Policy Focus

The connection between housing and health is clear: when children live in safe, stable, quality  affordable homes, they are better able to thrive. Children living in stable homes have better physical and mental health outcomes, better educational achievement, decreased risk of hospitalization, and are less likely to experience other economic hardships. On the other hand, housing instability (i.e. being behind on rent, multiple moves, past or present experience of homelessness) harms the health of children and families and is associated with increased risk of other hardships, including food and energy insecurity.

Housing instability disproportionately affects families of color, and is a result of centuries of racially oppressive and discriminatory policies and practices. This has hindered the health, educational achievement, and upward income mobility of these individuals, resulting in cycles of poverty, and poor health outcomes for these individuals and families.

Policy Goals

• Dramatically increase funding for rental assistance to ensure all families with low incomes — especially families with young children– are able to afford safe, stable homes
• Adequately fund emergency assistance through permanent resource to stabilize families in housing that they can afford and consequently prevent them from becoming evicted and/or homeless
• Improve the quality of housing to ensure all residents live in safe and healthy homes
• Increase supportive housing models with wraparound services needed to help families address health and economic needs
• Actively address systemic racism in policy and practice that has historically oppressed and excluded families of color from stable housing and home ownership
• Promote investment in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty in order to increase opportunities for children living there to thrive

Children’s HealthWatch supports the priorities of Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) to improve housing stability for children and families across the United States.

Lack of health insurance is a fundamental barrier to getting care and can result in negative health outcomes for children and their families. Access to comprehensive, high-quality health care services is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing disease, reducing unnecessary disability and premature death, and achieving health equity for all who live in the United States. When health care services are affordable, children are better able to access preventative care services such as well child visits and immunizations. Ensuring that all people in the United States have access to affordable, high-quality health care is necessary to ensure a more healthy, just and productive society.

Policy Goals

• Provide health insurance to all families and children, regardless of immigration status, to ensure that people are able to access medical care and prescriptions when they need them without having to sacrifice other basic needs or accrue medical debt

Children’s HealthWatch supports the priorities of our partners at Community Catalyst  to improve access to affordable and adequate health care options for all.

High-quality, nurturing, and affordable early education and child care is essential to support children and their parents. Access to high-quality child care allows parents to work and/or further their education in order to achieve economic mobility while giving them peace of mind, ensuring that their child is being well cared for in a safe environment. This can be particularly impactful for those with low incomes, and those harmed by systemic barriers.

While for these services is high, early educators– disproportionately women of color and immigrant women– are paid very low wages. This is a result of a historic lack of public investment in a financially stable, equitable child care and early learning system. It is imperative that these programs receive the funding they need in order to support the child care workforce as well as parents’ ability to earn income and participate in the economy.

Policy Goals

• Provide universal access to high-quality child care beginning in infancy
• Invest in a comprehensive child care and early learning system that provides all children with high-quality, accessible and affordable care
• Ensure that child care and early learning settings are available that meet all types of family needs; including location, hours and diversity
• Provide child care and early learning professionals in all settings with the necessary resources to deliver high-quality care and compensation that allows them to support their own families

Children’s HealthWatch supports the priorities of our partners at the National Women’s Law Center to improve access to affordable quality child care for all.

Despite the direct link between income and health, wages in the US remain inadequate to meet the rising costs of living, and income equality at its peak. Unequal income growth rates have persisted for over 30 years, and have resulted in alarming income disparities that affect nearly every aspect of American life. This particularly impacts households of color, actively contributing to the disturbing disparities seen in health outcomes seen in these communities.

The most simple and effective approach to fight economic inequality and financial instability is to put more money back in the pockets of the people who need it most. In order to alleviate economic hardship and promote the health and wellbeing of every child and family living in the US, we must actively dismantle systems of institutionalized discrimination and inequity at the root of these hardships, and target the inequitable distribution of wealth and income.

Income Building Policy Goals

• Enable working families to afford basic needs by raising the federal minimum wage to accurately reflect the cost of living in the US
• Recurring direct cash payments during economic downturns to stabilize families’ health and finances
• Enhance and expand federal and state working family tax credits to reduce poverty and increase financial stability, namely the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit
• Establish a direct federal jobs guarantee program

Wealth Building Policy Goals

• Eliminate asset tests across all public assistance programs
• Provide every child at birth a child savings account with seed funding to ensure all children have a fair chance of economic mobility
• Examine and disburse reparations to address historical disenfranchisement of BIPOC families that perpetuate racial and health inequities

Maintaining consistent utility services, or energy security, is critical for children’s health and safety. Energy insecurity can put households at risk for increased hospitalizations, asthma, respiratory infections, and mental health issues. This issue especially affects households with children, low-income residents, and people of color. Federal programs such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP can be very effective in alleviating families and individuals burdened by energy insecurity.

 Policy Goals

• Fund the federal LIHEAP at a level that meets the needs of eligible families
• Support consumer shut-off protections that protect families with children from extreme weather conditions.