of compassionate volunteers, we work tirelessly to make a meaningful difference in the lives of seniors who have walked a long and challenging journey.

Join us in our mission to lift the spirits of low-income seniors and provide them with the care and resources they deserve. Together, we can make a profound impact, ensuring that every senior in our community can enjoy their golden years with grace, respect, and joy.

Explore our website to learn more about our programs and discover how you can get involved in Stepping Up for Seniors. Let's step up together for those who have paved the way for us and deserve to be cherished in their retirement years.

https://homecaremakingadifferenceinyo438.blogspot.com/2023/12/home-care-making-difference-in-your.html Stepping Up For Seniors Assisting Seniors Assistance for Elders https://automotiverepairshopvistaca647.blogspot.com/2023/12/vista-cosmetic-dentistry_02066880093.html https://www.tumblr.com/jessica-harlowe/735782696050163712 https://webdesignagencyquotenewyorkci361.blogspot.com/ https://webdesignagencyquotenewyorkci361.blogspot.com/2023/12/web-design-agency-quote-new-york-city.html https://psychologistmtlaurelnj545.blogspot.com/

[beardedmrbean]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nearly one-quarter of Oklahomans receiving health care through Medicaid, about 300,000 people, will no longer be eligible by the end of this year, mostly because they or a parent earn too much to qualify, state health officials said Tuesday.

Oklahoma Health Care Authority CEO Kevin Corbett outlined the state's plan to notify people who are losing coverage over the next nine months. Corbett says most of those people, including children, will be phased out because they or a caregiver earn more than 138% of the federal poverty level, which is the income threshold to qualify for the program called SoonerCare in Oklahoma. The threshold translates to about $18,000 a year for an individual or about $39,000 for a family of four.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the federal government agreed to allow people to stay on Medicaid even if they started to make more money than usually allowed. That ended in December when Congress passed a bill that included ending the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Nationwide, millions are expected to be bumped from Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to nearly 80 million low-income people. The federal government also will wind down extra funds given to states for the added enrollees over the next year.

In Oklahoma, roughly one-third of the population, or 1.3 million people, receive health coverage through Medicaid, said Corbett, who also is Gov. Kevin Stitt's cabinet secretary of health and mental health. He estimated about 300,000 of those recipients would lose coverage, about 60% of whom are adults ages 19 to 64, and the rest being children.

The first group of people losing coverage will be out of SoonerCare by April 30, and consist of those earning more than the income threshold, who have no children and already have other health coverage, Corbett said. Roughly a month later, more people without children will be cut off, even if they have no other coverage. That group will be limited to people with few or no health care claims over the last six months.

“We’ve thought long and hard about how to do this with a level of compassion and making sure we don’t impact our most vulnerable,” Corbett said.

Health officials are hopeful most of those who lose coverage will be able to enroll in a plan through the federal marketplace, which offers tax subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people purchase health insurance. Some who have found jobs may be able to join employer-sponsored plans.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Barry Blitt, The New Yorker

* * * * 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 9, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

“Show me your budget,” President Joe Biden is fond of saying, “[and] I’ll tell you what you value.” Today, Biden introduced his 2024 budget at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Biden’s 182-page, $6.9 trillion budget plan advances a vision of the United States based on the idea that the government should invest in workers, families, and infrastructure to increase the purchasing power of those on the “demand side” of the economy. It offers a stark contrast to the theory of the Republicans since the 1980s, that the government should cut taxes and slash government spending to free up capital for those at the top of the economy—on the “supply side”—with the idea they will use that money to invest in new business that will then hire more workers.

So-called supply-side economics was championed as a plan that would enable everyone, from workers to financiers, to thrive together as the economy boomed, but it never produced the kind of growth its promoters promised. Instead, when combined with dramatically increased defense spending, it exploded deficits and added dramatically to the national debt.

At the same time, wealth moved upward dramatically. A 2020 Rand Corporation study found that from 1975 to 2018, about $50 trillion moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. The Biden administration has set out to address this inequity by reimposing the rules that used to prevent corporations and the wealthiest Americans from gaming the system, and by making it easier for working men and women to make ends meet.

So far, Biden’s policies have created record numbers of jobs and kept unemployment numbers low, and today’s budget builds on those policies. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young told reporters that the budget plan was based on four values: “lowering costs for families, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in America, and reducing the deficit by ensuring that the wealthiest in this country and big corporations begin to pay their fair share, and cutting wasteful spending on Big Pharma, Big Oil, and other special interests.” And, she added, “It does all of that while ensuring that no one earning less than $400,000 per year will pay a penny more in new taxes.”

