COVID-19 Resources Roundup

Updated as of April 24, 2020

Each part of our community is connected, and how the COVID-19 crisis affects one part affects another. To help our community process all the various resources related to this emergency, we will update this round-up of news and resources weekly. Knowledge is power. Stay safe and well.

(NEW) A fourth $484 billion Covid-19 Relief package for small businesses, hospitals, and expanded medical testing passed this week. But there was little in the bill for food assistance or income supports to states for working families.

(NEW) Racist attacks and harassment of Asian Americans are rising. Here are some resources to combat them and keep our community members safe:

• From Asian Americans Advancing Justice & Hollaback!: Bystander trainings to stop anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment.
• Coronavirus Resources to Stand Against Racism
• Stand Against Hate Tracker

California Resources

• (NEW) Equal Rights Advocates is proud to be a supporter of this effort by the Governor to assist undocumented workers amid COVID-19 concerns.
• California’s legislative session will reconvene on May 4 instead of April 13, under the guidance of public health officials who seek to minimize opportunities for COVID-19 spread. (Source)
• Some good news: CA courts suspend most evictions during shelter in place. (Source: Western Center on Law & Poverty)
• There are new resources available for domestic violence (DV) survivors in San Francisco. (Source: San Francisco Mayor’s Office)
• The California Assembly Budget Committee has posted the following update on their website regarding how the budget process will proceed in their house.
• You can find all the CA Unemployment Insurance (UI) forms available here. Here are the applications:
  • Worked in California English| Spanish
  • Worked in California and Another State English| Spanish
  • Served in the Military English| Spanish
  • Worked for the Federal Government English| Spanish

• Instructions for misclassified workers and workers paid off-payroll applying for unemployment insurance in California. The explainer video is here. The EED  video that helps define what wages are for the purposes of CA UI is here.
• Resources about immigrant workers’ eligibility for workers’ compensation benefits for COVID-19 exposure or illness (Source: California Insurance Commission)
• The CA.gov COVID-19 website has frequently updated information & resources for CA residents.
• Bay Legal is keeping a running list of eviction related measures and news during COVID-19 in the Bay Area.
• Child Care Law Center Q&A on the impact of COVID on child care & families in CA.
• NYT piece featuring Legal Aid at Work’s Sharon Terman discussing the unemployment insurance filing process in CA.

Policy Recommendations

• (NEW) Women of color and their families need safe and stable employment and financial security. This pandemic 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. A new report, On the Frontlines at Work and at Home: The Disproportionate Economic Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Women of Color, from the Center for American Progress.
• (NEW) Workers need workplaces to be safe. Here are recommendations from NELP’s new brief, Protecting Worker Safety & Health in the Covid Crisis: A State & Local Model Policy Response.
• (NEW) Women need a healthcare system that works for them, not against them. A new issue brief from Center for American Progress highlights how healthcare in the U.S. underserves women, including how insurance coverage is insufficient, how federal and state policies are inequitable for women of color, how reproductive health care services are stigmatized, and how the health care providers women disproportionately rely on are underfunded or inaccessible.
• (NEW) Childcare is essential for working families and key to a thriving economy. This is a new issue brief from NWLC and CLASP.
• Only 30% of the lowest-paid workers have access to paid family leave. We support the swift passage of the PAID Family Leave Act. (Source: National Partnership for Women & Families)
• Parents know what they need to thrive – access to resources to weather emergencies and access to opportunities. Read LIFT’s policy recommendations and best practices here. (Source: LIFT)
• An effective response to the Coronavirus requires targeted assistance for LGBTQ people. (Source: Center for American Progress)

