Skip to main content
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

August 7, 2020

New maps show how the virus has severely deepened economic inequality within cities.

 

The cost of groceries has been rising at the fastest pace in decades since the coronavirus pandemic seized the U.S. economy, leading to sticker shock for basic staples like beef and eggs and forcing struggling households to rethink how to put enough food on the table.

 

Congress didn’t extend the $600 boost to weekly unemployment benefits, which lapsed on Friday. Now, some workers will get just a few dollars a week in jobless aid.

 

The $600 weekly pandemic unemployment payments have single-handedly changed the economic equation in America as people earn more staying home than they did in the jobs they lost.

 

Housing advocates fear that they could see a wave of evictions in the coming months, as states end moratoriums put in place during the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Legal process rebooting weeks after state moratorium on evictions lifted; Detroiters get reprieve until Aug. 17

 

The two issues are linked, but during the coronavirus pandemic the relationship is not always simple.

 

Voters were asked to amend Missouri’s Constitution to force an expansion of Medicaid in the state.