Biden has called for rolling back Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cut, bringing the corporate rate up from 21% to 28% (it was 35% before the 2017 cuts). Biden proposed to raise the tax on capital gains for people earning at least $1 million a year from 20% to 39.6%. He wants a 25% minimum income tax rate for households worth at least $100 million, that is, the wealthiest 0.01% of taxpayers, who currently pay a rate of 8%. The plan calls for reversing the Trump tax for those making more than $400,000 a year, putting the top income tax rate to 39% from 37%. Other increases are all in this same vein: increasing revenue from the wealthiest Americans.

Biden’s budget document is not just about funding the government; it is a signal of the principles he might carry into the 2024 presidential contest. It offers Biden’s own blueprint for improving the lives of children, their caregivers, and other ordinary Americans, then undercuts Republican complaints about such investments by emphasizing that Biden’s plan—unlike anything the Republicans have offered—will cut the deficit over the next decade.

House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promptly tweeted that Biden’s budget is “completely unserious. He proposes trillions in new taxes that you and your family will pay directly or through higher costs. Mr. President: Washington has a spending problem, NOT a revenue problem.”

But McCarthy and the Republicans have not been able to agree on any of the cuts they claim they want to make, and so have not released a budget of their own. Biden has repeatedly asked them for one. He said today: “I want to make it clear. I'm ready to meet with the Speaker anytime—tomorrow, if he has his budget. Lay it down. Tell me what you want to do. I'll show you what I want to do. See what we can agree on. What we don’t agree on, let’s see what we—we vote on.”

Instead of offering a budget plan, Republicans appear to be trying desperately to reassert control over the national political narrative, shoring up the virtual political reality that has given them such power even as it continues to take hits.

A number of reporters, including Nicholas Riccardi and David Bauder of the Associated Press and Nicholas Confessore and Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times, are using documents from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against the Fox News Network to show how both Trump and then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appealed directly to Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch for political support on the Fox News Channel (FNC). Murdoch passed the requests on to FNC executives, and FNC hosts promptly began to do as they were asked.

This pipeline from the Republican Party to the FNC included support for Trump’s tax cuts (“Once they pass this bill we must tell our viewers again and again what they will get,” Murdoch wrote), private sharing of Biden’s 2020 ads with Trump’s campaign, and attacks on Biden. (“Just made sure Fox banging on about these issues,” Murdoch advised. “If the audience talks the theme will spread.”) That support included pumping up Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in his own race (“Could Sean say something supportive? We can’t lose the Senate if at all possible,” Murdoch wrote).

But by 2020 they had created an audience that depended on that narrative, and when they threatened to abandon FNC if it told the truth that Biden won the 2020 election, FNC hosts pushed the lie that Trump won out of fear they would lose their viewers.

The ecosystem that established a virtual political reality is now increasingly under assault.

Today, Bryon M. Large, presiding disciplinary judge of the Colorado Supreme Court, publicly censured Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis for misconduct after she “repeatedly made misrepresentations on national television and on Twitter, undermining the American public’s confidence in the 2020 presidential election.”

Ellis agreed that she had “made…misrepresentations while serving as counsel for the Trump campaign and personal counsel to President Trump.” Top among them was her insistence that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, including her statements that “we know the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that,” “the election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide,” and so on.

In Congress, Republicans are holding hearings designed to shore up their narrative, but they are not delivering the smooth sound bites the party needs. The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Jim Jordan (R-OH), held another hearing today, this one focused on the idea that the government pressured Twitter to suppress stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

But Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), the ranking Democratic member of the committee, immediately noted that the Republicans would be using material for the hearing that they had not shared with the Democrats, and Jordan got flustered and angry. Then Aaron Blake of the Washington Post fact checked Jordan’s allegations and noted that his theory that the FBI was secretly strategizing to protect Hunter Biden—during Trump’s administration—ignored key events and that two key witnesses had recently contradicted Jordan’s theory in sworn testimony.  

Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said yesterday he is leading an investigation into the last congress’s House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as on security failures around that event. That investigation, too, might not go well for the Republicans. The January 6th Committee asked Loudermilk to come talk to the committee members voluntarily about a tour he gave of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. He refused. Video showed that a man from that tour marched on the Capitol the next day, saying, “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We’re coming for you.”

