Let's Talk: Paid Leave Legislation
Let's Talk:
Paid Leave Legislation
Rep Campbell: Nearly every
worker will - at some point - need to take time off to welcome a new baby, care
for an aging loved one, or attend to their own serious medical need.
#PaidLeave4Hoosers would allow Hoosiers to take that time to bond, heal, or
provide care.
Q2. Right now, Indiana law guarantees workers zero days of #PaidLeave. What
does that mean, exactly?
Rep Campbell: Not having #PaidLeave
means that approximately 1 in 4 Hoosier women go back to work within 2 weeks of
giving birth. It means Hoosiers can’t follow doctors’ orders or experience
financial crisis because they got sick. It means caregivers struggle to be
there for those they love.
Q3. Do other countries offer #PaidLeave benefits?
Rep Campbell: Yes. The U.S. is
the only industrialized country on the planet that doesn’t provide some sort of
#PaidLeave to workers. Check out this World Policy Center map of countries that
provide paid maternity leave, for example:
Q4. What makes a paid leave *program* a smart strategy to provide #PaidLeave4All?
Rep Campbell: Asking a small
business to provide several weeks of #PaidLeave could be a heavy lift. With a #PaidLeave program, all workers & employers chip in a small amount each week to a
fund, and the fund pays workers who need leave.
Q5. Do other states have #PaidLeave programs?
Rep Campbell: Yes, a growing number of states #PaidLeave programs. Currently, 9 states plus D.C. have adopted this approach & many others are actively working on similar legislation.
Q6. Tell us a
little more about your #PaidLeave4Hoosiers legislation. What benefits would it
provide?
Rep Campbell: It would provide
up to 12 weeks of #PaidLeave per year to all Hoosier workers who become new,
adoptive, or foster parents, who are dealing with a serious medical issue, or who
are caring for a seriously ill loved one.
Q7. What are the benefits of #PaidLeave?
Rep Campbell: There are SO MANY!
Having #PaidLeave means fewer workers fall into poverty & makes families
stronger. Fewer moms experience postpartum depression & more infants
receive well-child checks. More people can take care of their health & more
families can care for aging loved ones.
Q8. What are the benefits of #PaidLeave for business?
Rep Campbell: For businesses, #PaidLeave
improves employee productivity & morale while reducing turnover. Creating a
#PaidLeave program would make this highly-sought-after benefit much easier to
offer, especially for small businesses, helping with recruitment.
Q9. Would a paid leave program be helpful in a pandemic like the one we are experiencing now?
Rep Campbell: Absolutely! Anyone suffering an illness like COVID could receive #PaidLeave while sick or in the hospital. The bill also allows flexibility during public health emergencies to cover things like school closures. And #PaidLeave can prevent spread!
Q10. What kind of feedback have you gotten on this #PaidLeave proposal?
Hoosiers, what feedback do you have?
Rep Campbell: Everyone I've talked to about this program have been very positive and have experienced times or know others who would have benefitted from this type of program!
Q11. What can Hoosiers who support #PaidLeave do to help?
Rep Campbell: Hoosiers, if you support #PaidLeave, you can call and email your state representatives and ask them
if they will coauthor my legislation. You can find your representatives here:
http://iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/
Also, sharing your personal story - whether
you had #PaidLeave &
it was helpful or you didn’t & it would have been helpful – can help
convince lawmakers to act.
To close our
chat today, we have a great surprise for you all!! While Rep Campbell will
be fighting for #PaidLeave in the Indiana House of Representatives, Senator Yoder will be filing #PaidLeave legislation in the Senate! Thank you Senator Yoder!
Senator Yoder: It is my pleasure! This
is such an important issue.
Q1. We know you
were limited in what you could choose to work on this session. Why did #PaidLeave rise to the top of your list?
Senator Yoder: COVID-19 has really highlighted how important it is for people to be able to care – for children,
spouses, parents, or your own health. With a #PaidLeave program, we can ensure that more Hoosiers are able to be there for their health or their family w/out
sacrificing financial stability.
Q2. Which of the many potential benefits of #PaidLeave is most meaningful to you?
Senator Yoder: Seeing families who couldn’t be with a
family member who died of COVID, I know it’s so essential to be able to provide
care to a seriously ill family member & be there at the end of life.
#PaidFamilyLeave erases the financial barrier standing in the way of doing
this.
