CLASP

“Lifting the ban on safety net supports reduces material hardship for formerly incarcerated people, who are exceedingly paid low earnings and face high rates of unemployment due to factors such as discrimination in hiring,” CLASP’s Darrel Thompson and Ashley Burnside wrote in a policy brief…

The CARES Act provides most adults a rebate check. But for 3 million people who owe child support, the check will be withheld. However, much of the money withheld will be kept by states rather than given to children. 

HUD has proposed a regulation that would effectively eliminate a 2015 policy known as the Assessment of Fair Housing. If implemented, the proposed rule would make it harder to foster inclusive communities and promote fair housing choice for people of color, people with disabilities, and…

In deciding which policies to advocate for, there’s a tension between aspirational issues like reparations and more immediate solutions. But the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Reparations, however, aren’t just another policy with costs and benefits to assess—they’re about something deeper.

The Trump Administration recently proposed stripping SNAP benefits from 3.1 million individuals. This would further exacerbate the country’s racial wealth gap and seriously harm people of color—continuing a ruthless tradition of preventing people of color from achieving economic mobility. 

In the wake of federal legislation passed in 1996, people with drug-related felony convictions were banned from SNAP and TANF. Fortunately, continuing a national trend, two more states have lifted these restrictions this year. 

The Working Families Tax Relief Act strengthens the EITC and CTC, recognizing the importance of tax policy in promoting economic mobility. If enacted, the Act’s changes would raise the incomes of 46 million households.    

Elizabeth Lower-Basch and Darrel Thompson were quoted in this article about TANF family caps.

As the U.S. House and Senate reconcile two very different farm bills, formerly incarcerated people are at risk of losing SNAP food assistance.

In the early '90s, the federal government allowed states to reshape welfare policies, including imposing family caps on cash assistance. While nearly half of all states initially adopted the caps, there has been a trend toward repealing them.