Finally, today, Republican reputations took a hit when a jury found Larry Householder, the Republican former speaker of the Ohio House, and Matt Borges, the former leader of the Ohio Republican Party, guilty of racketeering conspiracy. In 2017, FirstEnergy Corporation began to funnel $61 million to Householder through dark money groups to enable him to get allies elected and take power. Once in charge, with the help of Borges—who was then a lobbyist—he got a $1.3 billion law through the House to bail the failing company out. Federal prosecutors say it is the largest corruption case in state history.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

How Providing Childcare Affects the Grandparents (and Everyone Else in the Family): Evidence from Brazil

In recent years, there’s been a massive increase in evidence on the importance of early childhood development (ECD) investments. But most of the evidence on what works to boost ECD outcomes in low- and middle-income countries comes from either home-based programs for the youngest children or preschool programs for children just before they enter primary school. What about center-based daycare programs? In many countries around the world, the number of children in daycare programs is increasing rapidly. How do they affect children and their families?

In Rio de Janeiro, the government has been rapidly expanding daycare, but the number of parents who’d like to put their children in daycare greatly exceeds the number of openings. Back in 2007, a team of researchers worked with the government of Rio de Janeiro to use a lottery to decide which kids would get slots and which would go to the waiting list. We compared the kids who won the lottery to those who got waitlisted to see what happened. We checked in during the first year, four years later, and then again seven years later (long after all the kids were primary school age). In a new study—"Public childcare, labor market outcomes of caregivers, and child development: experimental evidence from Brazil”—we (together with several other co-authors) document the results. While ours certainly isn’t the first study to document the impact of center-based care in a low- or middle-income country, this research yields new insights by studying a program that is implemented at scale by standard government systems, following children and their families over the course of seven years, and examining impacts on other family members (including grandparents and older siblings).

Continue reading.

[science-fiction-is-real]

At the same time, I think we need to put "iPad babies" in their proper social-economics context. childcare is unbelievably expensive so work-from-home parents are using iPads to provide childcare for them. working class families living in poverty are spending way too much energy just to pay their bills and not end up homeless and starving, so there is less time and energy to spend with children one on one. This is why it has been shown over and over again that kids raised in low income families tend to have lower skills in just about every academic and behavioral context. People are letting iPads raise their kids, but it isn't just a situation of parents being lazy or overly indulgent with the kids. It's because we live in a world that is extremely hostile to the needs of children and the needs of their caregivers. Parents are making the best of bad situations.

Parents get sooooooo mad when anyone even remotely implies that if we know it negatively impacts adults then it’s probably quite detrimental to the health and development of a young mind to stick an iPad in front of a child any time they show signs of Behaviors. “Are you calling me a bad parent?” Yeah. I am.

[qrydenation]

Grocery Delivery for Seniors: The Easiest Way to Get Essentials Delivered

As seniors embrace the convenience of at-home deliveries, grocery services tailored specifically for them are becoming essential. Whether due to mobility challenges, health considerations, or simply a desire to enjoy the convenience of online shopping, grocery delivery for seniors is now an accessible and practical solution. This approach not only eliminates the need for seniors to navigate grocery store aisles but also offers reliable access to fresh and healthy foods, supporting a more independent lifestyle.

The Convenience of Grocery Delivery for Seniors

Grocery shopping can be a challenging task for seniors, especially those who may struggle with health or mobility issues. Grocery delivery for seniors allows them to continue living independently while ensuring they always have access to the essential items they need. These services allow for easy ordering from the comfort of home, and groceries are delivered directly to their door, often with a friendly check-in from the delivery team.

For seniors who prefer online ordering, many platforms have simplified their website and mobile app interfaces, making it easier for older adults to select their items and complete their purchases. Those without access to technology can still use these services, as many delivery companies offer phone support or accept orders through family members or caregivers.

How Grocery Delivery Services Meet Seniors' Dietary Needs

One of the biggest advantages of grocery delivery is the ability to shop for specific dietary needs without the hassle of in-store shopping. With grocery delivery services near me, seniors can easily access dietary-specific foods and specialty items, such as low-sodium, low-sugar, and gluten-free options.

For seniors who are on a specific meal plan, these services ensure they have the right ingredients at home without making multiple trips to different stores. Many grocery delivery services also offer regular weekly or monthly deliveries, allowing seniors to maintain a well-stocked pantry with all the essentials. This continuity ensures they are always prepared, even if they forget to order occasionally or need additional items between regular deliveries.

