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Sarah Turner poses in her Tucson apartment on Feb. 18, 2023, with a picture of her Grandma Joyce, left, as a child.

Between September 2021 and August 2022, 718 people in Maricopa County died alone, meaning next of kin were unable to be located or refused to handle arrangements - but what happens when someone dies alone - and how do loved ones find their final resting place? Read more»

Departamento de Servicios de Salud de Arizona contrató a Foundation for Senior Living, una organización de viviendas para personas mayores, para ofrecer servicios de pruebas de COVID-19 a adultos mayores y otras personas adultas.

Incluso a medida que los niveles de COVID-19 disminuyen, el departamento de salud de Arizona continúa brindando pruebas, vacunas y otros servicios médicos a las comunidades desatendidas y de bajos ingresos en todo el estado. Read more»

Two recent studies found work requirements did not improve employment or earnings, and at the same time cut people who could have qualified from accessing food benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans from ages 50 to 55 could face higher barriers to food assistance under the U.S. House Republican plan to cut spending while temporarily lifting the debt limit. Read more»

After three years in the pandemic, when they were prohibited from dropping people from Medicaid rolls, Arizona officials have started to review recipients and drop those who no longer qualify. But they said they are working to steer people to other coverage.

Arizona and other states are once again free to verify that Medicaid enrollees are still qualified and cancel coverage if they’re not, and as many as 15 million Americans, including 7 million children, could lose the health coverage they relied on through the pandemic. Read more»

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government enacted a policy that ensured access to school meals for all public school students, which teachers and families say supported kids’ well-being during the health crisis.

Every public school kid in the U.S. was eligible for free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic - regardless of family income - and since the program ended, a growing number of states across the country are enacting universal school meal laws to bolster child food security. Read more»

The Arizona Department of Health Services contracted with the Foundation for Senior Living, a senior housing organization, to deliver COVID-19 testing services to seniors and other adults.

Even as COVID-19 levels decline, the Arizona health department continues to deliver tests, vaccinations and other medical services to underserved, low-income communities across the state. Read more»

The Phoenix metro area has been ranked the fifth-most ozone-polluted city in the United States, according to the most recent State of the Air report from the American Lung Association.

The Phoenix metro area is one of the most ozone-polluted cities in the U.S., according to the most recent State of the Air report from the American Lung Association - and the report emphasized people of color are especially affected by air pollution and the health issues it can cause. Read more»

In the absence of a more permanent solution, food assistance helps these service members feed their families, but SNAP eligibility varies by state, so a family that qualifies in one state might lose those benefits after a duty station transfer. The same goes for various state aid programs.

Like families across the country, military families are struggling with inflation, but the military community can face disproportionate challenges when the cost of living is high - a situation dating back over 25 years and made worse by federal guidelines. Read more»

The Tucson Million Trees initiative, led by Mayor Regina Romero, intends to plant one million trees by 2030 to increase the city’s tree canopy and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Many community leaders now consider trees to be critical infrastructure, along with a growing recognition that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color often have far less tree cover — and suffer increased vulnerability to extreme heat as a result. Read more»

The federal Pell Grant, which mostly goes to families with annual incomes under $40,000, now covers about 25 percent of college costs, down from 69 percent in the 1970s.

Though lower-income students generally still pay less than higher-income ones, nearly 700 universities and colleges have, over the last decade, raised the prices paid by their lowest-income students more than the prices paid by their highest-income ones. Read more»

Officials attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Centerline on Glendale, a 368-unit complex designed for mixed-income housing and funded in part by a state low-income housing tax credit, on March 24, 2023.

Construction is underway in Glendale on an affordable housing complex funded in part by a state low-income housing tax credit that allows people to come on at any income level sponsored below 60 percent of the median and only pay 30 percent of their rent. Read more»

While federal pandemic money was helpful, experts say the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the broader, longstanding problem of expensive and scarce child care.

States are spending more money and creating new incentives to ease the severe child care crisis, with most federal pandemic aid set to dry up in September. Read more»

Grijalva framed the legislation as a community effort rather than a congressional one, and said he hoped other lawmakers would follow such an example.

Democratic lawmakers headed by Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva unveiled a sweeping new piece of legislation Wednesday, aimed at shielding vulnerable communities from the effects of pollution and climate change, as well as strengthening government outreach. Read more»

The pandemic widened accessibility by creating flexibility by how people access mental health care — including telehealth for patients on Medicaid.

As pandemic-era benefits end, some 600,000 Arizonans are set to be removed from the Medicaid rolls next year - a situation causing distress to many who are certainly at risk of being disenrolled and also those who may fall just over the income threshold to qualify for Medicaid. Read more»

The credit, which was part of the American Rescue Plan Act, not only boosted the amount of money families received but also extended the age of qualifying children to 17.

The expanded child tax credit that families received in 2021 helped reduce child poverty across the country, but particularly in the South where families lack a sufficient safety net, according to a report that comes as some Democrats appear ready to attempt to revive the credit. Read more»

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