App NEWS
New York Comptroller’s Report Finds Gaps In Internet Services
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“There still is a digital divide, particularly in rural parts of the state, and for lower-income New Yorkers.”
App NEWS
Northside Binghamton Grocery Store Serves Thousands In First Six Months
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“It’s great speaking with a customer, someone who lives on the Northside, who reports that they’re no longer dependent on certain medication because of access.”
Ithaca Mirrors Nation’s Eviction Debate, But Coalition Wants To Change That
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“We say that the rent eats first. People are prioritizing paying rent over paying for food, or for medicine that they might need like an inhaler or insulin.”
App NEWS
Analysis Finds Southern Tier Food Insecurity Grew Nearly 5% In 2020
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According to Feeding America, 50 million people nationally may experience food insecurity because of COVID-19.
App NEWS
Grocery Store Opens In Longtime Binghamton Food Desert
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“The opening of Greater Good Grocery ends a 25-year void that left thousands of North Side residents struggling to access healthy, affordable food for their families.”
‘Tax The Rich’ Advocates Step Up Pressure
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“If you take people who are highly mobile, and you tax them, well then, they’ll just move next door. Where the tax treatment is simpler.”
App NEWS
New Data Suggest Renters Among Most At-Risk For Unemployment
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“Low-income renters, in particular, are more likely to have all of their income earned in at-risk occupation,”
Housing
Advocates Predict Surge In Evictions When Courts Reopen
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“They’re going to be flooded with evictions that happen all the time.”
App NEWS
How Binghamton’s Housing Authority Plans To Meet COVID-Related Needs
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“We’ve been fortunate in that none of our residents, to our knowledge, have been diagnosed with COVID, but that can change.”
App NEWS
Poor People’s Campaign Reminds PA Lawmakers About General Assistance
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The group argues the strong economy makes it a good time to reinstate the cash assistance program. But the GOP-controlled legislature is wary of increased spending.
Government
Gillibrand: Government Should Help Low Income Parents Purchase Diapers
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“With your advocacy, you’re raising awareness. So now, more people will donate diapers, will care for this, and create support for a change in federal law, when I try to find bipartisan support for that.”
App NEWS
Homelessness Decreases By 6% In Central New York, Continues Downward Trend
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The number of people living on the streets and in shelters in a three-county area is down 6% in the calendar year that ended in September.
Economy
Finger Lakes Poverty Is Driving Early Deaths, Report Finds
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The link between poor health and poverty is stronger than ever in the Finger Lakes, according to a new report from Rochester non-profit Common Ground Health. The organization says it has data that’s never been collected before.
Government
New York State Accepting Applications For Heating Assistance
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Right on time with the cold snap that’s hit us this week, Tuesday was the first day people could apply for the Home Energy Assistance Program.
Government
PA Couldn’t Process Unemployment For Four Days. Now 2,500 People May Get Late Checks.
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It’s unclear exactly what went wrong with the commonwealth’s dated system, but from Thursday to Sunday, a crash kept unemployed people from filing claims.
App NEWS
PA Ends Cash Assistance Program For Poor
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Despite a legal aid group asking the commonwealth court to grant an injunction, a small cash assistance for the poor has ended, effective Thursday.
App NEWS
Governor Says SNAP Restriction Could Impact 200,000 Pennsylvanians
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Democratic state lawmakers are criticizing the Trump Administration over its proposed plan to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for certain people.
Government
Advocacy Groups Attempt To Halt PA’s Imminent Repeal Of General Assistance
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Two advocacy groups are suing Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services over the repeal of a small cash assistance program for poor people who don’t qualify for other aid.
Government
PA Senate Session Devolves Into Shouting As GOP Repeals Cash Assistance
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“Mr. President you are becoming a partisan hack1 This is your job. Do your job Mr. President. Do your job!”
Government
PA Republicans Hope To Gut General Assistance By Tangling It With Medical Funds
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They are shoehorning a repeal of the General Assistance program into a bill that also includes important money for medical assistance. Their strategy is that Wolf will sign the bill, or let it become law, because he won’t want to spike the medical funding.
binghamton
New York Enacts Historic Tenant Protections
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“We’ll begin to reverse the tide of the last 25 years of the landlords having the advantage to having people not be priced out of their homes, pushed out of their homes, threatened out of their homes.”
Government
PA Governor Meets With Protesters Outside His Home; They Talk General Assistance
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“We would like [Wolf] to send back any budget that eliminates and guts General Assistance…and will cause people to die.”
agriculture
Farmers Find Little Help In Trump’s New Immigration Plan
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The New York Farm Bureau said farmers need more workers and it wants the President to consider an expansion of a visa program.
Farmers Concerned With Proposed Changes To New York Labor Law
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“Farm workers are excluded from labor laws that protect all other workers. So, do we want to level the playing field and ensure that those protections are in place?”
Government
PA Republicans, Democrats Stake Out Positions In General Assistance Battle
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Republicans want to repeal Pennsylvania’s general assistance program, which gives small sums of cash to poor people.
Economy
The Poor People’s Campaign Is Back In PA’s Capitol, With A Long List Of Demands
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The campaign was renewed on a national scale in 2017. And over the last year, its chapter in Pennsylvania has begun making regular trips to the state Capitol.
Proposed Increases In New York’s Early Childhood Budget Explained
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The New York State Assembly has released its budget priorities. Among those priorities for Democrats is more money for early childhood education and health services for “at-risk” children.
broome co ny
Shortage Of Affordable Housing Drives Up Homelessness In Southern Tier
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“We’re actually seeing the biggest increases in the number of families who are facing homelessness. So, typically that would look like a young single mom with 2 or 3 young children.”
Featured in Category
PA Budget Would Add $400-Million To Human Services
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Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s $34.1 billion proposal includes a $400 million increase to the Department of Human Services. That takes the total ask to $12.9 billion for the agency, which administers an array of programs such as medical assistance, food assistance and mental health and substance abuse services.