The Best Food Delivery Services for Seniors’ Convenience

Numerous food delivery services are designed to make grocery shopping affordable and straightforward for seniors. Many of these best food delivery services offer options like free or discounted delivery for seniors, making it financially viable on a fixed income. Some services even have programs specifically for seniors, providing everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to pantry staples, allowing seniors to enjoy a balanced diet with minimal effort.

These delivery services are also available in most areas, providing a range of options that cater to the needs of seniors. The reliability of these services ensures that seniors have a dependable means of receiving their groceries, and the delivery professionals often go above and beyond to make sure each delivery is convenient and accessible. This service is essential for seniors who may have limited access to transportation or experience difficulties with mobility.

Meal Delivery for Seniors: A Healthy Alternative to Grocery Shopping

For those who may prefer ready-to-eat meals, is an excellent alternative to grocery delivery. Meal delivery services offer prepared meals tailored to meet the nutritional needs of seniors, ensuring that they receive a balanced diet without the need for cooking or preparation. These services are a particularly valuable resource for seniors who may have limitations that make meal preparation challenging.

Meal delivery options often allow seniors to select specific dietary preferences, from heart-healthy meals to diabetic-friendly options. Many providers offer plans that allow for scheduled deliveries of freshly made, nutritious meals. This option is both a time-saver and an energy saver, giving seniors nutritious meals without the need to lift a finger in the kitchen.

Combining meal delivery with grocery delivery services gives seniors the flexibility to choose from a range of meal preparation options, whether they prefer cooking with delivered groceries or enjoying chef-prepared meals.

Grocery Delivery Services Near Me: Finding Local Options

When searching for “grocery delivery services near me,” seniors have a variety of options. Many local grocery stores offer delivery services, often with discounts or perks specifically for seniors. Additionally, national chains have introduced senior-friendly options, which frequently include user-friendly online ordering systems, phone support, and even in-store assistance to help seniors access their accounts.

For those in rural areas or regions where traditional grocery delivery may be limited, many communities are developing programs to ensure seniors have access to essential groceries. These community-based services collaborate with local grocers and charities to provide delivery services at little to no cost, making grocery delivery more accessible for seniors in every location.

Local organizations, including churches and senior centers, also frequently partner with delivery services to provide groceries to those who may not have access to online ordering or phone service. These partnerships ensure that even seniors in remote areas or those who are unable to afford commercial delivery fees have access to the food and resources they need.

The Health Benefits of Regular Grocery Delivery for Seniors

In addition to the convenience of avoiding store visits, grocery delivery also supports the health of seniors. Access to fresh, nutritious food is essential to maintaining good health, and seniors who use grocery delivery services are more likely to have fresh produce, lean proteins, and other healthy foods readily available. For seniors with chronic health conditions, regular deliveries of fresh food can make a substantial difference in maintaining a balanced diet, ultimately supporting better health outcomes.

Some grocery delivery services also collaborate with nutritionists and dietitians to provide recommendations on what to order, helping seniors make informed food choices. With food delivered directly to their homes, seniors can follow specific meal plans that aid in managing conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

Moving Toward a More Independent Life with Grocery Delivery

Ultimately, grocery delivery for seniors is more than a convenient service; it’s a pathway toward increased independence and a higher quality of life. By offering easy access to fresh foods and pantry essentials, grocery delivery helps seniors live healthier, more active lives. Seniors can focus on enjoying their daily routines and activities without the concern of grocery shopping logistics.

When combined with meal delivery for seniors, grocery delivery enables seniors to live independently with complete access to nutritious food options. This dual approach ensures seniors can maintain their lifestyle, preserve their health, and feel supported in their daily lives.

For those seniors who also need occasional transportation for in-store visits, rides for seniors services complement grocery and meal delivery options by providing safe, reliable transportation. Together, these services create a robust support network that promotes seniors' independence, safety, and well-being.

Embracing the Future of Grocery and Meal Delivery

As more seniors turn to grocery delivery services near me for their shopping needs, the delivery industry is responding with senior-friendly options. With a focus on affordability, accessibility, and reliability, grocery and meal delivery providers are meeting seniors’ needs like never before.

For seniors on fixed incomes or those with specific dietary needs, the best food delivery services are working to bridge gaps in accessibility. Through the integration of modern grocery delivery and meal solutions, seniors can now embrace a new level of convenience that enhances their lifestyle and health.

In today’s fast-paced world, grocery delivery is the easiest way for seniors to ensure they always have the essentials they need. With ongoing advancements in grocery and meal delivery options, seniors can enjoy peace of mind knowing that essential items are always just a delivery away, supporting a fulfilling and independent lifestyle well into the golden years.