Economic & Worker Justice Resources

• (NEW) Resources for unemployed and front-line workers.
• (NEW) Donate to an emergency fund for tipped and service workers.
• (NEW) From National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum: “AAPI Women 3x More Likely to Report Racist Discrimination Than Men Over Last Week” citing a new study by the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action.
• Understanding the impact of critical provisions of COVID-19 relief bills on immigrant communities. (Source: National Immigration Law Center)
• Women comprise a significant portion of small business owners, and they are seeing their businesses shutter abruptly. A round-up of small business resources here. (Source: Small Business Majority)
• There is a new study on the sudden, horrific unemployment and reduced work. A couple of significant takeaways:33% of voters have already lost their job, been furloughed, placed on temporary leave, or had hours reduced, with 41% of those who’ve lost a job already reporting having trouble covering basic costs.
  Black Americans are feeling the worst of the financial crisis, with almost half (45%) reporting they’ve lost jobs, hours, or been put on leave. (Source: Data for Progress)
• Stark view of the devastating impact of Coronavirus on working women. Three months ago, we were the majority of the US workforce. Overnight, that has changed. (Source: NPR)
• More data on the outsized impact COVID-19 is having on women working on the front lines. (Source: National Women’s Law Center)
• In the face of OSHA laxity during COVID-19, NELP will be updating its worker safety and health toolkit. (Source: National Employment Law Project)
• Two resources to support workers experiencing domestic & sexual violence from Workplaces Respond here (en Espanol) and here (en Espanol.)
• This is a list of relief funds accessible to undocumented workers in California. (New funds are being created, so this will likely be a living document.)
• Legal Aid at Work has updated its FAQs for workers.
• Comprehensive resources for front line public service workers. (Source: AFSCME)
• The virus is also highlighting serious gaps in guestworker programs (Source: Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.)

Family Policy & Resources

• (NEW) The Children’s Defense Fund has a list of priorities for supporting children and families.   
• (NEW) A new resource page from Legal Voice.
• For our older community members, it’s important to know Social Security recipients will receive those Relief Rebates without filing a tax return. (Source: AARP)
• Our friends at NWLC has a short explainer on those Relief Rebates (those $1200 relief checks from the government). (Source: National Women’s Law Center)
• Join a webinar from the National Employment Law Project on April 13 (12 pm ET/3 pm PT), Resources to Support Workers During the Coronavirus Pandemic. The webinar will discuss unemployment insurance, federal legislation, and what it means for workers.
• National Partnership published a new briefing on the significant and rapid expansion of access to paid sick days and paid leave in the federal response to COVID-19, despite some significant limitations in the policy. (Source: National Partnership for Women & Families)
• With 78% of people in the US living paycheck to paycheck, families have urgent questions and need dependable answers regarding the benefits they have, or don’t have. Paid Leave US includes the latest information about the availability of paid family and medical leave (whether through the newest federal package, state programs, some of the top employers) and information for employers interested in updating their policies. (Source: Paid Leave US)
• More policy-oriented resources about medical, caregiving leave including an issue brief co-authored with Jack Smalligan and Chantel Boyens of the Urban Institute; its accompanying factsheets on medical leave and 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”; and a helpful tweet thread here, also from Sam Abbott. (Source: Washington Center for Equitable Growth):
• Resources from a Better Balance regarding the paid leave portions of the federal legislation.
• Resources from NELP on the unemployment insurance (UI) provisions in the federal legislation:
• To add further context to our unemployment crisis, the March 2020 unemployment spike was an alarming vertical line. (Via Ben Riley-Smith)

Education Equity Resources

• (NEW) Student survivors of campus sexual violence need knowledgeable and fair guidance from Title IX administrators. Equal Rights Advocates’ new recommendations for Title IX administrators during COVID-19 contain our recommended best practices for how Title IX administrators can serve students remotely, as well as recommendations for students/advocates.
• (NEW) Webinar: COVID-19 and Its Effects on Title IX Investigations, hosted by End Rape on Campus (EROC) and It’s On Us, in partnership with Equal Rights Advocates and the National Women’s Law Center.
• (NEW) A round-up of public education’s COVID-19 policy responses across the country from NCSL.