At Operation New Hope (ONH), we understand that people returning from incarceration face a multitude of barriers, with employment, transportation, and housing being three of the most reported obstacles. Without these necessities, people often feel less connected to their environments, creating communities that experience higher rates of crime, unemployment, and recidivism.
unemployment
OP-ED: A Black Happy Thanksgiving 2021
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Poverty and unemployment within our families and communities are now on a steady decrease after years of increasing economic disparities even before the devastating impact of COVID-19 on Black America. We express our condolences to those families who have suffered deaths from that deadly pandemic that continues to disproportionately hit our communities.
Black, brown people may be hardest hit as Pandemic Unemployment ends
Federal unemployment programs, including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, came to an end on Sept. 4. All those on unemployment will now receive $300 less in weekly benefits and experts said it will likely hurt Black and brown workers the hardest.
Enhanced UI benefits disproportionately support Black and brown workers who have historically been left behind in recoveries. According to Lindsay Owens, executive director for Groundwork Collaborative, “the historic inequities in the labor market will be laid even more bare” after Monday’s benefits cutoff.
After Labor Day, roughly 7.5 million people lost key pandemic-era unemployment benefits established by the March 2020 CARES Act. Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork, reacted to the impending unemployment cliff with the following statement:
Federal unemployment benefits end
Federal unemployment programs, including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, came to an end on Sept. 4. All those on unemployment will now receive $300 less in weekly benefits and experts said it will likely hurt Blacks and brown workers the hardest.
2021 Fair Housing: Restoring HUD Rules and Revenues
NNPA NEWSWIRE – “By guaranteeing affordable mortgages for White families and excluding Black families or limiting Black families to purchase in less economically advantageous neighborhoods, the government created, encouraged, and reinforced intense residential racial segregation throughout the nation,” said Richard Rothstein, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.’s Senior Fellow Emeritus. “White flight,” or the creation of White suburbs, was also undergirded by massive federal investments in the construction of the interstate highway system. The federal government often took possession of homes and land in Black communities by claiming eminent domain in order to construct highways as physical barriers between White neighborhoods and areas with a large presence of African Americans or communities of color.”
A year of COVID-19 brought record consumer debt and collection complaints
NNPA NEWSWIRE – “Systemic racism has fostered a debt collection landscape in which people of color are more likely to be contacted by collectors and more likely to be impacted by lawsuits resulting in wage garnishment and bank levies,” states CRL. “State laws differ in terms of how much money is “protected,” or is unable to be seized by a debt collector, to leave money for a family’s basic needs. Federal protection is urgently needed.”
COMMENTARY: The American Dream belongs to working Americans
NNPA NEWSWIRE — It is time to commit to our workforce. To once again be that nation that cares about the hard-working women and men in this country and is a world leader in workers’ rights and compensation. Moreover, the economic reality is that we NEED unions. A diminished union presence forces people to work two and three jobs just to make ends meet. Many of those jobs are in the service sector, with low wages, no benefits, and little room for advancement. It is the American worker that drives our economy, not wealthy CEOs.

