Health care providers and social service nonprofits have a hard time working together. Doctors often do not know about social service programs that might benefit their patients, and nonprofits find it difficult to keep health care providers up to date about their services. When they try to work together, communicating about a patient’s health history…
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In Texas, every criminal conviction has collateral consequences. For example, if you’re convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote during incarceration, probation, or parole. Texas has over 1,400 collateral consequences. You can explore them for yourself at the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction database. But these consequences aren’t just for…
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The CDC eviction moratorium was supposed to prevent evictions. When the CDC first announced the moratorium in September 2020, a CNN headline shouted Evictions Are Halted, noting that it “covered most renters across the US.” The moratorium lasted almost eleven months. During that time, we found 3,289 cases where the policy delayed or prevented an…
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Since August 2020, thousands of unemployed Texans have received an extra $300 per week in unemployment from the Federal government. In fact, when Governor Greg Abbott ended this program in Texas in June 2021, there were 197,679 people who lost this benefit. Governor Abbott’s logic was to help “unemployed Texans connect with the more than…
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The CDC eviction moratorium is the latest in a patchwork of policy solutions designed to prevent evictions. Since the pandemic began, there have been an unprecedented number of new housing policies across the country at all levels of government. But an eviction moratorium does not mean that evictions have stopped. This article analyzes the impact…
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About a year ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced us out of our office, the January Advisors team adopted some new practices to adjust to remote work. We now start and end the day with a team check-in. The primary objective of these meetings (called “standup” and “sitdown”) is to update everyone on our work…
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Poor air quality is a problem for Houston, and it’s been that way for decades. The region accounts for 42% of the country’s base petrochemical capacity. Refining oil is a dirty business. It involves processing chemicals and generating toxic byproducts. A lot of this work takes place around the Houston Ship Channel, which is the…
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The CDC eviction moratorium is the main federal policy to reduce housing displacement during the pandemic. It took effect on September 4, 2020 and remains authorized through the end of March 2021. When applied, the moratorium can be a powerful force to pause an eviction. The criteria to qualify are pretty broad. Landlords must make…
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In the United States, incarcerated people are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 and three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the general population. In response to the pandemic, activists are calling for officials to reduce the jail population in order to keep everyone safe. With a cash bail system, many people…
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The Texas Legislature doesn’t meet very often. When it does, a lot can happen in a short period of time. We have to live with the results. It’s a policy pressure cooker. Today, members of the Texas House and Senate began filing bills. The lege website makes it easy to see the bills filed every…
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