Multiple people in a line

Join CCHI, CCLP, & The Bell Policy Center for our

2025 LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

1/7/2025 at 4pm. Learn more and register today!

 

Únase a CCHI, CCLP y The Bell Policy Center para nuestra Vista Previa Legislativa 2025 el 1/7/2025 a las 4pm. ¡Aprenda más y regístre hoy!

Multiple people in a line

News

May 22, 2019

by

Recent articles

Parting Thoughts on Advocacy and Economic Justice in Colorado

by | May 22, 2019

CCLP Statement

Note: During a May 10 Legislative Wrap-Up event, Claire Levy talked about the role of advocacy in her last public appearance as Executive Director of Colorado Center on Law & Policy. What follows are excerpts from the speech.

I want to use this time to reflect a bit on how we’ve evolved during my time at the helm and also to talk about the work that lies ahead for all of us – regardless of the position we hold in life.

CCLP has strong sense of mission. We always hark back to why we were created and our unique niche in the advocacy ecosystem. But even with that, we have to adapt. It’s always necessary to be asking ourselves whether we are focusing on the right issues.

Every advocacy organization refines the issues on which it works from year-to-year. But sometimes, we have to do some deep thinking about whether — within the scope of our mission and vision — we are getting at the right stuff.

For CCLP, that has meant looking at what is really getting in the way of advancing the health, well-being and economic security of low-income Coloradans. We had full agendas for access to health care and policies to improve earning power of people in low-wage, low-skills jobs. We were addressing lack of work supports; primarily, child care.

But what had been missing from our work was any effort to address the most basic need of all – stable, affordable housing. We assumed that others had that covered, but then it turned out not to be the case.

The other component that was missing was that working in-and-of-itself could not provide economic security and well-being if wages are too low to support yourself and your family.

We produced our State of Working Colorado report year after year, in which we demonstrated that wages in the state were not recovering from the recession – even though the economy was supposedly thriving. But we didn’t have plans to address that problem head-on.

When it came down to it, all signs pointed to the need to raise the minimum wage – as daunting as it is to amend the constitution by a vote of the people. Hence, CCLP’s huge effort along with our partners SEIU and others on the campaign for Amendment 72 to increase the minimum wage in 2016. Examinations like this are necessary for organizations to maintain their relevance and their effectiveness.

I’d add one more issue to that roster: employment and housing for people re-entering society from the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, people of color are profoundly over-represented in the criminal justice system.

Society has relied on criminalization to address behaviors we don’t like that arise from deficiencies in social supports. That has meant incarcerating people who need mental health treatment and whose offenses arise from being homeless and from substance use disorders instead of addressing those issues by providing treatment and services. But having criminalized the behavior and meted out a sentence, the criminal justice system ignored entirely what happened next. Ninety-seven percent of people in jail or prison return to our communities, but they are largely on their own to sink or swim, and at least half of them are sinking. Many of them have children to support. Many have lost their family connections and social supports. While legislators have been adept at creating new offenses, until recently they utterly failed to provide adequate genuine support to people after they’ve paid their so-called “debt” to society.

Given the extensive effect of mass incarceration on economic opportunity and productivity, CCLP couldn’t ignore re-entry issues. Hence, the addition of limited reentry issues to our work plans.

But we can’t take on all the issues and right all the wrongs. We have to be strategic. So there are core principles we use to filter what we do:

  • Build on our strengths through staff expertise, legal and regulatory advocacy, leading through coalitions.
  • Stay true to our target population, which is people with the lowest-income; those who do not have another voice and who are not “popular” with legislators.
  • Don’t duplicate efforts of others, but do partner and support in order to amplify the work of other organizations.
  • Be authentic – be true to our voice. Some have accused me of being stodgy in the language I allow us to use and the memes by which we communicate, but we are a serious organization doing serious work (and producing serious results).

My successor will chart CCLP’s course from here. But through our Pathways speakers and through some of my remarks in other forums, I have been raising the racial wealth divide as perhaps the seminal problem of our time. It isn’t the only issue by a long shot, but the lack of family assets on which people of color can draw to create a foundation for their children’s future, and the way in which that lack of assets reinforces poverty and perpetuates lack of opportunity, is probably the strongest force holding back Latino, black and Native people.

Likewise, the availability of assets, whether earned or inherited, is the invisible underpinning for the success of the vast majority of white people. Even if those assets were earned, the means by which to create that asset, came from a legacy of advantage simply from being white.

Many of the solutions to this divide can only be addressed at the federal level. They result from discriminatory federal programs and vast tax giveaways to homeowners. But advocates working at all levels must call it out so that the call to address it becomes as common place as the call for universal access to health care is now.

