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COURTESY OF NORTHEAST OHIO COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS 

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) launched a Mutual Aid Fund to provide support for grassroots, community-based responses to the COVID-19 crisis. NEOCH was inspired by Cleveland Pandemic Response (CPR), a group of local organizers and volunteers who launched a community hub, to directly match people in need with neighbors offering support. Knowing that large systems can be slow to respond, CPR uses a mutual aid model to link community members to free goods and services, and to volunteers who can run errands for people at high risk of infection.

NEOCH began receiving offers of financial support soon after the pandemic struck from community members who trusted them to direct those funds where they would have the biggest impact. “When disaster strikes, data shows that the most marginalized people in our society get left behind by large-scale solutions, particularly poor people of color,” says Maggie Rice, who has been coordinating NEOCH’s mutual aid education and outreach. “In response, NEOCH allocated some of the funds we’ve raised to provide rapid response assistance to those disproportionately impacted.”

NEOCH launched its Mutual Aid Fund on March 23rd, soon after Gov. DeWine issued the state’s stay-at-home order. Organizers answer a few questions, NEOCH responds within 48 hours, and up to $500 in funding is dispersed to people organizing projects. To date, NEOCH has supported 12 projects totalling $4,300 in support.  Funds have been used to provide food, hygiene, and cleaning products to at-risk neighborhoods, materials to make masks for essential workers, and transportation fare for people being released from prison.

Suncere Ali Shakur is no stranger to mutual aid work before the COVID-19 pandemic began. A seasoned activist, Shakur did mutual aid disaster response after Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. He has also been continuing that effort in his CMHA housing community.

“I had already been feeding people in my community,” says Shakur. “I got continued support from Food Not Bombs and others, and just had to add on my Katrina experience to build a supply line to a underserved community.” Shakur, who calls himself a “hope dealer,” used his micro-grant funds to provide toilet paper, hygiene supplies, cleaning products, and food to his neighbors.

Gabi Mirelez is a local business owner who has used her funds to make masks for NEOCH, Planned Parenthood, and other essential service providers. Through Sweetlime Queer Tailoring in Tremont, Mirelez has been providing individualized services to the community for several years. She sees mutual aid as a way to meet unique needs, without forcing people to conform to institutional standards that may not be a good fit (pun intended) for them. She says that one-on-one approach is what makes mutual aid so successful.

“I’m really grateful to grassroots organizations like NEOCH and CPR that do the work to link people like me up with individuals who can put my masks to immediate use,” Mirelez says. “With the stress of everything that’s going on, I don’t have the capacity to go find the resources I need to move quickly. It was awesome that NEOCH reached out to me and invited me to apply, instead of the other way around.”

• Click here for photos of projects supported by the fund

• Click here to view NEOCH’s Mutual Aid Fund Micro Grant Application

• To make it possible for more mutual aid work to be done in northeast Ohio, people can donate to NEOCH’s emergency response fund here

POLICY MATTERS OHIO

PRESS RELEASE

Author: Wendy Patton

As Ohioans face down the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report from Policy Matters points the way for policymakers to marshal the state’s collective resources to keep everyone safe today and rebuild for the future.

To keep Ohioans safe, Governor DeWine closed huge portions of the economy, including restaurants, movie theaters, factories and other workplaces. Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans are laid off and state and local governments are losing revenue from income and sales taxes. Earlier this week, the Ohio Office of Budget and Management reported the state’s total general revenue fund tax receipts came in $159.4 million (10.5%) below estimates last month. If Ohio’s tax collections in the general revenue funds drop at the same rate they did in the wake of the 2008 recession, adjusted for inflation, the state could have $3.9 billion less than projected by the end of budget year 2021, according to calculations of report author Wendy Patton, Policy Matters Senior Project Director. Governor DeWine has asked agencies to plan for cuts of 20%. Austerity measures will drive Ohio into a deeper recession, said Patton.

“Like all states, Ohio needs a strong partner in the federal government, which can generate the resources large enough to meet the moment,” Patton said. “State policymakers also have options. Instead of cutting funding for schools, parks or transit, they can reverse some of the special interest tax breaks that cost Ohio $9 billion a year. In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008, state policymakers chose to cut taxes for the wealthiest and slashed support for communities and public services. This time, we can have a recovery that, unlike the last one, decreases inequality and poverty as jobs return.”

In coming months, Ohioans are likely to need more support from federal, state and local governments, not less. Even with the $2 trillion federal CARES Act stimulus, as many as 955,000 Ohioans could be unemployed by July and the unemployment rate could hit 16.4%, according to Economic Policy Institute estimates. Ohio’s rural communities have been hit hard by economic fallout from the pandemic. Ashtabula County, where unemployment claims have risen more than 2,000% in recent weeks, is the worst prepared in the state to cope with a crisis according to the CDC’s social vulnerability rating index.

Meanwhile, even though social distancing has helped flatten the curve, cases are mounting in Ohio. Early data shows that a disproportionate share of Black Ohioans are getting sick with COVID-19. Although Ohio’s reporting on race is not comprehensive, the data so far indicates Black people make up 18% of COVID-19 cases compared to 14% of Ohio’s total population. Longstanding structural barriers to employment opportunities, deeply entrenched segregation, and health care disparities put communities of color at higher risk.

“The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, but policy choices have put some communities in worse positions than others,” Patton said. “Today, policymakers can choose to make sure everyone can thrive by rebuilding the services communities need instead of cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations.”

