Report: Low-Income Latina and Women of Color Face Highest Risk of Eviction


Sad evicted mother with child worried relocating house

Latina and black women who are living in poverty face much higher risk of eviction than other racial groups, according to a new report. The new report, from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, examined court records and found that 2.3 million people were evicted from their homes in 2016. That’s 6,300 people evicted each day. “[The data] demonstrate widespread housing insecurity in both urban and rural locales around the country,” wrote Catherine Lizette Gonzalez of Colorlines. Latinos and Risk of Eviction Other recent studies from the Eviction Lab and researcher Matthew Desmond have found that Black and Latino women with low-incomes were evicted at alarmingly higher rates than other racial groups due to factors such as having children, low wages ...

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Report: Latino Kids Suffer More Poverty and Gaps in Education, Health Opportunity


Latino farm boy in poverty and food insecurity

Latino and other minority youth have higher rates of poverty and greater gaps in education and health opportunity than their white peers, according to a new report. The 2018 County Health Rankings found that: Poverty rates among children and youth are at least 1.5 times higher than rates among adults aged 18 and older, and the rates are even higher for Latino, Black, and American Indian/Alaskan Native children and youth. Child poverty rates for Latino and Black children are worse across all types of counties, and are even higher in suburban counties than for White children in rural counties. More than 1 out of every 5 youth in the bottom performing counties do not graduate from high school in four years. It's worse among racial/ethnic groups. 1 out of 4 Latino youth do not ...

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College Shows How to ‘Cultivate Health’ in a Diverse Neighborhood



Dr. Janet Houser wants her Regis University in Denver to "make a difference in the world" for better health. So they've started in their own backyard. Houser, the university's provost, is uniting community groups and developers to "cultivate health" in the neighborhood around the university—creating affordable housing and surrounding it with a health clinic, health education, and access to active spaces and healthy food. In just a few years, they want to give local families a place where they can equitably live, learn, work, and play. Is such a big transformation really possible? A Rising Latino Population Denver is one of the largest, fastest-growing cities in the country. It also has a rising Latino population, from 23% in 1990 to 31% in 2014. This changing ...

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Seattle TV Station Buys $1M in Patient Debt – AND Forgives It!



If you're in the hospital, your health and your pocketbook are taking a hit. A TV station in Seattle (6.5% Latino) tried a unique way—buying debt from people's medical expenses, then forgiving it(!)—to improve the lives of locals dealing with cancer, The Hill reports. Buy why? 'Big Issues with the Bills' TV station KIRO reporter Jesse Jones – a cancer survivor himself – reported a story about a cancer patient that was struggling to pay her bills and couldn’t afford further treatments. Many Latinos face this situation. 27% of Latinos have no usual health care provider and 15% have no health insurance, according to a Salud America! research review. These Latinos often end up seeking routine healthcare in the emergency room, which can be very costly. After his ...

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With No Affordable Housing, Jobs Go Unfilled


construction hard hat housing development

Open jobs sit unfilled for months at a time in McKinney, Texas (19.24% Latino). Retail, restaurants, and construction businesses can't find workers. The cause? The people who can fill those jobs can't afford to live in McKinney—the average home price is $340,000. "Just think about the salary it takes to afford a house like that, and then to maintain it. You just can't do it," McKinney Mayor George Fuller told Channel 5 NBC. "You can get a job, but you can't afford housing." Affordable housing is a rising need in many large and growing cities across the nation. San Antonio, for example, recently started an affordable housing task force to address its own shortage. San Antonio City Council member Shirley Gonzales is leading a push in her district, too. Heck, even Eva ...

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Shirley Gonzales and Her Amazing Push to Revitalize Housing in Historic San Antonio



When San Antonio native Shirley Gonzales earned a business degree years ago, she immediately went to work to find new locations to expand her family's local business, Bill's Pawn Shop. Gonzales studied the city's historic, largely Latino Westside. She loved the area so much, she moved her family there. But she found it hard to navigate the city’s complex procedures for opening and expanding businesses—an experience that eventually led her to run for, and earn, a seat on the San Antonio City Council. Now Gonzales is pushing to revitalize business on the Westside and helping residents find better, more affordable homes to live in, too. “There is so much about this community that is good,” Gonzales said. “It has great history, great people living here, strong ...

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San Antonio Steps Up to Help Babies, Prevent SIDS



No parent should have to face the sheer agony of losing a baby. But it happened to Servando Salinas and Roxanne Alvarez. The San Antonio parents recently spent time at a relative's house. So Salinas and Alvarez had their eight-month-old daughter, Heaven, sleep in bed with them. When Salinas woke up, he noticed Heaven was not breathing. They called EMS, but the baby was pronounced dead at the scene, according to FOX-29. “I couldn't move. I couldn't stand. I was crying so much,” Salinas told Fox-29. Sadly, in two San Antonio zip codes—mostly Latino 78203 and 78220—Latina mothers have the highest infant death rates in the state, says a UT System study. That's why we are glad to see that San Antonio leaders, health advocates, parents, and groups are stepping up to ...

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Could You Cover a $1,000 Emergency?


latino man contruction worker falling off ladder

Life happens. Would you be able to come up with $1,000 for an emergency like a car wreck, a broken arm, or a busted air conditioner? Sadly, 61% of Latino and all Americans say they could not pay for an unplanned emergency expense, according to a report by financial site Bankrate. “Even though unemployment is down and there's been a recent uptick in wages, we aren't seeing the needle move savings,” said Greg McBride of Bankrate told CNN Money. Unexpected bills and expenses aren’t uncommon. More than 30% of all U.S. households had at least one unplanned expense in 2017. But most Americans don’t have an ability to cover it. Almost one in five Americans said they would put the expense on a credit card, Bankrate reports. This usually makes the expense even higher in ...

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Report: 3.6 Million DREAMers Are in the U.S.



Update on April 25, 2018: A federal judge orders the U.S. government to continue Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and accept new applicants, according to the Washington Post. Immigration is a politically divisive issue. It can be hard to keep in mind that real people are affected, no matter what your political views. People's livelihoods began to hang in the balance in September 2017 when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would be rescinding the DACA. DACA is an Obama administration program begun in 2012 that allows undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to apply to defer deportation and legally reside in the country for two years. They can apply for reinstatement after. How many ...

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