Still, we need to examine what is fundamentally wrong? What underlies the very existence of poverty? Why do we have poverty and disparities in income and opportunity?

The answers are not all that complicated: The rules of our economy and our cultural history foster inequality. They perpetuate it. Our society largely accepts the existence of poverty, homelessness, hunger, dead-ends for “certain” people.

Why isn’t there community-wide outrage over the fact that thousands of people are living in doorways, on park benches and river banks? Why are neighborhoods without resources, working streetlights, grocery stores and jobs tolerated? Why isn’t every last person demanding that all schools in Colorado have nice buildings and good equipment and dedicated teachers? Why aren’t people in the streets demanding a decent life in return for a hard day’s work?

I just finished reading John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” a great American novel about destitute people during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck wrote about corporate ownership of land and agriculture; a system that allowed some to increase wealth by stripping others of their wealth. He wrote about people that “have” seeking to exclude those that “have not.” He wrote about othering “Okies” — just as all immigrants before and after have been shunned. Throughout the novel, there are eloquent passages about concentration of wealth and about lack of bargaining power for labor owing to their extreme vulnerability

We have the same situation now. Ian Haney Lopez wrote about dog-whistle politics – race-baiting so that white people wouldn’t support the public benefit programs from which they themselves could benefit.

This tactic succeeded by creating the notion of poor people as undeserving; as having created their own problems through poor choices or character flaws. Everyone is let off the hook for solving the problem if people without financial resources are at fault rather than the system.

Nancy McLean wrote in “Democracy in Chains” about the decades-long effort to change people’s ideas about how the economy works and about what justice and due process are. Together, these efforts have engrained the notion that taxes and governmental services should basically be a fee-for-service proposition. We cannot tolerate that. In the end, we’ll all go down together.

If I were to describe a country in which school buildings are crumbling, people can barely keep a roof over their head, there are rampant chronic diseases because people don’t have access to nutritious food, cannot afford medical treatment and cannot find jobs that pay enough to support a family, you might think I was describing a developing country. But that’s the kind of robber-baron country the United States has become because of what is fundamentally a libertarian approach to government.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating until we actually do it: We have to change the narrative. We all need to work together to create a new cultural common sense so that there is widespread acceptance of the notion that there should be rules in our economy so people are paid fairly for their labor, everyone pays their fair share of taxes, nobody lives a life without basic human dignity, and businesses can’t rip people off and get away with it. More fundamentally, we need to re-dedicate ourselves to the notion that we all are part of a social contract.

We owe things to one another and are owed things by others so that we all rise and fall together.

Related articles

Updates on public health emergency & case management redesign eligiblity crisis
CCLP and NHeLP urge justice department to stop Colorado Medicaid cuts, citing disabilities act violations
PRESS RELEASE: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announces groundbreaking plan to protect Americans from the devastating effects of medical debt

Recent articles

HEALTH:
HEALTH FIRST COLORADO (MEDICAID)

Health First Colorado is the name given to Colorado’s Medicaid program. Medicaid provides public, low-cost health insurance to qualifying adults and children. It is an entitlement program funded by the federal, state, and county governments and is administered by counties in Colorado. Those who are required to pay must pay a small co-pay when receiving certain health care services.

State Department: Department of Health Care Policy and Financing

Eligibility: Most adults 18 to 64 are eligible for Medicaid in Colorado if their household income is at or below 133% of the federal poverty limit (FPL). Pregnant women are eligible with incomes of up to 195% FPL, while children under 18 may be eligible if the live in a household with income at or below 142% FPL. Some adults over 65 may also be eligible for Medicaid.

Program Benefits: Through Medicaid, low-income Coloradans are eligible for a range of health care services at little to not cost. Services provided include doctors visits, prescription drugs, mental health services, and dental care. Co-pays for certain individuals may be needed for certain services.

Program Funding and Access: Colorado funds our Medicaid program through state and federal dollars. Medicaid is an entitlement program, which means that all who are eligible for Medicaid can access the program, regardless of the funding level in a given year. This does not mean that it is always easy to access Medicaid, even when eligible. And since the program is administered by counties, funding levels for county staff and other administrative roles can make it easier or harder for Coloradans to access the program. On top of this, not all medical providers accept Medicaid which limits the ability of Coloradans to seek health services even if enrolled, such as if the nearest provider is a 2+ hour drive away.

Note: This data is from before the pandemic and does not reflect changes in enrollment rules during the COVID-19 pandemic and public health emergency.