Q3. What kind of support
would you like from Hoosiers this session?
Senator Yoder: This bill will go to the labor committee, so letting Chairman Boots know that #PaidLeave matters & that he should give it a hearing would be most helpful. Here is his contact info: https://www.indianasenaterepublicans.com/boots
Ok, Hoosiers, you have your marching orders! If you’d like to receive updates on other actions you can take to advance #PaidLeave4Hoosiers, please sign up here: https://groups.google.com/g/inpaidleave
This conversation originally appeared as a Twitter chat between @INInstitute @campbellh26 and @SenatorYoder on 12/9/2020.
Leaders Need to Step Up for Paid Leave
By Tia Washum
To be a
productive member of society, sometimes you must take care of yourself first. For some, this is nearly impossible. How can you care for yourself when you have limited resources and choices
due to low wages and lack of benefits like paid leave? Imagine if, daily, you
had to experience the constant questions: “How am I going to survive? How do I
pay the rent? How do I afford gas for my car when my expenses are higher than
my paycheck?”
Some of our neighbors
exist; they do not really get an opportunity to live. Daily life is full of
uncertainty, and emotions range from terror to depression.
Why does America spend more money on health care per person than other countries, but still our American people are struggling - especially people of color and low-income individuals? The United States actually performs worse than other comparable countries on some common health metrics like how long people live, how many infants die, and how many people struggle with diabetes and other health issues. Paid leave is part of the answer. When workers do not have the leave they need -- most often because they could not afford unpaid leave -- they may defer or forego necessary medical treatment. Paid leave also increases rates and duration of breastfeeding, improves rates of on-time vaccination, reduces infant hospital admissions, and reduces the odds of a new mother experiencing symptoms of postpartum depression and improves new mothers’ health.
Paid leave should be available to support mental health, too, especially in caregiving occupations. When you give so much of yourself in your work, you need time to replenish or else you will be empty. Businesses want productivity; they need to be willing to give opportunities to recharge and renew motivation. Paid leave has been shown to prevent employees from quitting and increases their loyalty to their place of employment.
Hoosier Women Sound the Alarm: COVID-19, Job Losses, & Financial Black Holes
Hoosier Women Sound the Alarm:
COVID-19,
Job Losses, & Financial Black Holes
Throughout the pandemic, staff at the Indiana
Institute for Working Families have been surveying and interviewing Hoosiers across the state about
their financial well-being. Recent responses from Hoosier women raise alarm
bells and add nuance to what we have seen emerging in other forms of state and national
data.
The evidence is mounting: While men may be more likely to suffer poor health outcomes from COVID-19, women are more likely to suffer from its economic impacts. Given that Hoosier women earned less, owned less, and were more likely to experience poverty before the pandemic began, this is a troubling trend. Below, we offer a summary of what Hoosier women have been telling us.
Women Need - but are Losing - Jobs
Receiving
the terrible news from an employer that the company is eliminating your
position, putting you on furlough, cutting hours, or going out of business can
spark a cascade of financial consequences. That is especially true for Hoosier
households that lack the savings to go weeks without a paycheck. Prior to the
pandemic, approximately four in ten
Hoosier households lacked
sufficient savings to weather a $400 emergency. During this pandemic-induced
recession, job losses and cuts to hours happened on a massive scale, with more women than men
experiencing lay-offs and heavier losses among Black and Latinx workers as well
as low-income families:
28% of workers in families making <$40k lost jobs compared to 13% of
workers in families making more than $100k/year. “I am a single parent with a baby and 2 school agers and I have no
job,” a mom from Central Indiana shared, noting “I am use to working full
time.” “My
hours were cut for four months,” reported another Indianapolis woman who told
us she is struggling to keep up with bills. Approximately four in ten Hoosier women has
experienced a loss of employment income in their household since March 13, 2020
– and national data suggest Black women and Latinas have been hit even harder.
COVID-19
has hit a number of female-dominated occupations hard. Occupational segregation
is high in categories like healthcare support, personal care and
service, food preparation and serving and education and training. Continuing
unemployment claims for the week ending October 3rd show that
‘accommodation and food service,’ ‘health care and social assistance,’ and
‘educational services’ categories made up nearly one in four claims. Even when
their jobs were disrupted, white male workers were more likely to maintain ties to
their employer, possibly increasing their chances of getting back to
work quickly. By September, national unemployment rates for adult men (7.4%) and
white workers (7.0%) trended lower than rates for adult women (7.7%), Black
workers (12.1%) and Latinx workers (10.3%).
