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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Hunger Report: High Cost of Housing Draining Family Food Budgets

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007   

Cleveland, OH – It's a dirty little secret that many hope will be openly debated by presidential candidates: Too many Americans are going hungry because their housing costs too much.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling for a federal commitment to affordable housing to help solve the problem. The interlocking relationship of high-cost housing and hunger is analyzed in a report by the mayors' group, made public Monday. The report surveyed 23 cities across the country, including Cleveland.

Conference president Douglas Palmer, the mayor of Trenton, N.J., discussed the report's conclusions.

"The main causes of hunger in the survey cities are poverty, unemployment and high housing costs, as well as food stamp benefits not really keeping up with the increasing price of food."

He says tackling the housing problem is the top priority in fighting hunger. In addition to a federal trust fund for affordable housing, he adds, the mayor's group is calling for federal support for community development programs.

Palmer is urging presidential candidates to make housing and hunger top campaign priorities. He points out that the holiday season is a good time to evaluate national priorities and to commit to solving the problems of housing and hunger.

"We want to highlight during the holiday season, when people are really happy and warm and exchanging gifts, that a lot of families and single adults won't be enjoying what most of us take for granted, and that's a warm place to live and food to eat."

Meanwhile, Ohio Congressman Zack Space continues his two-day “hunger tour” of Ohio food pantries today. His first stop Monday was Logan, a small town in southeastern Ohio. He says people in cars were lined up for blocks, waiting for food. He says many of those he talked with had minimum-wage jobs, but couldn't keep up with the costs of housing, fuel and health care, so they had nowhere to turn but the food pantry.

"There's something seriously wrong with this country when so many people have to rely on charity just to eat, just to feed their children."

Space says Farm Bill action is needed to boost emergency food supplies, and he says he wants to see more focus on education and job training, to help bring better-paying jobs to the state.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors report is at
usmayors.org.





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