The Healthy Food Financing Initiative Will Award 6 Grants in its First Round
Healthy, fresh food should be affordable and accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many Harris County residents. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 738,140 people in Harris County were considered food insecure, and at least 286,000 live in a food desert. As of January 2021, there are 360,000 children in Harris County experiencing food insecurity.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Harris County, many of them children, do not have access to fresh and nutritious food, either because they cannot afford it or they live in one of our county’s many food deserts,” said Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis. “Particularly at a time when many residents are experiencing hardship, it is a privilege to invest in our resident’s health and wellbeing, and expand access to healthy food to more communities. Through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, the County is supporting the work of local organizations helping to meet residents’ basic needs.”
Commissioner Ellis first proposed the Harris County Healthy Food Financing Initiative to increase the availability of fresh and nutritious food in underserved communities by funding innovative solutions through community partners. The first round of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative will provide $550,000 in grants to the HOPE Clinic, Houston Food Bank, Little Red Box, Small Places, Common Market Texas, and Urban Harvest.
The grantee organizations will:
o HOPE Clinic: Teach restauranteurs to prepare healthy food for their menus
o Houston Food Bank: Increase food pantry capacity and SNAP enrollment
o Little Red Box: Make healthy food available for pick-up in the Second Ward
o Finca Tres Robles: Host interactive classes and create an outlet for fresh produce with a store and kitchen in the East End
o Common Market Texas: Provide healthy food at a 25% discount to food retailers
o Urban Harvest: Support operations of its mobile market and coordinate healthy food access efforts among community organizations
“Under its healthy community initiative, HOPE Clinic established the Bite of HOPE – a teaching kitchen and culinary program whose objective is to change the food environment in Houston, specifically in the neighborhoods that lack adequate healthy food access. As a Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) awardee, the program will help small food businesses and restaurants create a healthier menu and product options by having the healthy culinary coach review the food elaboration process, connecting them to local farms and sourcing outlets, lowering costs, and promoting them within the community,” said Joseph Brozovich,Culinary Program Coordinator & Lead Instructor of a Bite of HOPE.
“On behalf of Houston Food Bank, we are so grateful and excited to start working with our partners on HFB’s new Targeted Enhanced Partner Capacity Project,” said Kristen House, Houston Food Bank Partner Capacity Manager. “The project will address the limited access to healthy food and increase nutrition education resources in underserved communities in Precinct 1.”
“This would not be possible without the passage of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, and thank you Commissioner Rodney Ellis for spearheading this effort and all of the Harris County Commissioner’s Court for their support,” said Melanie Pang, Houston Food Bank Director of Advocacy.
Samuel Newman, Founder of the Little Red Box Grocery, said “In Texas, and across the United States, rapidly densifying and gentrifying cities are pushing lower-income residents away from basic resources, making it harder for families to access essential necessities including fresh, healthy food. Little Red Box Grocery (LRB) is a socially-conscious private venture that is building a market-based and scalable solution to eradicate food deserts. LRB’s mission is to Democratize Access to Good Food.
“We are extremely excited and proud to be a part of Harris County’s first Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI),” said Thomas Garcia-Prats, Founder and General Manager of Finca Tres Robles. “Small Places has worked the last seven years through our urban farm, Finca Tres Robles, to grow and provide access to the freshest organic produce to our community with the pandemic only revealing an even greater need. We are extremely grateful to Harris County and their HFFI grant for providing the resources necessary to implement our vision for a healthier community in the Second Ward and East End. The new retail space at the farm will allow us to make our own products more accessible and create a consistent outlet for other local producers to provide for and connect with our neighborhood, impacting them for years to come. Thank you to Harris County for supporting our farm in serving our community.”
With his first major legislative win on track to pass Congress early this week, President Joe Biden is already looking ahead to the next policy push on his Build Back Better agenda.
His victory lap may be short-lived.
The expected passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package may give the president a tailwind as he seeks an even larger price tag on an infrastructure bill, tackles an ambitious climate change agenda, and begins negotiations on his campaign pledge of comprehensive immigration reform. But the president’s decision to go it alone on his American Rescue Plan – garnering not a single Republican vote in either chamber of Congress – could sink any promise of bipartisanship as he moves on to the next big-ticket item in his first 100 days.