Beyond
job losses and cuts to hours, demands at home are also pulling women out of the
workforce. In July, 27% of working mothers reported
that they expected to work less or stop working if schools did not have
in-person classes versus 17% of working fathers; that appears to be bearing out, as in
September, four times as many women as men left the workforce. A number of women
told us about having to make impossible decisions because of caregiving needs.
“I left my job because my son was premature and I
didn’t want to get him sick,” reported a mom from Hamilton County. Another
mom from Allen County shared that she was “concerned that I may have to quit my job or go part-time
to help my kids with remote learning.” “My child’s teacher expects someone to sit
next to my child for the entire day,” reported a third, who went on to note,
“The stress it puts on my job (which unreasonably wants me in the office rather
than working remotely which is a safer option) makes me feel like I should have
sent my child to school. But then I would have felt guilty about possibly exposing
my family even more.”
These
work-caregiving tensions are draining women in more ways than one. “I just
wonder every day if I will ever be back to where I was financially. To be the
breadwinner as a working mom is emotionally and psychologically draining in a
way people don’t always get. I used to think being a working mom was the best
thing ever. Now I feel like a disappointment at everything,” said one mom from
Central Indiana. This pressure may be
compounded by employers’ expectations that men continue working as usual. “My
husband can’t really take off because they expect the spouses to carry the
burden of schooling,” an Indianapolis mom reported. A recent poll suggests
that 63% of women are primarily responsible for e-learning, as
compared to 29% of men.
Among those still working, a number of women
also noted their concerns about the precariousness of their employment status.
One woman from Marion County shared that both she and her husband feared losing
their jobs. “This has injected into the situation a level of uncertainty that
leads us to fear any financial decision-making,” she reported. “We were
prepared for the bottom to fall out from under us at any minute-- and still
are.” Another said, “With two kids in daycare/child care, the threat of
quarantine is constantly looming over us.” Recent Census
Bureau survey data suggests that nearly two in ten Hoosier women expect that their household will lose
employment income in
the month of October. While some have paid leave to attend to illnesses or
caregiving needs that arise because of the Families First Coronavirus Response
Act, carve-outs to this program coupled with reduced demand in certain
sectors leave many others teetering on the edge.
Some women in households that had lost jobs expressed concerns
about timely and fair access to unemployment insurance. “My husband applied for
unemployment months ago and still has never received a decision,” said one
mother from Hamilton County who also told us they were nearing the end of their
household savings. Another working mother from Madison County reported losing
her job due to childcare disruptions and not receiving unemployment. Census
Pulse data suggests that 345,366
women received unemployment benefits; 122,683 applied but have not received
benefits, although caution should be used in relying on this data due to large
standard error rates. However, providing
support for these concerns, the Century Foundation estimates that Indiana is among the slowest states to process claims.
For those that have received unemployment, concerns linger about how long
boosted unemployment will last and the sufficiency of regular unemployment.
"I have been expected to live on $200/week when I used to make
$18/hour," a mother from Madison County told us. "It's impossible and
I'm drowning."
A Financial Hole
Among those with lost income, women reported
they felt as though they were digging a financial hole – either by depleting
their savings or taking on debt. Prior to the pandemic, nearly one in three
Hoosiers with a credit file had debt in collections with even higher proportions of
delinquent debt in communities of color – meaning many entered the crisis on
thin ice. Many of those with savings have dipped in; about one in ten households nationwide reported borrowing from or
cashing out retirement savings by the end of July, and more recent data
suggests that one in three households had
dipped into savings or retirement accounts by mid-August. This is particularly concerning for
women given that they tend to have lower retirement savings
balances and need to save more. “We definitely took a financial hit,
but luckily we had a good cushion before,” reported one respondent.
Those without savings have turned to
borrowing. Approximately one million Hoosiers 18 or over
have used credit cards or loans to pay for expenses in recent weeks. One Central Indiana woman reported that she was falling behind on
bills and has “to use credit card more to buy needed items.” Another shared that she had “bills put on hold.
Credit is hurting because of it. Times don't seem to be getting any better
either.” Damaged credit scores may create a drag on recovery as they
factor into Hoosiers’ ability to get jobs, apartments, insurance, and loans.
