Good news, bad news for Colo. low-income health clinics, By Allison Sherry, September 3, 2009, Denver Post: “Health clinics for the poor must chop $32.9 million from their budgets at the same time they are receiving millions in stimulus dollars to expand – creating a situation where new buildings may stand empty. Mountain Family Health Centers received half a million dollars in federal stimulus money to build a new clinic in Rifle, but director Dave Adamson said he’s not sure he will be able to staff it. In fact, he may have to cut staff at his existing clinic in Glenwood Springs. The Metro Community Provider Network clinics will get $1.6 million in new solar panels and medical and dental equipment, but state budget cuts are forcing the director to close three clinics in the next two months – one in Bailey, where there are few other options…”
Day: September 3, 2009
Unemployment and Homelessness in Japan
Japan’s economic downturn pushes more onto streets, By Peter Ford, September 3, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “By the time the police arrived at 7 a.m. last Monday to move him on from the Ikebukuro subway station where he had spent the night, Isao Ito had been awake for some time. He had been poring over the jobs section of a magazine, and he hadn’t slept well anyway. Newly arrived in the capital in search of work, he said, ‘I haven’t eaten or slept for three days. I’m alone, and I’m nervous about sleeping rough.’ Welcome to the global recession, Japanese style. As Mr. Ito has just found, perhaps nowhere else in the industrialized world is it so easy to slip from just getting by to utter destitution. Some 460,000 people have lost their jobs in Japan since the ‘Lehman shokku,’ as people here call it – the day last September when the collapse of Lehman Bros. bank triggered a worldwide financial crisis. Half of them, like Ito, were on temporary or part-time contracts that gave them no unemployment or other social security insurance…”
Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program – Pennsylvania
- Fending off the chill, Editorial, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Wholesale changes this year in Pennsylvania’s annual heating-aid program seem designed to make every needy homeowner and utility stakeholder hot under the collar. Maybe it’s part of some secret plan to keep low-income families warm this winter? The changes make little sense, otherwise. No wonder they’ve sparked widespread criticism from utility company officials and low-income advocates alike…”
- Heating aid in a LIHEAP of trouble, By Signe Wilkinson, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Daily News: “The Annual cold war starts early this year. We’re referring to the annual battle for people to get help with their heating bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Usually, it’s not until October or November that we begin hearing signs of worry that the state-administered LIHEAP, managed by the Department of Public Welfare, will not be able to cover as many needy people as the year before. The federal government establishes the appropriation for LIHEAP, and sends money to the states. Most states also add their own funds to the program, though Pennsylvania is an exception…”