“I think by not making a good-faith effort, basically it’s poisoning the well for everything down the line,” said political analyst Charlie Cook, editor, and publisher of The Cook Political Report.
Cook said he thought Biden had been positioned to reach a compromise with moderate Republicans given his temperament and his 36 years in the Senate.
“It will be just a strong disincentive to do business with him,” Cook said.
Biden, who pitched himself as a presidential candidate who could break through Washington’s hyperpartisan landscape, has already run into the political realities of his party’s razor-thin majorities in Congress. With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats used a legislative maneuver to push through the COVID-19 relief package with a simple majority in the Senate over the weekend and without any Republican votes.
But that process, known as budget reconciliation, is subject to rules that could make it more difficult to use for the White House’s more progressive policy plans. Without that legislative tool, Biden has few options other than fulfilling his promise of working across the aisle or ending the Senate filibuster, which would allow measures to pass with a simple majority – a move he has so far resisted in his call for unity.
Still, buoyed by the expected stimulus victory and a ramp-up in vaccine distribution that he said will see enough doses for every American adult produced by the end of May, Biden is well-positioned for his next legislative battle, said Erik Smith, a longtime Democratic strategist.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be sitting in a diner or a barbershop talking about how Biden’s use of reconciliation somehow discounts the win,” Smith said. “A win’s a win. No one remembers how many points you score in the Super Bowl, they just remember you won the Super Bowl.”
‘Bipartisanship is not determined by a single ZIP code’
The president and White House officials have repeatedly rejected Republican criticism that Biden is breaking his promise of bipartisan governing by pointing to polls showing the relief package is popular across the country.
“Bipartisanship is not determined by a single ZIP code in Washington, D.C.,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday when asked about seeking GOP support for the next item on the president’s legislative agenda. “It’s about where the American people sit and stand, and the vast majority of the American people support the American Rescue Plan, including Republicans.”
A Morning Consult/Politico poll released earlier this week found broad bipartisan support for the pandemic relief bill: 77% of all voters and 59% of Republicans said they backed the measure.
The stimulus plan, which provides $1,400 payments to many Americans and additional funding for state and local governments while boosting vaccine distribution and extending enhanced unemployment benefits, has been supported by Democratic and Republican state and local officials alike. Last week, 32 Republican mayors were among the 425 mayors nationally who renewed a push to pass the president’s plan.
The more impressive feat was Biden’s ability to hold the Democratic Party together to pass the administration’s first legislative priority, despite intraparty tensions over progressive provisions in the massive spending bill, said Doug Sosnik, who was the White House political director under President Bill Clinton.
Liberals are growing increasingly wary that progressive pieces of Biden’s agenda could be on the chopping block, including his plans for voting rights, gun control, climate change, and immigration, he said. A push to include a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage in the stimulus package collapsed after a key Senate official ruled that it could not be included in the measure.
“It speaks really well for Biden and Democrats that out of the gate, despite the narrow margin that they have, they’re able to hold the party together to pass this,” Sosnik said.
Seasoned hands within the administration – many of whom also served in the White House when Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama – learned early on that it was a fool’s errand to wait for Republican support, Sosnik said.
“You have almost an immovable force in this extended period of hyperpartisanship that’s been going on for more than a decade where there’s a very little political incentive for either party to work together,” he said. “That’s the political environment (Biden is) working in.”
Republicans have shown little sign of a willingness to work with Biden, despite the president’s efforts to court moderate Republicans in the early weeks of his presidency. Biden has twice invited a bipartisan group of senators to the White House for talks on both the stimulus bill and his plans for infrastructure. He also has held several virtual meetings with Republicans and Democrats over other items on his agenda.
‘Dinner table’ politics
Although Biden would have preferred bipartisan support, the most important thing is passing the legislation, said William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. The real “disaster” would’ve been if the president proved unable to “marshal the government” to respond to this pandemic and the economic downturn, he said.
“The final vote tally is off – not just secondary importance – but third or fourth overall importance,” he said. “What really matters, both materially and politically, is whether or not that action takes place. Whether or not the checks are written, support is provided. Whether or not people’s vulnerabilities are not just recognized but attended to.”
