Posts

The Stock Market Is Not Your Friend, Jacoby Says

/0 Comments/in /by

Public Policy Professor Sanford Jacoby spoke to WalletHub about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on American workers’ sense of job security as Labor Day approaches. A WalletHub survey found that 75% of people will not travel this Labor Day weekend, and Jacoby predicted that reduced revenue for those in the vacation industry will hit small businesses the hardest. Jacoby recommended helping small businesses and restaurants through government subsidies of restaurant meals, as well as the elimination of fees at state and national parks and campgrounds. He also argued that big shareholders have taken advantage of labor during the pandemic, contributing to the staggering inequality in the American economy. “The top 10% of the wealthiest American households own 93% of the stock, while the bottom half of U.S. households own no stock whatsoever,” he said. “It’s time to educate Americans that the stock market is not their friend and that it mostly benefits America’s wealthiest.”

Read the article

Few Trying to Skip Out on Rent During Pandemic, Study Finds

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A new UCLA-USC study that took a deep dive into how Los Angeles County tenants are handling rent and finances during the COVID-19 health crisis was covered by media outlets including the Orange County Register. Since the start of the pandemic, landlords have argued that tenants who were shielded from possible eviction would refuse to pay rent, the article noted. In fact, while the study showed that many have struggled to make rent, most tenants have not used the pandemic as an excuse to take a rent holiday, according to the study conducted by scholars from UCLA Luskin’s Lewis Center for Regional Studies and USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate. One factor measured in the study was the impact of direct assistance to renters who need it. The findings showed that tenants collecting unemployment insurance were 39% less likely to miss rent payments. The report’s findings were also highlighted in Courthouse News, Commercial Observer and Pasadena Now. 

Read the article

Concerns About Student Well-Being as Virtual Learning Resumes

/0 Comments/in /by

The blog of the National Association of Social Workers spotlighted a report, co-authored by Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor, on the wide-ranging needs of schoolchildren as virtual learning resumes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A high proportion of students, especially from low-income families, are experiencing hunger, housing instability, health and mental health issues, and other challenges, according to the report, which drew its findings from a large-scale survey of school social workers around the country. These social workers play a key role in assessing students’ mental health and social care needs and connecting them with vital community resources, the article noted. The report called for a coordinated and comprehensive response from federal and state policymakers and national educational leaders to address the needs of students during the crisis. Astor co-authored the report with scholars from Loyola University Chicago, Cal State Fullerton, Hebrew University and UCLA.

Read the article

 

Akee Highlights Benefits of Child Subsidies

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Public Policy Randall Akee was featured in a New York Times article discussing the growing threat of child poverty and child allowances as a potential solution. In the United States, low-income children are bearing the weight of the pandemic, with hunger rising, classrooms closing and parental stress surging. A Duke University study found that subsidizing the incomes of poor families leads their children on average to better health, more schooling and higher earnings as adults. In North Carolina, Cherokee Indians opened a casino and began sharing the profits with every household in the tribe, creating a local version of guaranteed income. Akee published four studies of the tribal subsidies and found they improved everything from the children’s education to their propensity as adults to vote. “When you remedy child poverty, children become more productive members of society across multiple dimensions,” he explained.

Read the article

Ong on Lost Time in Census Count

/0 Comments/in /by

Paul Ong, research professor and director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke to news outlets about the shortened timeline for participating in the 2020 U.S. Census. The deadline moved from Oct. 31 to Sept. 30, which will “massively and adversely hurt low-income people of color,” Ong told the Orange County Register. “It’s really disappointing to see the Census Bureau ending it one month earlier given the setbacks with the pandemic that already put us on track for a flawed census. The one additional month could have at least somewhat closed the gap. But we’ve lost that time now.” In a Politico story on state and local efforts to encourage census participation, Ong said, “If we don’t have an accurate count, and if we particularly miss the disadvantaged populations who are in need, then it’s those neighborhoods that will be cheated out of money that should be going there.”