Statewide Program Access 2015-19: Over the study period of this report, an average of 89.0% of the population at or below 133% of FPL (i.e., the population who is likely to be eligible for Medicaid) were enrolled in Medicaid in Colorado.

FOOD SECURITY:
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP)

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP helps low-income Coloradans purchase food by providing individuals and families with a monthly cash benefit that can be used to buy certain foods. SNAP is an entitlement program that is funded by the federal and state governments and administered by counties in Colorado.

State Department: Department of Human Services

Eligibility: Currently, Coloradans qualify for SNAP if they have incomes below 200% FPL, are unemployed or work part-time or receive other forms of assistance such as TANF, among other eligibility criteria. Income eligibility for SNAP was different during the study period of this report than today—it was 130% FPL back in 2019 for example. The US Department of Agriculture uses the population at or below 125% FPL when calculating the Program Access Index (or PAI) for SNAP. We follow this practice in our analysis despite Colorado currently having a higher income eligibility threshold.

Program Benefits: SNAP participants receive a monthly SNAP benefit that is determined by the number of people in their household and their income. Benefit amounts decrease as income increases, helping households avoid a sudden loss of SNAP when their incomes increase, even by a minor amount. Benefits are provided to an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card that can be used to purchase eligible food items, such as fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry, and fish; dairy products; and breads and cereals. Other items, such as foods that are hot at their point of sale, are not allowable purchases under current SNAP rules.

Program Funding and Access: SNAP, like Medicaid, is a federal entitlement program. This means that Colorado must serve any Coloradan who is eligible for the program. As such, funding should not be a limit to how many Coloradans can be served by the program. However, funding for administration of SNAP at the state and county level can limit the ability of county human service departments to enroll those who are eligible. Other program rules and administrative barriers can make it difficult for Coloradans to receive the benefits they are legally entitled to receive.

Statewide Program Access 2015-19: Over the study period of this report, an average of 61.1% of the population at or below 125% of FPL (i.e., the population who is likely to be eligible for SNAP) were enrolled.

FOOD SECURITY:
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM FOR WOMEN, INFANTS AND CHILDREN (WIC)

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also know as WIC, provides healthcare and nutritional support to low-income Coloradans who are pregnant, recently pregnant, breastfeeding, and to children under 5 who are nutritionally at risk based on a nutrition assessment.

State Department: Department of Public Health and Environment

Eligibility: To participate in WIC you must be pregnant, pregnant in the last six months, breastfeeding a baby under 1 year of age, or a child under the age of 5. Coloradans do not need to be U.S. citizens to be eligible for WIC. In terms of income, households cannot have incomes that exceed 185% FPL. Families who are enrolled in SNAP, TANF, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), or Medicaid are automatically eligible for WIC. Regardless of gender, any parents, foster parents, or caregivers are able to apply for and use WIC services for eligible children.

Program Benefits: WIC provides a range of services to young children and their parents. These include funds to purchase healthy, fresh foods; breastfeeding support; personalized nutrition education and shopping tips; and referrals to health care and other services participants may be eligible for.

Program Funding and Access: WIC is funded by the US Department of Agriculture. The state uses these federal funds to contract with local providers, known as WIC Clinics. In most cases, these are county public health agencies, but that is not the case in all Colorado counties. Some WIC Clinics cover multiple counties, while others are served by multiple clinics. Private non-profit providers are also eligible to be selected as a WIC Clinic.

Statewide Program Access 2015-17: Between 2015 and 2017, an average of 52.2% of the population eligible for WIC were enrolled in the program in Colorado.

Financial Security:
Colorado Works

Colorado Works is the name given to Colorado’s program for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF. It is an employment program that supports families with dependent children on their path to self-sufficiency. Participants can receive cash assistance, schooling, workforce development and skills training depending on the services available in their county.

State Department: Department of Human Services

Eligibility: In general, Coloradans are eligible to enroll in TANF if they are a resident of Colorado, have one or more children under the age of 18 or pregnant, and have very low or no income. For example, to be eligible to receive a basic cash assistance grant through TANF, a single-parent of one child could not earn more than $331 per month, with some exclusions—and would only receive $440 per month (as of 2022). That said, there are other services provided by counties through TANF that those with incomes as high as $75,000 may be eligible for. In addition to these, participants in TANF are required to work or be pursuing an eligible “work activity” or work-related activity. Any eligible individual can only receive assistance if they have not previously been enrolled in TANF for a cumulative amount of time of more than 60 months—this is a lifetime limit that does not reset. Counties may have additional requirements and offer benefits that are not available in other counties in Colorado.

