AOF and our partners have compiled a list of resources for you, your family and your neighbors.
2020 Federal Poverty Level Update
Ohio’s communities thrive when people feel safe, have good jobs and can afford the basics. Unfortunately, a job doesn’t always mean a living and Ohioans across the state aren’t making enough to make ends meet.
AOF’s updated Ohio Poverty Snapshot resource card highlights that despite signs of an economic recovery, too many Ohioans are living in poverty. One side of the card shows the 2020 Federal Poverty Guidelines that are used to determine who is and who is not eligible for benefits through public support programs and the other highlights that most common Ohio jobs leave working Ohioans in need of extra support.
Join the Conversation:
We encourage you to print and share this resource with your friends, colleagues and your state lawmakers.
If you would like a copy of the card sent to you, please send us an email with your name and mailing address
◦When you talk with people, highlight that government investments in public support programs benefit all Ohioans.
AOF and Members Oppose Photo IDs on SNAP Benefit Cards
Senate Bill 165 proposes additional costly requirements, including photo identification,for SNAP electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards
On Wednesday October 9th, several AOF members and other stakeholders testified as interested parties and opponents to Senate Bill 165 (Schafer R- District 20, Lancaster). Senate Bill 165 proposes additional requirements, including photo identification, for SNAP electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, intended to dissuade fraud and trafficking of SNAP cards in exchange for cash or other goods.
AOF believes in preserving the integrity of the SNAP program and that fraud and abuse should not be tolerated. However, at least 18 states have considered implementing SNAP photo EBT cards but the majority never moved forward due to concerns over cost, implementation, and effectiveness. Only four states implemented these requirements. Three of those four, New York, Missouri, and Maine, abandoned the program after repeated warnings from the Trump administration that they were violating stringent rules governing the policy, and some SNAP household members, including children and seniors entitled to use the card, were wrongly denied grocery purchases because they were not pictured.
AOF concludes the lack of effectiveness of these measures in other states, the chilling effect and negative impact on SNAP recipients’ access to food assistance and ongoing administrative burdens and costs outweigh any potential illicit activity curbed, and urges the legislature and administration to pursue other strategies for combating fraud.
Read AOF’s testimony here
Read AOF Members and other stakeholders’ testimony here under October 9, SB 165
New Biennial Budget Enacted, Policy Wins for AOF and Members
The Fiscal Year 2020-2021 State Operating Budget was passed by both chambers on July 17th and signed by Governor DeWine on July 18th. AOF and our member organizations achieved significant wins and made progress on policy priorities.
We Have A Budget!
The Ohio House and Senate resolved their differences in the budget and passed the bill with bipartisan support in both chambers hours before the interim budget ran out on Wednesday July 17th. The House passed the bill 75-17, while the Senate vote was 29-1. After 25 line-item vetoes from Governor DeWine, the bulk of them focusing on Medicaid and health care policy, the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 operating budget is signed and enacted.
AOF is thankful to Governor DeWine and the leaders of the Ohio General Assembly for passing a budget that invests in kids, families and Ohioans living in poverty. Let’s continue to build a better future together by strengthening and supporting the systems that address the basic needs of our most vulnerable Ohioans and offer a hand up on the path to self sufficiency.
Read about AOF’s policy wins and progress made in the final budget here
AOF Urges House to Oppose HB 200
HB 200 would reduce access to basic nutrition assistance in the poorest areas in the state and restrict Ohio’s ability to help its most disadvantaged workers.
Currently, there are 38 counties in Ohio on a waiver from SNAP federally-mandated work requirements for able-bodied adults (ages 18-49) without dependent children after 3 months of assistance because of limited employment opportunities in those areas.
HB 200 would prohibit the state from seeking these waivers and enact a number of additional requirements in order for people to receive food assistance.
The sponsor of HB 200 has stated the intention of the bill is to restore the dignity of Ohioans by moving them from public assistance to work. However, most SNAP recipients who are able to work already do so. The most significant barriers inhibiting SNAP recipients from meeting work requirements is a lack of long-term employment opportunities that pay a living wage and provide stable hours above the 80-hour-per-month threshold.
Instead of restricting food assistance, Advocates for Ohio’s Future urges lawmakers to oppose HB 200 and invest in quality education and job training programs across the state and provide meaningful opportunities for our most vulnerable Ohioans on their path to self-sufficiency.
Read our full comments here
AOF to Ohio Senate: Do More for Ohio's Most Vulnerable
Though we are heartened by the attention paid some issues, the basic needs and support systems of children and families have been ignored for too long, and our most vulnerable have fallen further away from the quality of life we would expect in a state as prosperous as Ohio.
Advocates for Ohio’s Future (AOF) acknowledges that Governor DeWine and the Ohio House of Representatives made significant and needed investments to support Ohioans living in poverty or dealing with mental health issues and substance use disorders. Investing in Ohio builds a better future.