But Cook said many in the Biden administration brought with them “the mentality and the scar tissue” that if Republicans wouldn’t work with Obama, they wouldn’t with Biden either.
In a speech to the House Democratic caucus Wednesday, Biden urged members of his party to apply lessons learned in the Obama years and boast about the COVID-19 relief plan once it passes. He recalled his former boss’s hesitancy to “take a victory lap” after the passage of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, noting most Americans didn’t understand the magnitude of the legislation.
“Economists told us we literally saved America from the depression, but we didn’t adequately explain what we had done,” he said.
“We paid a price for it, ironically, for that humility,” Biden said, an apparent reference to the 2010 midterms, in which Republicans took control of Congress.
Biden encouraged House Democrats to not repeat the same mistake.
“Speak up and speak out about the American Rescue Plan,” he said. “Each piece isn’t just defensible, it is urgent and overwhelmingly supported by the people. It’s good policy, and it’s good politics.”
Psaki, who also served in the Obama White House, told reporters Friday that the administration didn’t do enough to explain the 2009 stimulus package “in terms that people would be talking about at their dinner tables.” She said the White House would continue to directly engage Americans on how the relief package will affect them.
Clear communication about a president’s record is a lesson Clinton also learned after the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952.
“We accomplished a tremendous amount but we got buried in the midterms,” Sosnik recalled. “What we didn’t understand well enough at the time was the importance of being able to articulate in a digestible way to the American public what you were doing and why.
But unlike the Obama stimulus bill, Biden’s pandemic relief plan will have a tangible affect on Americans, according to Matt Bennett, the executive director of Third Way, a center-left think tank.
“To no fault of the people who wrote the Recovery Act in 2009, the bill was complicated, and no one could explain it in a way that would have been politically resonant,” he said. “This is very different and a lot more visible, and so the taking of credit will be vastly more impactful.”
The president made a very good gamble on the relief plan that could yield more political capital than he began his presidency with, Bennett said.
The price of going it alone
Despite the relief plan’s popularity outside the Beltway, it is unlikely that momentum from its passage will hurtle Biden into future legislative wins, Howell said.
“The idea that a legislative win begets a subsequent legislative win in this environment is probably asking for too much,” he said, noting the prospect of passing COVID-19 relief was higher than more hot-button issues like immigration or health care.
A legislative defeat would have raised questions about Biden’s ability to pass any meaningful legislation, but its passage won’t be a “springboard to the production of all kinds of landmark legislation – far from it,” Howell said.
“Sure, he can claim victory,” said Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush. “Nobody will ultimately know whether it truly is a victory until we see the shape the economy is in a year or so.”
Fleischer said the divisive era in Washington gives Biden cover for not reaching the bipartisanship he talked about in his inauguration speech.
“It gives him some political momentum that he passed his first legislative hurdle, and that’s significant,” Fleischer said, predicting the White House will soon propose a large tax overhaul to pay for the spending. “And we’ll fight about that one next. It’s very classic liberal governance. Not exactly governance of a unifier.”
Fleischer compared Biden’s position after the American Rescue Plan’s passage to Bush in 2001, also months after his election, passing tax cuts, his first major piece of legislation. The Senate was evenly split and Republicans had a small majority in the House. Unlike Biden, Bush got 28 House members of the opposite party to vote with him and 12 Democratic senators.
But the only concessions Biden made – lowering the threshold to an income of $80,000 to qualify for $1,400 stimulus checks – involved moderate Democrats, Cook noted, meaning the president doesn’t get credit for reaching across the aisle.
He said the White House could have rushed to pass some relief, such as unemployment insurance that faced a March 14 expiration, leaving more time to negotiate on the larger package.
“Once you have started behaving in a partisan way, you’ve indicated what you’re inclined to do. And I don’t think this was necessary at all,” he said.
“I think it will make everything harder,” he said. “(The president) got it through, but at what price?”
Biden, for his part, hasn’t given up on working across the aisle. After remarks on the Senate passage of the bill Saturday, the president bristled at the idea that he couldn’t get Republican support on other parts of his agenda.
“We’re going to succeed moving forward,” he said. “There’s a lot of Republicans who came very close. They got a lot of pressure on them, and I still haven’t given up getting their support.”
