Ensure Continuity of 2-Generation/Whole Family Funding to Support Comprehensive Services for Children and Families. Whole family approaches to moving families toward economic security are being implemented across the state. This holistic approach to serving families (also known as the 2-Generation approach) is helping families develop pathways to achieve their aspirations and goals. The Community Action Network seeks a permanent source of funding to continue the work of moving families out of poverty.

The Community Action Anti-Poverty Fund will provide critical funding for Agencies to offer competitive wages to the essential workers who provide services that move families out of poverty and develop pathways to economic mobility. Economic mobility describes how an individual’s financial well-being changes over time and predicts the opportunity one has to transition from a lower economic level to a higher one. This work begins with strong case management, goal setting, and supportive services provided by the staff of Community Action Agencies. However, Agencies struggle to find and retain staff due to their inability to offer competitive wages. Many staff working in Community Action qualify for the same services they provide. In addition, Agencies are faced with the challenges of compression as the implementation of the minimum wage increase takes place. According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, nonprofit human services workers are paid 37 percent less than workers in other industries with comparable jobs. The Maryland Self-Sufficiency report conducted in 2023 shows that it is not uncommon to see that many employees do not earn wages adequate to meet their families’ basic needs without public or private assistance. (Click here to view Maryland’s 2023 Self-Sufficiency Calculator for more information about the standard and to review the minimum income required to be self-sufficient in your community). Offering a competitive wage is a commitment to economic mobility and equitable economic opportunity for those working to provide services to our state’s most vulnerable populations. The Community Action Anti-poverty Fund will help Agencies attract and retain qualified staff to provide quality services to clients. Secondly, it will help reduce staff turnover rates, which can be costly for the agency and disruptive for clients. Third, it will help ensure that staff are motivated and committed to their work c, leading to better outcomes for clients.

Housing equity is the hallmark of a thriving community. Everyone should have access to safe, affordable housing regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other characteristics. It is important because housing is a basic human need and a fundamental building block for healthy communities. Housing equity is also essential for promoting social and economic mobility and reducing poverty and inequality. The MCAP network recognizes that partnering to create and implement community-specific strategies for Housing Equity and Community Development is critically important as we face the end of the State’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). The deployment of a program of this scale has had a significant impact on housing stability, which is now in jeopardy as agencies work to prepare households, landlords, and programs to transition to a system where rental assistance is more limited. In addition to the end of ERAP funding, the state is grappling with an inadequate supply of affordable housing and an ever-increasing need to preserve and increase the availability of affordable housing units. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Statewide Eviction Data Dashboard shows the stark reality that evictions are climbing in Maryland as we face the cliff created by the ending of the State’s ERAP program. To stabilize families an expansion of programs to remove systemic barriers and provide access to resources and opportunities that promote economic mobility is needed with the goal of reaching families “upstream” before they reach eviction. Equitable access to housing is not an isolated need; it is directly related to an individual’s ability to access healthcare, education, food, social capital, and many other determinants of overall well-being. The Community Action Anti-Poverty fund will support housing equity by creating space for CAAs to innovate and be a catalyst for the Social Determinants of Health, focusing on the development of places, people, and community systems. Funding for Agencies will support strategies that include housing and physical revitalization (i.e., preserving, producing, and managing affordable housing units), people-based strategies focused on financial stability and health, and community systems such as economic development and access to resources and opportunities that promote economic mobility.