It was a top complaint category from Hoosiers to the CFPB early on in
the COVID-19 crisis.
Still others are simply falling behind on
basics. "I am two months behind on rent as all my disposable income has
been depleted since COVID began. I used to pay my rent on time up until August.
I'm very worried about myself and the children and our home," a mother
from Indianapolis reported. While she's applied for rental assistance,
there isn't nearly enough to meet the needs and new restrictions
mean many won't qualify for help. "My utilities are subject to
disconnect and I'm behind on rent," another told us.
At the same time, women reported increased
expenses, meaning that regardless of income changes, money is not going as far. About three in ten women over 18 are
finding it difficult paying for usual household expenses (460,161 somewhat difficult and 301,795 very
difficult), and women are more likely to report
difficulty paying bills than men. “We had a relative stay with us for 3 months when her
college shut down and with our kids being home daily our utilities have
increased drastically. We won't be caught up until the end of the year,”
one woman reported. Residential electric bills have increased in many localities
statewide, supporting this observation. “We have had to spend more money on
child care/education due to required distance learning,” another family
reported. “Jobs never had layoffs, but grocery prices have increased,” another reported. A USDA “low-cost” food plan for a
family of four has increased to $204.50/week in September 2020, up from
$197.90/week in February of 2020. In August, 341,446 Hoosier households received assistance through the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, with an average monthly benefit of $370.96/month/household.
Impact on Relationships & Mental Health
Hoosier women also described impacts beyond
finances - “isolation has forced me into more contact with my abusive ex
husband,” wrote one, while another shared that she lost her cousin to COVID-19.
Still another said, “Although our finances did not change, the fear and social
aspects of pandemic have changed our lives.” We
acknowledge that even for those who have not experienced financial challenges,
COVID-19 has led to other losses and challenges.
Recent data estimate
that more Hoosier women than men report experiencing anxiety and an
inability to stop worrying. An estimated 766k women experienced anxiety "more than
half of days" or "nearly every day" compared to 458k Hoosier
men. Similarly, 451,144 women were estimated to be feeling down
or depressed “more than half of days” or “nearly every day” as compared to
342,085 Hoosier men. Clearly, attending to the challenges beyond financial
well-being will also be crucial.
Will Women Struggle to Re-Enter the Workforce?
Women have also cautioned us that they
anticipate barriers to re-entering the workforce. The instability and lack of
affordability of child care is among them. In July, the National Association
for the Education of Young Children predicted that fewer than two in ten childcare
providers could be expected to last the year without financial support. That’s because the pandemic threw new
challenges into an already-fragile system that lacks sufficient public
investment and in which parents pay more than they can afford. Just over 2800 Hoosier children were on
the waiting list for childcare assistance at the end of September.
Discrimination is another. “I am
pregnant and finding a job that is comfortable hiring a pregnant woman is
difficult due to the uncertainties of COVID-19,” reported one Hoosier. Still
others worry about – or have already experienced – having to take a much
lower-paying position to get back into the workforce. However, some have found
that the job loss they experienced may have been a blessing in disguise, as
they returned to the workforce in a higher-wage position.
Hoosier Women Want Policymakers to Act
Women expressed their desires for policy
action in no uncertain terms. “Where is help?!” asked one mother from
Indianapolis. “Put suffering people before politics,” said another. Women and their families are struggling, while their cries for
help are lost in the political back-and-forth.
Some, recognizing the interconnectedness of
supporting businesses and supporting employees, want to see “more
help for companies who are struggling so they can keep their workers.” Others
want to see greater protections for workers across places of employment, like
“job protection for high risk people” and “paid leave for all parents, not just
those who work for a certain size employer.”
A number of women also cried out for support
managing caregiving, and with e-learning in particular. “Support stay at home
parents caring and teaching the next generation!” one pleaded. “Figure
out a way to take so much of the burden off women to just figure out how to
manage educating children, still working, and everything else,” said
another.
More stimulus, increased unemployment, and
paid leave surfaced repeatedly as suggested approaches to shore up families’
financial well-being. We echo their
calls. Supporting Hoosier women – both with the current effects of the pandemic
recession and with the long-term financial and emotional damage it is likely to
create – deserves our policymakers’ immediate attention.
