Child Poverty

  • Child Poverty

    Congress Is Getting Serious About Fighting Child Poverty: A Review of the Latest Child Allowance Proposals

    More than 10 million children were living in poverty in 2019 and the economic crisis created by the pandemic has threatened the security of millions more. These children need fast and flexible assistance. A child allowance would put cash directly into the hands of families with children to spend without restrictions—to put food on the table, keep the lights on, and keep children safely housed.

    | National
  • Child Poverty

    CDF Urges Congress to Ensure Children and Their Families Are Stably Housing During the Pandemic and Beyond

    COVID-19 has exacerbated the nation’s affordable housing crisis—the result of a long history of racist housing policy including chronic underinvestment—the burden of which falls disproportionately on Black and Latino children. The emergency relief passed in December—which provided $25 billion in emergency rental assistance and extended the federal eviction moratorium—was a critical short-term step to protect the millions of families with children who are behind on their rent, but more must be done to ensure that these families emerge from the pandemic free from back rent and the looming threat of eviction.

  • Child Poverty

    CDF Calls for Congress to Expand the Child Tax Credit in the Next COVID-19 Relief Package

    Families need immediate support as they struggle with the costs of raising children in the midst of an ongoing pandemic and faltering economy. Ensuring that families have adequate support is especially important for the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and immigrant communities who have been hit hardest by the current economic and health crises, and who have too often been excluded from support and services. We urge Congress to act without delay to strengthen and expand the Child Tax Credit, and ensure that all children in need are able to regularly and easily access the benefit.

  • Child Poverty

    President Biden Takes Key Steps to Address Hunger in New Executive Order

    Recognizing that hunger is a moral and political failure with devastating consequences for our children and nation, President Biden exercised his authority last Thursday to issue an executive order to strengthen federal nutrition assistance. This executive order includes a number of provisions to address shortcomings in existing COVID relief efforts and provide immediate relief for millions of families struggling to put food on the table.

    | National
  • Child Health

    Ongoing Violence Can Take a Toll on Children's Health and Wellbeing

    As we move towards accountability and welcome in the new administration, it’s time for bold solutions to dismantle systems of oppression and protect our children from sources of toxic stress like poverty, racism, and police violence.

    | National
  • Child Health

    President-Elect Biden’s COVID Relief Proposal Would Help Families in Crisis and Begin to Address Child Poverty

    Last week, President-Elect Biden released a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package to address the growing public health and economic crisis brought on by the pandemic, which continues to exacerbate the systems of economic and racial injustice that harm our children. Since the start of the pandemic, CDF has called on lawmakers to prioritize children in their response to the crisis and the President-Elect’s relief package would provide immediate relief while also taking a long overdue step to address our nation’s shameful child poverty crisis that could lead to the largest reduction in child poverty rates in decades. 

    | National