2019 photo by Jerry Masek

Mark your calendar now. June 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Kamm’s Corners Farmers Market kicks off its 2020 season. This vendor seems to have some very inviting strawberries to sell.

CONTENT SUBMITTED

March 26, 2020

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) today reported that jobless claims for Ohio soared to 187,789 for the week ending March 21 from 7,042 a week earlier. This is an historic high.

Last week’s jobless claims top the monthly filings of all but Ohio’s worst month on record, December 1981, when claims reached 205,159. The next highest month, December 1982, saw 167,638 claims: roughly 20,000 fewer than reported last week. Those monthly peaks happened during a recession that hit Ohio harder than the one in 2008. Ohio manufacturing jobs never recovered.

“Policy makers should take note that this is no time to slow the economy through spending cuts,” said Policy Matters Ohio researcher Michael Shields. “Ohio must turn to the federal government for fiscal stimulus dollars, both as direct supports for residents, and to prevent the state and local governments from having to make austerity cuts that would make matters worse.”

These numbers come just before large portions of Ohio’s economy were abruptly halted by Governor DeWine’s March 22 “stay home order,” intended to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The order mandated the closure of non-essential business activities and urged Ohioans to stay home. The filings show that Ohio employers were already shedding jobs in the midst of school and restaurant closures, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shields said that Gov. DeWine’s order was needed to save lives and that Ohio could not have stopped a coronavirus recession by hesitating to act.

We won’t know the specifics of which jobs were affected until next month, when the employer and household surveys we regularly feature in JobWatch come out for March. But Moody’s Analytics has classified jobs in five industries as most at-risk: Leisure and hospitality, transportation, mining, employment services, and travel arrangements. Together these jobs comprise 921,000 jobs: a fifth of all private sector Ohio jobs, and $234 billion in earnings. Moody’s released these projections ahead of school and restaurant closures, and stay-at-home orders in Ohio and other states, which will extend to other jobs.

“Ohio policymakers must act to preserve as many jobs as possible, and to support the spending of those who must be out of work, to prevent an even deeper recession,” said Shields.

Shields said that Ohio policymakers have primed Ohio for a deeper recession by leaving too many Ohioans on the fringe, with low earnings and few public supports.

“Policies that have left many Ohioans struggling at the margin will make the unfolding recession worse. Thankfully, Congress has approved additional aid for the states, but it probably won’t be enough, given the scale of the cutbacks. Ohio must do all we can to sustain government spending and avoid cuts that would make the recession worse,” he said.

Three solutions

Take full advantage of additional unemployment benefits approved by Congress and the General Assembly

Congress has stepped up and provided major additions to the unemployment (UC) system, including extending benefits to many workers not previously covered and creating a temporary $600-a-week payment for UC recipients. The new federal law also includes grants to states to improve and promote their work sharing programs, which allow employers to avoid layoffs by cutting hours while workers receive proportionate UC for days they don’t work. Work sharing will be of vital importance for those who can work off-site and for others once it becomes safe to return to the jobsite. Ohio should take full advantage of that opportunity so a maximum of employers are able to participate. Ohio’s unemployment compensation system currently covers only one in five jobless residents. That’s partly because state rules require workers to average at least $269 per week to qualify. A worker making $10 per hour for 25 hours a week – like many of the workers Gov. DeWine sent home from restaurants, childcare centers, and other businesses – don’t qualify. It appears the new federal law will allow many of these workers to temporarily receive benefits. Ohio needs to overhaul its system so that becomes permanent. ODJFS also needs to interpret new state legislation approved by the General Assembly yesterday broadly to make sure that workers who must stay home because of the virus – including those who fear for their health and are susceptible, such as older grocery store workers – receive benefits, as federal guidance allows. The UC system must be a true backstop for those affected by the economic slowdown.

Retain public sector workers

Public sector workers provide vital infrastructure and services, and their spending helps sustain the consumer economy. It’s public sector jobs that the state is most able to preserve in a downturn. Doing so and meeting other critical needs in the context of diminished tax revenues will require massive federal stimulus dollars directed to state and local government. The $150 billion earmarked in the CARES Act is a start. Yet Gov. DeWine has already asked state agencies to outline budgetary cuts of up to 20%. Such austerity cuts would exacerbate the severe recession already underway. Because the state is required to balance its budget, Ohio has budgetary constraints on its ability to inject stimulus into the economy, but stimulus will be critically important. Ohio should employ its rainy day fund to avoid cuts and should join other states in demanding adequate stimulus dollars from the federal government to sustain the economy against a collapse, for as long as it’s needed.

Require employers to provide paid leave

The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires many U.S. employers to pay up to 80 hours of paid sick time for employees who are out of work, and extended paid leave for 10 weeks after that in the case of workers who must take leave to care for a child out of school. Unfortunately, it leaves major gaps in coverage, which Ohio should fill. Ohio should mandate that large employers with over 500 staff, exempt from the federal mandate, provide emergency paid sick time to workers. Healthcare workers and first responders can be excluded from coverage under federal law at the discretion of their employers. Now more than ever, these workers put their lives on the line to keep the rest of us safe and healthy. Ohio should mandate that all are covered. And the federal mandate allows small businesses with less than 50 workers to request an exemption. Employers are fully reimbursed for mandatory paid sick time they pay by the federal government with a tax rebate, so employers covered under that legislation only front the costs. Small businesses might seek an exemption because they lack the reserves to make those payments up-front. Ohio should require all employers comply, and should offer loans to firms seeking a small business hardship, to be paid back using the federal rebate.