Program Benefits:  While the exact benefits that one is eligible for under TANF can vary, all qualified participants are eligible to receive a monthly cash payment, call basic cash assistance. Other than cash assistance, counties are have a lot of choice in how to use their TANF funding; generally a use of TANF funds is appropriate so long as it advances one or more of the four purposes of the program: (1) provide assistance to needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of their relatives; (2) end the dependence of needy families on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and (4) encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

It is important to note that those eligible for TANF are also eligible for many of the other programs we’ve included in this report, such as SNAP, Medicaid, and CCCAP.

Program Funding and Access: Colorado funds its TANF program through funds received from the federal government through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. Most of the federal funds are allocated by the state to counties, which are required to provide a 20% match of state funding. Federal and state rules allow the state and counties to retain a portion of unspent funds in a TANF reserve.

Statewide Program Access 2015-19: Over the study period of this report, an average of 50.7% of the population at or below 100% of FPL (i.e., the population who is likely to be eligible for TANF) were enrolled in TANF in Colorado.

EARLY LEARNING:
COLORADO CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (CCCAP)

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program provides child care assistance to low-income families and caregivers living in Colorado in the form of reduced payments for child care. It is a program funded by the federal, state, and county governments and is administered by counties in Colorado. The share owed by parents/caregivers is determined on a sliding scale based on the family’s income.

State Department: Department of Early Childhood Education

Eligibility: Counties set eligibility for families separately, but must serve families with incomes at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Limit. Families accepted to the program are no longer eligible once their income exceeds 85% of the state median income. Parents or caregivers must be employed, searching for work, or engaged in another approved activity to be eligible for CCCAP. Parents and caregivers enrolled in Colorado Works (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF) or in the child welfare system are also eligible to participate in CCCAP. Generally, CCCAP serves families with children under 13, although children as old as 19 may be eligible under certain circumstances.

Program Benefits: If a family is eligible for CCCAP and has income, they may likely have to pay a portion of their child’s or children’s child care costs each month. The amount that families owe is based on their gross income, number of household members, and the number of children in child care in the household. As such, households tend not to experience a benefit cliff with CCCAP when they see their incomes increase

Program Funding and Access: Colorado funds the CCCAP program using federal dollars it receives from the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. The state allocates federal and state funds to counties using a formula that takes into account factors like current caseloads and the number of eligible residents. Assistance is available until the county’s funds are spent, so the number of families that can be served is often a function of how much funding is available and the income and composition of the household that applies. It is not uncommon for counties to overspend or underspend their allocations of funds. The state reallocates unspent funds from counties who underspent to those who overspent. While underspending could indicate a problem with the way a county administers its CCCAP program, it could just as likely be a sign that there are few providers in the county who participate in CCCAP—or a lack of providers generally.

Statewide Program Access 2015-19: Over the study period of this report, an average of 10.8% of the population at or below 165% of FPL and younger than age 13 (i.e., the population who is likely to be eligible for CCCAP) were enrolled in CCCAP.

Housing:
HUD rental assistance programs

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has three housing assistance programs that we look at together: Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), Project-based Section 8, and Public Housing. In Colorado, these programs provided assistance to over 90% of the households who received federal housing assistance from all HUD programs. Through federally funded, local or regional public housing agencies (PHAs) are the agencies that administer these programs, through not all are available in all counties. These are not the only programs available in Colorado that assist households afford the cost of housing, such as units funded through federal and state tax credit programs.

State Department: Department of Local Affairs

Eligibility: Generally, households with incomes under 50% of the area median income (AMI) of the county they live in are eligible for these rental assistance programs, although PHAs have discretion to select households with incomes at higher percentages of AMI. That said, HUD requires that 75% of new vouchers issued through the Housing Choice Voucher/Section 8 program in a given year are targeted to households with incomes at or below 30% of AMI. PHAs are also able to create criteria that give priority to certain types of households who are on waiting lists for these programs.

Program Benefits: These rental assistance programs help households afford the cost of housing by reducing their housing costs to around 30% of their household income. In the case of the Housing Choice Voucher program, the PHA pays the voucher holder’s landlord the remaining portion of the rent.

Program Funding and Access: Funding and access are both challenges for these rental assistance programs. In addition to limitations on the number of public housing units or housing vouchers a PHA can manage or issue, lack of funding compared to the need constrains the ability of PHAs to assist low-income households. In 2020, Coloradans were on waitlists for Housing Choice Vouchers for an average of 17 months. Waitlists also exist for the other rental assistance programs.

Statewide Program Access 2015-19: Over the study period of this report, an average of 21.1% of renter households with incomes at or below 50% AMI (i.e., the population who is likely to be eligible for HUD rental assistance programs) were living in subsidized housing.