Catholic Campaign for Human Development; November 17, 2024

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development November 17, 2024 

Right now, in the United States, 46.2 million people (16 million children) are classified by the federal government as living in poverty.  That’s one out of every seven Americans, and almost one out of every four children. It’s a huge number of people.   

Sometimes people make bad choices. But a lot of other factors can send a family below the poverty line—and keep others there who are already poor:  

•   a minimum wage that earns a full-time worker less than $16,000 a year 
•   a housing market that has become inaccessible to low-income people;  12 million pay more 
•   than half their annual income for rent or mortgage payments. 
•   a job market where there are almost five job seekers for every available opening. If every available job were filled overnight, there would still be 11 million jobless workers. 

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the Gospel at work and Catholic social teaching in action. CCHD practices the principles the Church teaches: the option for the poor, solidarity, subsidiarity, and participation. CCHD defends human life and dignity every day, in countless ways, all across our nation. By working together through CCHD, Catholics offer hope and help to low-income families and communities working to overcome poverty and injustice in the United States. For 40 years, the Catholic Campaign of Human Development has invited followers of Christ to share in Jesus’ mission to “bring good news to the poor… release to the captives… and to let the oppressed go free…” (Luke 4:18).  

​For more information, visit www.usccb.org/cchd/ or www.povertyusa.org.