Read the Register article
Read the Politico article

Loukaitou-Sideris Highlights Societal Value of Parks

/0 Comments/in /by

Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke to USA Today about how to address inequities in the accessibility of parks and public spaces. Across the United States, the nicest parks tend to be in the wealthiest, whitest neighborhoods. Lack of access to parks means that people living in dense, urban areas have a harder time getting physical exercise and are more likely to have health conditions like diabetes, obesity and heart disease. “These are the neighborhoods that need these open spaces the most, because they do not have private open spaces,” Loukaitou-Sideris said. In dense cities where land costs are high, she recommended creating smaller spaces of greenery distributed through neighborhoods atop parking spaces or between existing structures. “Public space is an important good in a democracy. That’s where, historically, people from different walks of life would come together,” she explained. “You want a society that can give these different amenities to its residents on some level of equality.”

Read the article

Diaz on Trump’s Speech, COVID-19 and Racial Justice

/0 Comments/in /by

Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, provided live commentary on the Republican National Convention as a political analyst on KTLA News. On the convention’s final night, Diaz noted that President Trump’s speech did not meaningfully address two issues important to Americans: the COVID-19 crisis and nationwide calls for racial justice. Trump has decried protests against racism as lawlessness but has not acknowledged police misconduct, Diaz said. His comments on the coronavirus “haven’t really got into the meat of how it’s impacted families,” focusing instead on placing blame on China, she said. With the death toll, job losses and safety fears caused by COVID-19, Diaz questioned whether Trump’s speech was adequate to win back disaffected voters. “I don’t know how that’s going to play with white female voters across this country,” she said.

 

II&D Research Cited in L.A. Proposal to Forgive Household Debt

/0 Comments/in /by

News reports about a Los Angeles City Council member’s proposal to forgive the household debt of Angelenos hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic cited a report on the risk of widespread evictions compiled by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy (II&D). Councilman David Ryu pointed to the research in making a case for the debt relief proposal, which would be funded through the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility program, part of the federal CARES Act. “If we don’t deal with this crisis now, it will create an avalanche of homelessness and a generation of people buried in debt, and Los Angeles will pay the price for decades to come,” Ryu said. News outlets covering the proposal include the Larchmont Buzz, Los Feliz Ledger and Beverly Press. The II&D report was also recently cited by the Los Angeles Daily News and Pasadena Now.

 

Reber on Desperate Need for School Relief Bill

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Public Policy Sarah Reber was featured in a Politics! Politics! Politics! podcast about the need for a COVID-19 relief bill to support schools. The most important requirement for the safe reopening of schools is getting the pandemic under control to reduce community spread, Reber said. However, schools also urgently need a federal aid package to cover the shortfall in revenue facing state governments as well as the additional costs of socially distanced or remote learning. School districts will need to pay for additional equipment for remote instruction as well as increased staffing and additional training to ensure high quality of instruction, she said. The pandemic is “shining new light on pre-existing inequalities,” she said, and districts must be creative in how they provide remote instruction. Without a large, flexible federal aid package, “there won’t be a solution for schools to operate,” Reber said. The podcast segment featuring Reber begins at minute 1:02:05.

Listen to the podcast

Research Points to ‘Eviction Cliff’

/0 Comments/in /by

A Los Angeles Times column on the threat of an “eviction cliff,” which could push hundreds of thousands of Californians out of their homes once legal protections expire, cited the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy’s extensive research on the impending crisis. Professor Emeritus Gary Blasi of UCLA Law, one of the authors of the research, likened the expected wave of evictions to a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, “except the buildings will still be standing; it’s just the people that will be on the street.” In addition, the institute’s director, Professor Ananya Roy, shared highlights of the research along with short- and long-term policy goals at a webinar hosted by Occidental College. “What we need is a robust model of housing, not just emergency shelter,” Roy stressed. Other media outlets covering the institute’s research include Fox11 News, the Orange County Register,  Pasadena Now and the Los Angeles Daily News. 

Read the L.A. Times column
Watch the interview with Roy
Watch the Fox11 News report