Another Way to End Poverty: Advocacy!

September was an exciting month for public policy nerds in California, and for anyone who is interested in the fate of state-level legislation.

Throughout 2014, St. Anthony’s supported bills that would help to address poverty in California, with a specific focus on issues that directly relate to our guests and clients: low-wage workers, undocumented immigrants, CalFresh (food stamps) recipients, homeless people, and people who live in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels.  Click here for a complete list of the California legislation we’ve followed or supported this year.

With the help of our community, including our guests, volunteers, staff, supporters, and policy partners like California Food Policy Advocates, Western Center on Law and Poverty, California Association of Food Banks, and California Partnership, we saw some legislative victories, including the lifting of the drug felon ban, changes to prison release, the Hunger Free Education Opportunities Act, and the Healthy Babies Act of 2014.

Unfortunately, bills to align CalFresh and Medi-Cal, to provide healthcare and food and income assistance to immigrants,  to raise California’s minimum wage, to leverage federal dollars available for a “market match” program for low-income Californians to use at farmers’ markets, and to reduce childhood poverty by repealing the CalWORKs “Maximum Family Grant” rule were not successful during this year’s legislative session.

St. Anthony’s is gearing up for the next legislative session by talking to our guests, staff, and community partners about 2015 policy ideas that can help end poverty at home in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and throughout California.  We’ll likely pick up where we left off this year on bills that did not make it through the legislature or were vetoed by the Governor.  We’ll also be thinking about new ideas and working with our partners to support policies that will support our guests: the homeless, the hungry, people without access to health care, and people who have fallen through the holes in our tattered safety net.

Do you want to be a policy nerd, too?  Maybe you just want to raise your voice with us for economic justice and an end to hunger and poverty in our communities.  Join us by signing up for our advocacy newsletter and action alerts.