Month: October 2019

Officials point to rising employment, but the uninsured rate is climbing as families run afoul of new paperwork and as fear rises among immigrants.

The Trump administration had approved Arizona’s request to implement work requirements no earlier than Jan. 1, 2020.

Tent encampments across California are testing residents’ tolerance and compassion as street conditions deteriorate.

Minnesota’s rural homeless must often survive on a patchwork of housing, from motels to church basements. Finding a path to a permanent home is a huge challenge.

“You’re not living well. You’re living an unhealthy lifestyle in every aspect. It’s one foot on a banana peel and one foot on concrete.”

Michigan’s poorest counties are education deserts, creating a cycle of a lack of jobs that entrenches poverty.

There’s more to increasing college graduates than just free college. Rural area students have challenges to overcome that extend way beyond money.

It’s unclear how state and county officials plan on complying with the judge’s order, however. The “poll tax” issued wasn’t addressed, either.

This city’s south side was devastated when a highway section went up. Now that there’s talk of taking it down, residents think they should be protected — and compensated.

A new dashboard from the Urban Institute highlights county-level food insecurity and related issues.

New Orleans slashed its homelessness numbers by 90% over a decade but has hit a plateau.

Boise is a midsize city with a manageable homeless population. But it is setting standards for how much bigger cities deal with homeless encampments.

A growing body of research suggests sustained positive relationships in childhood can help kids overcome effects from severely negative experiences.

Because of big price increases and more modest income gains, black households can afford 25% of homes for sale, off from 39% in 2012, Redfin says.

Shifts added or subtracted at short notice play havoc with budgets and lives, and disproportionately hurt black and Hispanic women.

A series exploring how our governments use AI to target the vulnerable

Welcome to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the judge has no law degree, debt collectors get a cut of the bail, and Americans are watching their lives — and liberty — disappear in the pursuit of medical debt collection.

A look into the system reveals cases in which aid applications weren’t provided and patients were pressured to pay. Locally, St. Joseph’s in Tacoma has come under scrutiny for its tactics.

After decades of enduring poor care from the government-run Indian Health Service, tribal groups are taking over management of hospitals.

Methamphetamine cases in Wisconsin have ballooned by 450 percent. Service providers and health officials say more money is needed to combat it.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that its proposed changes to the food stamp program could leave nearly 500,000 children without access to free school lunches.

Utah may be a bellwether showing how far states can go in customizing Medicaid.

Starting Jan. 1, the state will require the eight companies that manage pharmacy benefits under Medicaid to use the same preferred prescription drug list, instead of eight individual lists.

The administration’s proposal, the third food-stamp rule change since December, would reduce spending by $4.5 billion over five years and cut benefits for one in five families.

Disadvantaged and minority children show as much academic growth as much as advantaged kids in other schools, according to a new study from Ohio State

Their average incomes were also 25% higher than peers who didn’t receive four or more years of this intervention.

In a national survey, 30 of 50 states struggled to help school districts figure out how to pay for the added costs of transportation for children in foster care. A dozen reported it was “very or extremely challenging.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that prohibits landlords from rejecting low-income tenants who use housing vouchers and assistance programs to pay their rent. It protects Section 8 applicants.

Mental illness, substance abuse and physical disabilities are much more pervasive in L.A. County’s homeless population than previously reported, a Times analysis finds. The L.A. Homeless Services Authority narrowly interpreted its data, producing much lower numbers.

Jailing people and extending probation for failing to pay costs, fines, and restitution has, according to the ACLU “turned Pennsylvania’s jails into a form of modern debtors’ prisons.”