Governor Greg Abbott today held a press conference in Mission, Texas to discuss the state’s response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the Texas-Mexico border. Prior to the press conference, the Governor took an aerial tour of the border and received a briefing from members of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the National Border Patrol Council, and the Texas National Guard.
“The Biden Administration has created a crisis at our southern border through open border policies that give the green light to dangerous cartels and other criminal activity,” said Governor Abbott. “Border security is the federal government’s responsibility, but the State of Texas will not allow the administration’s failures to endanger the lives of innocent Texans. Instead, Texas is stepping up to fill the gaps left open by the federal government to secure the border, apprehend dangerous criminals, and keep Texans safe.”
Governor Abbott noted that the current crisis at the southern border is a direct result of the Biden Administration’s open border policies. The Governor stated that over 800 criminal aliens have been apprehended in Texas this year, including sex offenders and gang members, and many of those individuals had been deported before. Cartels are ramping up trafficking and smuggling along the border and overwhelming border patrol resources — a strategy of the organizations to bring more dangerous elements across the border including violent criminals, contraband, and individuals from special interest countries.
The Governor condemned the Biden Administration for enriching the cartels with these open border strategies and for failing to provide vaccines to members of the U.S. Border Patrol. Governor Abbott also noted that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are responsible for detaining, testing, and quarantining anyone that comes across the border, and called on the Biden Administration to increase the number of ICE facilities and provide more funding to the agency to allow them to do their jobs. Governor Abbott concluded his press conference by assuring Texans that the state will step in to fill the gap created by the federal government and protect our communities from criminal activities along the border.
Previously, the Governor and DPS launched Operation Lone Star, which will deploy air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.
Colleges around the U.S. are scaling back spring break or canceling it entirely to discourage partying that could spread the virus and raise infection rates back on campus.
Texas A&M University opted for a three-day weekend instead of a whole week off. The University of Alabama and the University of Wisconsin-Madison also did away with spring break but are giving students a day off later in the semester.
Even some students who have the time to get away aren’t in the mood. Michigan Tech’s weeklong break began Friday, but 21-year-old Justin Martin decided to visit family in Michigan instead of making that epic senior-year trip to Florida he once envisioned.
“I don’t want to travel all that way, first of all, especially with everything being shut down. It just doesn’t seem worth it, especially with COVID too,” he said.
To be sure, many college students looking to blow off steam or escape the cold and snowy North are still going to hit big party spots such as Florida, Mexico, California, and Las Vegas to soak up the sun and go bar-hopping at night. Others will go skiing in the mountains or hit other tourist spots.
But many others say they will be reluctantly skipping trips this year.
“Definitely, no planned trips. Definitely wearing masks this year,” said Brady Stone, a 21-year-old journalism major at Texas A&M. “We are kind of hunkering down and staying safe.” He added: “I think most of us if we are going anywhere, it is back to their hometowns.”
Tourism is the Sunshine State’s No. 1 industry, generating over $91 billion in 2018, and last year spring break was one of the first big casualties of the pandemic as the U.S. went into strict lockdowns, shutting down beaches across Florida just as alarming scenes of college students heedlessly drinking, dancing and getting up close without masks were plastered across social media.
Miami tourism officials say they lost billions of dollars during those three months last year.
Now, those beach towns are hoping to make up for some of those losses, even as they take precautions to discourage reckless behavior and curb the spread of the virus. Miami tourism officials have spent $5 million on the city’s biggest national advertising campaign in 20 years.
Some communities say they are starting to see visitors return, even though health experts warn that the outbreak that has killed more than a half-million Americans is far from over.
Airline travel to Miami is down more than half from last year, said Rolando Adeo, chief operating officer of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors bureau. But hotel occupancy is expected to reach 70% in Miami Beach this month, he said. While that’s down from 85% in 2019 pre-pandemic, it’s still a marked improvement from 43% last year.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis reported: “Hotel rates are very competitive and occupancy is also very high, so we’re excited for that.”
University of Louisville student Josie Hornback and four girlfriends spread their colorful towels as they tanned on Florida’s Clearwater Beach last Tuesday, unfazed by the virus.
“I’m with people I know. I’m not an at-risk person,” she said.
