“It’s time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle up, not the top-down.”—President Joe Biden In recent weeks the Biden administration has unveiled two major spending proposals, including an infrastructure plan and the American Families Plan. These plans have a combined price tag of roughly $4 trillion over the next 10 […]
Clarence Hightower
Dr. Clarence Hightower is a visionary leader with more than 37 years of nonprofit
experience in the Twin Cities. He is the current executive director of the Community Action
Partnership of Hennepin County, one of the largest anti-poverty organizations in the area and the state’s largest Energy Assistance program. He welcomes reader responses to chightower@caphennepin.org.
Posted inOpinion
A year later: the pandemic’s impact on poverty
While jobs numbers are expected to improve as a result of government aid programs, there are still a considerable number of people who have been unemployed for the long-term and the job outlook is bleak for many.
Posted inOpinion
We need to reduce child poverty in America
The Child Tax Credit is the second most-widely claimed individual tax break, following the deduction for charitable contributions.
Posted inOpinion
A growing divide
We continue to struggle with an economic recession, increasing COVID-19 infection rates, and related disruptions to daily life.
Posted inOpinion
Temporary financial safety net is set to expire on December 31
Many of the available protections and assistance provided by the CARES Act have either expired already or are set to expire on December 31.
Posted inOpinion
There’s no doubt public safety change is needed
While communities debate defunding initiatives, people wonder what would replace police officers.
Posted inOpinion
Hostility against the homeless is on the rise
Homelessness is a tragedy in and of itself. Locally, the issue has been covered in the news a lot as of late.
Posted inOpinion
Housing discrimination ‘injures but does not bruise’
As I recently reflected on some of the topics this column covered in the past year, I was immediately reminded of the flagrant discrimination and disparities that persist around housing both here in the Twin Cities and throughout the rest of America.
Posted inOpinion
The cost is high to be poor
Those living in poverty generally pay more in state and local taxes, contribute a much higher percentage of their annual income toward housing and transportation costs, and often find it difficult to access affordable, high-quality foods.
Posted inGo Green, Opinion
Make no mistake about it: Weatherization works
Among the steps performed during this process are: safety and efficiency tests on heating systems and the hot water heater; measuring heat loss; insulation checks; and home energy education.
Posted inOpinion
Can the Twin Cities dodge the downside of gentrification?
Recently, there have been waves of gentrification in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Even New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are experiencing this massive trend.
Posted inOpinion
Studies expose destructive housing inequities
Here in Minnesota, the data suggest housing costs are continuing to rise unabated, which again disproportionately affect communities of color.
Posted inOpinion
Shameful legacies, ongoing neglect
In most American cities throughout the 20th century, people of color, African Americans in particular, were relegated to separate and structurally unequal communities often by means of the practices briefly referenced above.
Posted inOpinion
Parenting while poor is no crime
In spite of the fact that being poor is not a crime, America tends to treat people in poverty as though it were.
Posted inOpinion
We must stop criminalizing the poor
Beginning in the 1990s, the [United States] adopted a set of criminal justice strategies that punish poor people for their poverty.
Posted inOpinion
Changing the rigged game that perpetuates inequality
In essence, the concept of the “iron cage” is that people are forced and confined to their social condition based on the “teleological” agenda of a government or bureaucracy.
Posted inOpinion
Frequent income ‘dips’ shown to have adverse health effects
Poverty is the biggest killer on the planet, hands down.
Posted inOpinion
Food insecurity on rise among college students
Students surviving in college on ramen noodles and pizza is hardly new. What is new is that universities are no longer shrugging off the issue. Food insecurity on a college campus can be anything from missing a few meals to forgoing meals several dozen times in a semester. — Chris Bowling In spite of what […]
Posted inOpinion
There’s good news in our efforts to alleviate poverty
As we reflect on the passing of another year and anticipate the unfolding of the new one, I want to strike a somewhat different tone in this first column of 2019. The purpose of this column has always been to shine a spotlight on poverty and its detrimental effects on our communities, state, nation and world.
Posted inOpinion
Twin Cities gentrification continues to displace low-wage workers
It’s no secret that the lack of affordable housing in Minnesota, and in particular in the Twin Cities, has remained one of our biggest issues in the 21st century.