*Thank you to the Women's Fund of Central Indiana for supporting this work.*
Housing Coalition provides Housing Stability Yardstick
With maxed-out rent assistance, Indiana is running out of time to prevent a tsunami of evictions as COVID-19 resurges By Andrew Bradley, Jessica Fraser, and Michaela Wischmeier With nearly maxed-out rental assistance programs, Indiana is running out of time to prevent a tsunami of evictions starting August 1, even as COVID-19 resurges through the state. Self-inflicted funding limits and a lack of statewide coordination between state and city rent assistance programs have set Indiana further back on the timeline needed to advance to higher stages of housing stability. In response, the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition (HHNC) proposes a yardstick to measure the steps necessary to ensure COVID-19 housing stability. On July 13, the State of Indiana and City of Indianapolis opened their COVID-19 emergency rental assistance programs after weeks of planning. In a little over a week, the state program had received 17,491 applications[1] for a program expected to serve 12,000 households, and the city suspended applications after maxing out the projected capacity of 10,000 households in the first 48 hours. Including the households covered by these two programs, the HHNC estimates that no more than 50,000 households are likely to receive some form of rental assistance from the resources available from various government, faith-based and philanthropic organizations across the state at current capacity. As a result, over 200,000 Hoosier renter households – of the estimated 258,782 who will need rental assistance before September – will remain subject to eviction and potential homelessness, if Governor Holcomb’s eviction pause expires on July 31 as planned. With Indiana’s early attempts at rent assistance nearly maxed out, thousands of Hoosier renters are at risk of spreading disease and experiencing economic calamity from losing their housing. To prevent evictions that will cause Indiana to regress in its COVID-19 Back On Track Plan, the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition has developed a ‘yardstick’ to measure four necessary steps for the state to take before Gov. Holcomb should consider lifting the eviction moratorium. The necessary steps include: 2.) Ensure equitable access to rental assistance program resources. Target outreach to highest cost burden areas and racial communities most impacted by public health, income and job loss, and housing instability. 3.) Appoint an Indiana Housing Security Task Force to advise on funding, outreach, and outcomes with expertise of landlords, impacted renters, public health and housing experts. 4.) Congress should provide adequate support for #RentReliefNow, with Indiana’s Congressional delegation as champions The ‘yardstick’ is as follows: 1.) Coordinate rent assistance programs. The current Indiana COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program provides up to $500 a month for up to four months, but families receiving rent assistance from another program are not eligible to apply. This design disincentives cities and private or philanthropic partners considering creating rent assistance programs of their own, as well as prevents ‘stacking’ local and state. The current state program uses $25M in Coronavirus Relief Funds (of $2.4B) and $7.6M in Emergency Solutions Grant funds (of nearly $32M) allocated to the state from the CARES Act. But it leaves over $38M in Community Development Block Grants allocated to the state on the table, using none for rent assistance despite explicit authorization from HUD. funds together to help make families whole on their housing costs to avoid eviction. 2.) Ensure equitable access to rental assistance program resources. Indiana must ensure that the hardest-hit communities and Hoosiers have been given equitable access to available rent assistance, including through targeted outreach. The HHNC has found that rent assistance is Indiana’s top unmet need even during the eviction moratorium, and that low-income renters and Black and Latino Hoosiers have been most impacted by COVID-19 income loss and housing instability. And while the state has relied on others for outreach, and Indy included community partners for its program that lasted three days, a coordinated statewide program must include metrics to ensure assistance is properly targeted to low-income renters and Hoosiers of color. Across Indiana, 40.4% of white renter households are cost-burdened by housing, meaning they “pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing” and “may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care.”[2] However, 44.5% of Indiana’s Latino households and 51.4% of Black households are cost-burdened.[3] In addition to Marion County, the counties with the highest rates of cost-burdened people of color include Delaware, Vigo, Johnson, Tippecanoe, Brown, Monroe, Allen, Lake, Clark, and Hendricks. For Indiana’s COVID-19 housing stability policy response to be a success, assistance must proportionally reach the most cost-burdened renters and the Black and Latino communities most impacted by the pandemic. To assist with targeting outreach for Indiana and Marion County’s rent assistance programs, the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition has used Census data to identify top housing cost-burdened Census tracts and areas with high proportions of Black and Latino households in the state. A larger database of these Census tracts can be found here. While Indiana has housing cost burden across the entire state, Census data shows that the top 20 most cost-burdened communities