Florida has no statewide mask rules, limits on capacity, or other such restrictions, courtesy of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pro-business stance. But local governments can impose rules, and they vary widely.
In Miami Beach, tourists are receiving cellphone messages warning, “Vacation Responsibly or Be Arrested.”
“Spring break in Miami Beach may be one of the great rites of passage, but only if you plan on following the rules. Otherwise, you might as well just stay home and save yourself the court costs,” the message reads, followed by a reminder that alcohol, coolers, and tents are banned from its beach, a midnight curfew is in effect countywide, and no alcohol can be sold after 10 p.m.
“If you want to party without restrictions, then go somewhere else. Go to Vegas,” Miami Beach City Manager Raul Aguila said during a recent virtual city meeting.
Around the state, many are taking the party to the open waters, where guests can imbibe under less-watchful eyes.
Andrew Cohen, co-owner of Staying Afloat Party Boat, said his boats are nearly sold out for the rest of the month in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.
“A lot of them are coming down from the colder states,” he said. “And they were just sick of being cooped up for the year.”
California is discouraging visitors from out of state, warning tourists they will have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival, and a season that ordinarily would see crowds at beaches, theme parks, and ski mountains is expected to be thin. The state, with miles of coastline and popular spring break spots like Disneyland and the Santa Monica Pier, has some of the nation’s toughest pandemic restrictions.
At the University of Mississippi, which canceled spring break and will instead end the semester a week early, senior Eliza Noe had been planning a “last hurrah-type getaway trip” with her girlfriends, but that isn’t going to happen now.
“Spring break is your last moment to lose your mind before becoming an adult, so that was kind of the plan,” she said, “but then the world ended.”
Prolonged blackouts and low temperatures caused the deaths of nearly 80 Texans due to hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other storm-related reasons.
Today, the Harris County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the Texas Supreme Court opposing the Electricity Reliability Cooperative of Texas’s (ERCOT) argument that it is entitled to governmental immunity (which would bar most people from suing ERCOT). The brief warns were the court to grant the ERCOT immunity, ERCOT could use that ruling to oppose lawsuits by residents in the wake of Winter Storm Uri and the collapse of the energy grid.
ERCOT is a private entity that has managed the Texas power grid since the grid’s deregulation in 1999. Despite the fact that it is not a government entity, in a fraud case currently before the Texas Supreme Court, ERCOT argues that it is protected from suit by governmental immunity. The amicus brief asks the court to reject ERCOT’s argument and shows the impact immunity could have on future claims brought by Harris County residents for property damage and injury stemming from Winter Storm Uri and ERCOT’s conduct in managing the power grid during that event.
Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee said, “The County and its residents should have the ability to hold ERCOT accountable in court. While it will take time to fully understand the extent of the damage and loss caused by the power grid failure, the Supreme Court of Texas must not foreclose the possibility that ERCOT should have to compensate those who were harmed by its evident failure to keep our power grid operational.
The storm and resulting power outages impacted about 1.4 million Houston-area residents, and nearly 80 Texans died from hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other storm-related causes. Millions of residents languished for days without power or water, and many suffered personal injuries as well as extensive property damage. These people must be able to seek justice in the courts.”
About the Harris County Attorney’s Office
Christian D. Menefee serves as the Harris County Attorney, the County’s chief civil lawyer. The Harris County Attorney’s Office is committed to protecting and proactively advocating for the interests of Harris County residents and government through the civil justice system. This Amicus Brief represents Menefee’s commitment to defending the rights of residents, protecting consumers from exploitation and supporting the will of the people through the elevation of local control. Menefee continues to be a voice for the people, standing up for vulnerable communities and using civil actions to ensure our rights are protected and expanded.
Lone Star College has been awarded $112,500 by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to provide financial assistance to Texas workers who are looking to reskill or upskill to get back into the workforce. The grant will be used to help LSC-North Harris students who have stopped attending college and have a desire to complete a workforce credential in a year or less.
“Lone Star College remains committed to providing students the financial resources needed to rejoin the workforce and renew our economy,” said Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., LSC chancellor. “We look forward to assisting those hit hardest by the pandemic and helping get Texas back to work.”
LSC offers a variety of state-of-the-art programs to prepare students for rewarding careers. Learn more at LoneStar.edu/Reskilling-Support-Fund-Grant.