“We were encouraged by the reports we heard in Senate Finance earlier this week, where the leadership of the Health and Medicaid Subcommittee highlighted additional investments and policies that build upon the work the Governor and the House have done. We fully support their inclusion of additional dollars for foodbanks, additional investments in Adult Protective Services, increasing publicly funded childcare eligibility to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, implementing a coordinated, multi-agency approach to addressing infant and maternal health and committing to address issues concerning multi-system youth and preventing custody relinquishment,” said Tara Britton, Co-Chair of AOF.
“However, news from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows in 2018, six of Ohio’s 10 most common jobs paid wages so low that a family of three would need to use food assistance to make ends meet signifies any recent growth of the economy is likely attributed to increasing low wage jobs that do not support the basic needs of individuals, much less support a family,” said Steve Wagner, Co-Chair of AOF. “Though we are heartened by the attention paid to these issues, the basic needs and support systems of children and families have been ignored for too long, and our most vulnerable have fallen further away from the quality of life we would expect in a state as prosperous as Ohio. We must follow through on the Governor’s commitment to help those who have been left behind.”
AOF recommends the Senate include the following policies in the operating budget to truly improve the lives of children and families now, and for generations to come:
Make the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Refundable
Increase the Ohio Works First benefit level
Increase investment in SNAP Education and Training (E&T)
For more information on these proposals, click here
The State of Senior Hunger in America
The most recent report, released in 2019 using 2017 data, found that 5.5 million seniors, or 7.7% of the senior population, were food insecure in 2017. The rate of food insecurity among seniors is lower in recent years but remains significantly higher than it was in 2007.
Feeding America
Across the United States, millions of people are food
insecure, which means having limited access to enough
nutritious food to live a healthy lifestyle. As of 2017, 7.7% of seniors age 60 and older, or 5.5 million seniors overall, are food insecure. The rate and number of food-insecure seniors is essentially unchanged from 2016. However, the current rate of food insecurity among seniors remains significantly elevated above the rate before the Great Recession (6.3% in 2007), and the current number of
seniors who are food insecure is still more than double the
number in 2001 (2.3 million).
Food insecurity has negative effects for individuals
across the age spectrum. For seniors, these effects can
be particularly problematic given the unique health,
economic, and nutritional challenges that can come with
aging. With the growth of the senior population that has
been projected for the coming decades, senior food
insecurity is likely to remain a personal and public health
challenge in the years to come.
Read the full report here
Last Minute Budget Amendment Not Healthy for Ohio
The Healthy Ohio Program pulls the rug out from under the number of positive health and human service investments included in the bill by putting the health and stability of over a million Ohioans at risk.
AOF strongly opposes the last minute inclusion of the Healthy Ohio Program in the state budget bill. The proposal shifts costs to parents and families who are already struggling, reduces access and coverage of necessary care and increases administrative burdens and costs to the state.
The proposal required Medicaid recipients to pay premiums for their health care.
Individuals who cannot afford to pay premiums would be moved to a new “basic” Medicaid program under diminished covered care. The “basic” program would not be required to cover benefits like prescriptions, addiction screening, ambulances, oxygen, mental health counseling, wheelchairs and other services.
Ohio’s Medicaid program as it exists today – without barriers for coverage – conclusively demonstrates that boosting access to health care, including addiction and mental health services, has been critical to the health, financial stability and employment of hundreds of thousands of Ohioans.
We urge the Ohio House of Representatives to continue to recognize not only the improved health and stability outcomes from Medicaid expansion, but the financial outcomes and savings the program affords our state.
Read our full statement here
More Dollars Needed for Basic Needs In House Budget
AOF acknowledges and appreciates the investments and initiatives within the Substitute House Bill 166.
AOF applauds the Ohio House’s recognition that investing in Ohio builds a better future. This budget includes important investments in Ohioans and Ohio communities which will promote and support family stability and self-sufficiency,” said AOF Co-Chair Steve Wagner. “However, the basic needs of Ohio’s children and families have been ignored for too long, and our most vulnerable have fallen further away from the quality of life we would expect in a state as prosperous as Ohio. More can be done to truly improve the lives of children and families now, and for generations to come.”
“While Sub HB 166 boosts investment in some social determinants of health, deeper investment is needed in early care and education, food assistance, protective services for seniors, direct aid, and job training for the poorest families, public transportation funding and refundability for the earned income tax credit,” said Tara Britton, AOF Co-Chair. “The important investments we see in this budget -and the investments necessary to improve systems across the spectrum of health and human services-should be supported by predictable and sustainable state-based funding now, and in the future.We must follow through on the Governor’s commitment to help those who have been left behind.
Read AOF’s Testimony on the House Budget here
AOF Urges USDA to Withdraw Rule Restricting SNAP
The proposed rule would reduce access to basic nutrition assistance in the poorest areas in the state, restrict Ohio’s ability to help its most disadvantaged workers, and discriminate on the basis of race.
In Ohio, nearly 1.4 million, or one in six people across the state rely on SNAP to help buy groceries each month. SNAP serves as a vital safety net to ensure low-wage workers do not go hungry when their hours are reduced or they become unemployed, and is widely regarded as one of the most effective programs in the country for alleviating poverty.