in the state [excluding Marion County] have over two-thirds of their population allocating more than 30% of their income for rent each month. At 81%, Delaware County has the most cost-burdened census tract in the state. Geographically, these census tracts are spread across all parts of the state and include rural, suburban, and urban areas. High proportions of Black households live in cost-burdened census tracts in many Indiana counties, including Lake, Marion, St. Joseph, Delaware, LaPorte, and Allen. In addition, large percentages of Latino households also live in cost-burdened Census tracts in many Indiana counties, including Lake, Noble, St. Joseph, Marion, Clinton, and Elkhart. Similar to statewide trends, the top 20 cost-burdened census tracts in Marion County all have cost-burden rates of 65% or higher. Marion County has higher rates of racial diversity in its most cost-burdened census tracts, in comparison to the state as a whole. The majority of Marion County’s 20 most cost-burdened tracts have a Black population of 25% or higher, and slightly fewer than half have a Latino population above 10%. 3.) Appoint an Indiana Housing Security Task Force to advise on funding, outreach, and outcomes with expertise of landlords, impacted renters, public health and housing experts. Indiana’s ability to coordinate resources across funding sources could be significantly improved through a task force that includes elected officials, housing advocates, people of color and other Hoosiers most impacted by COVID-19 housing instability. While a COVID-19 task force already exists, the ‘Economic Relief and Recovery Team’ – appointed by the governor to plan, administer and account for federal relief funds the state of Indiana receives from the CARES Act – does not reflect this level of diversity and has not made housing stability a priority. to represent renters, housing providers and investors, and experts in the connections between housing and public health in the decisions about Indiana’s COVID-19 housing policy response. This task force would help ensure that the hardest-hit communities are served as outlined above. Ideally, a representative of the Housing Stability Task Force would serve on the Economic Relief and Recovery Team on any housing-related decisions from this point forward. Before the eviction moratorium is lifted: Resources significant enough to provide the rent assistance needed for all ‘severely cost burdened’ (paying over 50% on housing) Hoosier renters to ensure housing stability must be appropriated. Congress must come through with #RentReliefNow, and Indiana’s Congressional delegation should be out front as champions for the hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers relying on them. We urge Indiana’s Senators and Representatives to join HHNC to support $100 billion in emergency rental assistance to help low-income renters avoid evictions and homelessness; a national, uniform moratorium on evictions; $11.5 billion to help local communities address the pressing health and safety needs of people experiencing homelessness; and at least $13 billion in additional funding for HUD and USDA housing programs to ensure housing stability during and after the pandemic, including funds for 100,000 new Housing Choice Vouchers. “With such limited resources in Indiana’s rental assistance programs, it is incumbent upon the State and the cities that are running these programs to target their outreach efforts in the most impacted communities,” said Indiana Institute for Working Families Director Jessica Fraser. “Otherwise, these programs run the risk of widening disparity and not solving it.” Jessica Love, Executive Director of Prosperity Indiana, said, “The last thing Indiana needs is for Hoosier families to be evicted and thrown out on the street or couch-surfing during a resurgent pandemic and exacerbating the surge we’re already seeing in COVID-19 cases. We can no longer afford to delay the policy decision to have a COVID-19 Housing Stability Plan in place.” Jessica Fraser is Director of the Indiana Institute for Working Families. Andrew Bradley is Policy Director and Michaela Wischmeier is AmeriCorps Member-Fellow for Prosperity Indiana. [1] Indiana has received 17,491 applications to its COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program as of July 21 according to IHCDA. [2] Definition of cost burdened renter from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_featd_article_092214.html [3] Source: authors’ calculations of ACS 1-Year Estimates - Public Use Microdata Sample 2018 https://data.census.gov/mdat ------------------------------------- About the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition: Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition (HHNC) was formed by members of Indiana’s housing security advocacy community in April 2020 to support advocacy and education related to housing and homelessness prevention in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffed by Prosperity Indiana through advocacy and coalition building grants from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Central Indiana Community Foundation, HHNC convenes partners from across Indiana to advocate for immediate, medium- and long-term housing stability policy solutions and conduct education and research to achieve federal, state, and local policies for an equitable response and recovery to the pandemic and beyond. The HHNC Steering Committee is comprised of members from AARP Indiana, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis, Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Indiana Institute for Working Families – INCAA, Prosperity Indiana, and The Ross Foundation. |