“Texas has tens of thousands of good jobs that are being created across the state and at the same time we have many displaced workers who are still unemployed,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller. “It’s important to help Texans reskill and upskill so they can get back on their feet, get back into the economy and drive the state’s economic recovery.”
In all, the THECB has awarded $9.3 million to 31Texas higher education institutions as part of the second round of awards under the Texas Reskilling Support Fund Grant Program. LSC was also granted $750,000 in the first round of awards under the Texas Reskilling Support Fund Grant Program in December 2020.
Since 1973, LSC-North Harris has been serving residents of the Aldine and Spring school districts. It was the first and founding college of Lone Star College and sets the pace with quality, affordable education. Today, LSC-North Harris is recognized as a world leader in workforce training.
Lone Star College offers high-quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 93,000+ students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of nearly $3 billion. Lone Star College consists of seven colleges, eight centers, eight Workforce Centers of Excellence, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
The new campaign is a joint effort to encourage locals to safely explore Houston’s neighborhoods and inspire future travel
Rediscover Houston. That’s the message of a joint campaign launched by Airbnb and Houston First, which aims to support the city’s economic recovery and encourage people to safely explore Houston’s neighborhoods.
The campaign will target Texas guests and features a dedicated landing page highlighting what makes the city’s neighborhoods unique, from Montrose’s tree-lined streets and art galleries to Midtown’s tasty restaurants. Airbnb will launch an email campaign featuring stays and activities, designed to keep the destination top of mind for when nearby visitors are ready to explore.
Airbnb data shows people will view travel in 2021 as a way to reconnect with friends and family in safe and controlled ways. The campaign seeks to tap into ongoing trends that see travelers prioritizing safer travel by discovering magic in their own backyards with local trips.
“We hope this campaign encourages Houstonians to support the small businesses and people who rely on tourism,” said Jose Luis Briones, Airbnb Public Policy Manager for Texas. “We look forward to continuing to work with Houston First to find innovative ways to support local tourism.”
Houston First is the first destination marketing organization in Texas to partner with Airbnb, and the largest city in the United States to strategically align with the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company.
“Rebuilding a stronger, more resilient hospitality community is a priority for us,” said Michael Heckman, president, and CEO of Houston First. “This strategic partnership is an innovative way to inspire confidence and encourage both local and regional visitors to safely explore and enjoy all the amazing things Houston has to offer.”
Partnering with Houston First is part of Airbnb’s work with governments and tourism agencies to support economic growth as destinations around the world seek to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. By working with destination marketing organizations, nonprofits, and governments to support responsible and safe travel, Airbnb is helping communities harness these economic benefits for local citizens and small businesses.
To learn more about the partnership between Airbnb and Houston First, visit https://www.airbnb.com/d/rediscoverhouston.
About Airbnb
Airbnb is a community based on connection and belonging—a community that was born in 2008 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home and have since grown to 4 million hosts who have welcomed over 800 million guest arrivals to about 100,000 cities in almost every country and region across the globe. Hosts on Airbnb are everyday people who share their worlds to provide guests with the feeling of connection and being at home. At Airbnb, we believe that hosts, guests, and the communities where we operate are all stakeholders, we have a responsibility to serve, and that by serving them alongside our employees and investors, we will build an enduringly successful company.
About Houston First
Houston First is the official destination management organization for the city of Houston. In addition, Houston First owns the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, manages the George R. Brown Convention Center along with 10 city-owned properties, and developed the Avenida Houston entertainment district.
Here are highlights of what is in the bill that is expected to be signed into law by President Biden later this week.
The US Congress is preparing to send President Joe Biden an enormous $1.9 trillion economic stimulus and COVID-19 relief package that policymakers hope will set the stage for a recovery from the devastating coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
The bill provides direct payments to individual US citizens, tax credits for families with children, and hundreds of billions in bailouts for state and local governments, pension funds, small businesses, public schools, and healthcare providers.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday the bill should help the US return to “full employment” next year.
“We have a K-shaped recovery going on, in which high-income people are doing much better than those at the bottom of the economic ladder – low-wage workers and minorities,” Yellen said in an interview on the MSNBC news outlet.
