Overview on COVID-19 Resources
As a national hub, LSSC works with a broad range of organizations now providing valuable guidance and resources for responding to and recovering from the pandemic. We are curating a list of the most useful materials from our trusted partners and allies.
Resources Produced by Local Solutions Support Center
Featured
COVID-19 and Legal Responses
COVID-19 Real-Time Legal Responses: Local Governments on the Frontlines. The slides and video playback for the webinar are available on the website of The Network for Public Health Law
Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19 (August 2020): A report from Public Health Law Watch and public health law partners, Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, was published in August 2020. The report includes analysis and insight from 50 national experts on U.S. policy as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. One chapter in the resource, “Preemption, Public Health, and Equity in the Time of COVID-19,” explores preemption and the pandemic.
Preempting Progress Report (September 2020): This report, produced in conjunction with Economic Policy Institute and EARN, examines how state interference in local policymaking prevents people of color, women, and low-income workers from making ends meet in the South.
Paper prepared for International Municipal Lawyers Association (August 2020)
From Data for Progress and the Justice Collaborative Institute (September 2020):
From ChangeLab Solutions:
Decision Tree Resources for Local Governments: As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, local elected officials and advocates alike are asking what they can do for their communities across a range of policies. These guides from Local Solutions Support Center can help you determine whether your community has the authority it needs to adopt these kinds of policies:
Decision Tree Resource for Policies Related to Housing and Homelessness
Decision Tree Resource for Policies Related to Expanding Broadband Access
Additional Resources for Local Governments and Advocates:
Model Local Resolution Calling For Local Authority to Adopt Housing and Worker Protections and Expand Broadband Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic – View Resource
Model Local Resolution Calling For Local Authority to Adopt Housing Protections During the Covid-19 Pandemic – View Resource
Disbanding, Defunding, or Reforming Local Law Enforcement – View Resource
COVID-19 and Racial and Gender Inequity
The Network for Public Health: This May 7, 2020 issue brief examines evidence of racial disparities with respect to COVID-19 infections and deaths, possible causes, and legal protections against race discrimination. It also provides an overview of Crisis Standards of Care planning, including key ethical features that may be utilized to ensure that CSC planning incorporates concerns about racial inequity.
Human Impact Partners: Health Equity Policy Platform for COVID-19 Response and Recovery
Navigating Coronavirus Poll Briefing Deck: Coronavirus’ Disproportionate Impact on Communities of Color
Facing South: Southern states start reopening as black communities bear COVID-19's brunt
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies: COVID-19 Resources Page
NAACP: COVID-19 Resources Page
The Center for American Progress:
On the Frontlines at Work and at Home: The Disproportionate Economic Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Women of Color – Report that looks at the economic harm caused by the coronavirus pandemic on women of color, many of whom comprise a disproportionate share of key essential workers on the front lines. The report analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Community Survey, among other sources, to delineate how COVID-19 impairs the employment and financial security of women of color and their families; inflames the caregiving crisis at work and at home; exacerbates the discriminatory workplace barriers women of color face; and threatens their health due to racism and structural health disparities.
The Coronavirus Crisis Demonstrates How the U.S. Health Care System Fails Women – Issue brief that explores how the coronavirus is exposing the many ways America’s health care system underserves women, including how insurance coverage is insufficiently robust, how federal and state policies fail to achieve health equity for women of color, how reproductive health care services are stigmatized, and how the providers women disproportionately rely on are underfunded or inaccessible.
COVID-19 and Housing
Model Resolutions or Ordinances
Model Local Resolution Calling for Local Authority to Adopt Housing Protections During the COVID-19 Pandemic – View Resource
Model Local Tenant Ordinance During COVID-19 – View Resource
Model Ordinance for Florida Cities and Counties Enacting Worker Health and Safety Ordinances to Protect Workers and the Public from COVID-19 – View Resource
Suits Challenging State and Local Eviction Moratoria and Other Pandemic-Related Tenant Protections: Chart breaking down lawsuits
Local Authority Overview: Eviction Moratorium, Other Tenant Protections, and Related Housing Laws
Law360 Article: “States Shouldn’t Hinder Local Governments in COVID-19 Tenant Aid” (or see PDF Version)
Urban Institute: What state and local governments can do to stabilize renters during pandemic
ChangeLab Solutions: Tenant Protections, Evictions, & Utilities
Poverty and Race Research Action Council – Selected Coalition Partners’ Resource Pages:
National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) COVID-19 and Housing and Homelessness Resources Page
Selected COVID-19 Resource Links:
NLIHC/National League of Cities Guidance on CARES Act Implementation (April 2020)
Memo on Disability Protections Under FHA Applicable to COVID-19 Relief (NFHA, April 2020)
Protecting Renter and Homeowner Rights During Our National Health Crisis (NHLP, March 2020)
COVID-19, Data, and Health Justice (the Commonwealth Fund, April 2020)
COVID-19 Combined Federal Legislative Response (the Raben Group, March 2020)
COVID-19 & Health Justice Resource Document (Spirit of 1848 & Public Health Awakened, March 2020)
COVID-19 and Broadband Access
Decision Tree Resource for Policies Related to Expanding Broadband Access
Model Local Resolution: Calling For Local Authority to Adopt Housing and Worker Protections and Expand Broadband Access During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Fact Sheet: The Digital Divide, Broadband Access, and the Pandemic
COVID-19 and Paid Sick Days/Leave
EARN webinar: Paid sick time in the federal relief bills
From Equitable Growth – The evidence base around paid medical leave and paid caregiving leave and COVID-19:
From Urban Institute: an issue brief co-authored with Jack Smalligan and Chantel Boyens of the Urban Institute, and its accompanying factsheets on medical leave and on caregiving leave
An updated, broader fact sheet on paid leave research
Sam Abbott’s blog post “Research shows paid leave is needed to protect families, workers, and businesses during the coronavirus recession and beyond” links these products to COVID-19
COVID-19 and Unemployment Insurance
From the National Employment Law Project:
COVID-19 and State and Local Budget and Financing
Project SAFE is an inclusive consortium of academics interested in helping states mitigate the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. They have advice and options to offer state and local governments facing budget shortfalls and uncertain revenues.
COVID-19 and Ballot Measures
The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) has put together a toolkit which incorporates ways that folks are adapting to the current crisis from a policy, legal, and field (signature gathering + voter contact) standpoint. We hope this is helpful. We will continue to update this document as new information comes in and populate the folders linked to in the toolkit document and in our shared drive.