News / New Jersey News

A new national report estimates a shortage of about 7 million affordable and available rental homes for Americans living at or below the poverty level. Such a gap, as explained by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, also exists in New Jersey, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. "I think what we've seen is, this crisis actually makes worse some of those conditions that were in place pre-COVID," Arnold Cohen, senior policy advisor for the Housing and Community...

A discussion on racial equity in housing and an inclusive economy One in three households — nearly 100 million people across the U.S. — struggle with housing costs that jeopardize their financial security, according to the Aspen Institute. As one of the biggest determinants of financial and physical health, housing can influence a person’s access to education, health care and job opportunities, and has the ability to transform entire communities and strengthen the economy. And yet, while the...

Dr. XinQi Dong, director of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research , and lead researcher of the Rutgers Asian Resource Center for Minority Aging Research and The PINE Study issued the following statement in response to anti-Asian racism and violence against Asians across the country. “As researchers who focus on Asian health, we are dedicated to understanding and addressing issues that impact Asian communities. Perhaps none have had a greater impact over the...

Congress has a chance to make an overdue statement It’s been 129 years since three Black men — Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart — were brutally murdered by a white mob. The three were the well-regarded owners of a thriving grocery store in a section of Memphis, Tenn., known as the Curve. The journalist Ida B. Wells, at risk to her own life and at the price of her ability to remain in Memphis, chronicled the killings that white newspapers covered over. She noted in her biography...

Program Devotes Approximately $353 Million to Help Low- to Moderate-Income Households, Including the Homeless TRENTON, NJ - Recognizing that New Jersey residents continue to need rental assistance during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Murphy Administration today announced that the application period for a second phase of the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program will open on March 22, 2021. The federally-funded program will provide approximately $353 million in rental assistance...

Before Breonna Taylor's name became synonymous with police violence against Black Americans, she was an emergency medical technician in Louisville, Ky. The 26-year-old Black woman's friends and family say she was beloved, and relished the opportunity to brighten someone else's day. Exactly one year ago, Louisville police gunned her down in her home. Now, her name is a ubiquitous rallying cry at protests calling for police reforms, and many social justice advocates point to her story as an...

(CNN)Early in the pandemic, young people from all racial and ethnic minority groups had higher Covid-19 case rates than non-Hispanic White people under the age of 25, according to a study published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between January and April, case rates compared to young White people were about 1.5 times higher among young Asian people, about 2.5 times higher among young Black people and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, nearly 4 times higher...

After having a light cough for three days last spring, Miguel Mestiza Valderrabano called his partner Ana Maria Lorenzo to say that, when she got home from work, he planned to go to the hospital. He would never make it, and the mental image of his 32-year-old lifeless body on their living room floor still haunts her. “I couldn’t believe that had happened in minutes,” Lorenzo said. She had just arrived home from her cleaning job—her first assignment in weeks after she’d lost work during the...

Born in New York City to Haitian immigrants and raised in Brooklyn and Irvington, Pierre-Louis graduated from Rutgers University and earned her law degree at Rutgers University Law School. After law school she clerked for associate Justice John Wallace, the last African - American to serve on the court and whose who's seat she'll fill (Timpone replaced Wallace). She spent nine years as a prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where she was where was...

I've been with DCF for nearly 15 years and for the first 10 years or so I was a child protection worker, and while in that role, I sent numerous children to YMCA Camp Huguenot . The experiences had by my kids at Camp Huguenot was LIFE CHANGING! It saddens me to know that so many children will no longer be able to attend Camp Huguenot and reconnect with friends especially during these trying times. The Greater New York YMCA said that because of pandemic losses to the tune of $100 million, the...

Last month New Jersey unveiled a unique action plan to help families and communities protect against and heal from the effects of adverse childhood experiences that can cause harm to individuals and families for generations. After a year of living under intense pandemic pressures, the need has likely never been so great. Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, impact four of ten youngsters in New Jersey across racial and economic lines according to a 2019 report . These traumas – such as...

On March 4th at 12 pm PT (3 pm ET), we’re stopping for an hour to gather around Zoom screens to celebrate the work of ACEs Connection. We’d love for you to join us to share stories about how we learned about ACEs science, what happened in our personal and work lives as a result of joining ACEs Connection, and what we hope the long-term impact of this knowledge will be. In addition to you who celebrate with us, we'll have other guests, including Ann Borowiec (NJ Resiliency Coalition member) ,...