Though the average SNAP benefit in Ohio is only about $4 per day per recipient, this assistance significantly reduces food insecurity and frees up recipients’ limited incomes to address other hardships like paying bills and rent.
If the proposed rule took effect today with the new unemployment threshold for waiver eligibility, only three Ohio counties would qualify for a time limit waiver. Currently, 38 counties qualify.
Advocates for Ohio’s Future recommends that the federal government withdraw the USDA’s proposed rule and maintain the authorization of state waivers for “areas of high unemployment” under the current criteria, which has proven to provide vital nutrition assistance for Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens.
Read our full comments here
AOF Disappointed in CMS Approval of 1115 Medicaid Waiver
AOF and thousands of other groups and individuals testified in opposition to the waiver and offered warnings of the damage its enactment would cause to critically necessary access to health care without barriers for low-income Ohioans.
Advocates for Ohio’s Future (AOF) expressed disappointment in CMS’s decision to approve Ohio’s Work Requirements and Community Engagement Waiver for the Medicaid expansion population, submitted by the Kasich Administration as required by lawmakers in the last state budget.
AOF strongly supports Ohio’s Medicaid expansion. Good health is critical for maintaining a job, earning an education, parenting, and participating in community life. Health must come first on the path to self-sufficiency.
Read our full comments here
AOF Encouraged by DeWine's State of the State Commitments
AOF praised Governor DeWine’s commitment to invest in Ohio’s children, workers and our collective future in his first State of the State address
Governor Mike DeWine outlined his priorities in his first State of the State address March 5th. He emphasized the time has come to invest in Ohio’s future, and face problems the state has put off for far too long, head on.
Governor DeWine committed to investments in:
Roads and bridges
Safe water
Preventing infant mortality and programming for at-risk mothers
Expanded capacity to address mental health and addiction issues for children and adults
Quality early childhood education
Children’s services and foster care
Programs for aging and older adults
Opportunity zones for workforce development and job training
AOF is encouraged by Governor DeWine’s commitments in human services and public health programs. We look forward to working with the DeWine administration and members of the General Assembly to follow through on these important investments and policy changes.
Read our full statement here
Updated Resource Card Gives a Snapshot of Poverty in Ohio
Printer-friendly resource card gives you a snapshot of poverty in Ohio that you can easily share with friends, colleagues and legislators.
Ohio’s communities thrive when people feel safe, have good jobs and can afford the basics. Unfortunately, a job doesn’t always mean a living and Ohioans across the state aren’t making enough to make ends meet.
AOF’s updated Ohio Poverty Snapshot Resource Card highlights that despite signs of an economic recovery, too many Ohioans are living in poverty. One side of the card shows the 2019 Federal Poverty Guidelines that are used to determine who is and who is not eligible for benefits through public support programs and the other highlights that most common Ohio jobs leave working Ohioans in need of extra support.
Join the Conversation:
We encourage you to print and share the Ohio Poverty Snapshot Resource Card with your friends, colleagues and your state lawmakers.
If you would like a copy of the card sent to you, please send us an email with your name and mailing address.
When you talk with people, highlight that government investments in public support programs benefit all Ohioans.
Use the hashtag #poorwhileworking when posting about poverty in Ohio on social media.
AOF Unveils 2020-21 Budget Priorities, Urge Incorporation in Budget Bill
Columbus – Advocates for Ohio’s Future (AOF) previewed its 2020-21 budget and policy priorities in a press conference on January 28.
The health and human services coalition focuses on policy areas that support healthy children and families, quality communities and pathways to prosperity for all so all Ohioans can live better lives.
Human services play a key role in stabilizing individuals and families so they can compete and thrive in the 21st century economy. Our state has an opportunity to prepare Ohioans to acquire and maintain quality jobs, so in the long run, they can support themselves and their families.
“Bold policy reform and investments are needed so Ohioans can climb the ladder up and out of poverty, said AOF Co-Chair Steve Wagner. “Ohio needs targeted investments in our greatest asset— our people.”
“We agree with Governor DeWine: We have a moral obligation to reach out and support at-risk children and families,” said Tara Britton, coalition Co-Chair. “It will take robust public investments and policy changes that address the needs of low-income families holistically to strengthen Ohio’s families and workforce to make all Ohioans healthy and competitive.”
Read the full press release here
Review AOF’s 2020-21 priorities:
PCSAO: Severe Crisis in Ohio's Children Services System
The impact of the opioid epidemic on the children services system has been astounding. The system is in critical need of reforms and resources to promote safe children, stable families and supportive communities.
Children are entering the foster care at higher rates than ever before. The system has seen a 28% increase since 2013, with 17% more kids (2,385) entering in the last 24 months.
If the current conditions continue, Ohio will have nearly 19,000 children in foster care by 2020.
Click here to read the Public Children Services Association of Ohio’s full report and learn more about how the opioid epidemic is impacting kids and their families, and what the state can do to reform the system.