Here are highlights of what is in the COVID-19 relief bill passed by the Senate on March 6 and now awaiting final passage by the US House of Representatives.
$1,400 direct payments
The bill provides for an estimated $225bn in one-time, direct payments of up to $1,400 for middle and lower-income Americans. Eligibility was narrowed for the cheques to limit them for individual taxpayers making $80,000 a year or less.
Payments would start to be distributed by the US Treasury to an estimated 160 million US citizens within a matter of days after the bill becomes law.
Jobless benefits
The bill continues federal pandemic unemployment aid of $300 a week paid on top of state jobless benefits. It avoids the expiration of those benefits on March 14 and extends them through September 6. Biden’s initial proposal had been to increase federal unemployment aid to $400 a week from the present $300 a week, but that was cut back on concern it would make it harder for businesses to hire back laid-off workers.
Aid to state and local governments
The bill includes $350bn for financial aid to states and cities and tribal governments to cover extra costs and revenue shortfalls incurred during the pandemic. The revised Senate bill seeks to limit how the funds are used, prohibits bailouts of public pension funds, and assures smaller states will get their fair share of the funding.
School funding
The bill provides $130bn in funding for primary and secondary public schools across the next three years to begin to reopen and recover from shutdowns that have caused US students to lose up to a year of their education.
Child poverty reductions
The bill seeks to reduce child poverty, which had worsened during the pandemic, by expanding the federal child tax credit. The credit is available for taxpayers earning up to $200,000 a year who have a child living in their household for at least half the year. The bill increases the child tax credit to $3,000 from $2,000 and allows it to be paid by the IRS in cash during the second half of the year.
No minimum wage increase
The bill does not include an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour last set in 2009. The minimum wage varies from state to state but must at least equal the federal standard. The US House of Representatives had approved an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, but the provision lacked sufficient support in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and was removed.
Health insurance subsidies
The bill includes subsidies for health insurance for people who have lost jobs. Under existing US law, those who lose their jobs can remain on their company’s health plan for up to 18 months. The COVID-19 relief bill would provide those people a 100-percent monthly subsidy through the end of September. It also expands the availability of health insurance plans on government-mandated exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
Vaccines, testing, and tracing
The legislation includes $14bn for distribution and supplies of vaccines as the Biden administration pushes to get every US adult vaccinated by the end of May. It also includes $8.5bn for rural healthcare providers, $45bn in rental and mortgage assistance and extends a federal moratorium on evictions through September, and $30bn for public transit agencies.
The legislation also provides continuing funding for the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which gives subsidies to small businesses that pledge to keep employees on their payroll.
This new vaccination site will open Monday, March 15, and run through July. Waitlist sign-up is now open.
St. Luke’s Health and Rice University announced a partnership Monday to bring coronavirus vaccines to the city’s most vulnerable communities.
The new site at Rice Stadium will focus on serving healthcare workers, seniors, underserved communities, school employees, and care center personnel.
It opens Monday, March 15, and will remain open through July, according to officials. Operations will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and visitors must have an appointment.
You can register for the waitlist at stlukeshealth.org/covidvaccine or over the phone at 281-407-8137.
St. Luke’s Health is prioritizing individuals who meet the state’s criteria for distribution at all its vaccine sites, including adults ages 65 and older, individuals with chronic conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID‑19 illness, and people who work in school and child care/adult care operations.
All visitors are required to wear face-covering and maintain a physical distance while on campus and within the vaccination clinic.
Parks and Recreation Department released details Monday about the reopening of its sports facilities, fields, and leagues as COVID cases decline.
The Houston Parks and Recreation Department released a schedule Monday detailing its plan to begin reopening city-ran fields, facilities, and leagues throughout the month of March.
“We’ve had numerous discussions with health and medical experts over the past several weeks and have determined that we can now safely reopen some of the park’s features our citizens are anxious to see a return,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
As parks reopen, officials are urging visitors to follow CDC safety guidelines and other COVID precautions; this includes wearing masks at certain gatherings, social distancing, getting vaccinated, washing hands, carrying hand sanitizer, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing and staying home if you are feeling ill.
In the release, the city warned facilities could shut down again if COVID cases spike.
Monday, March 8 – Permitting for Practice Use Only Begins
Sports fields (Baseball/Softball – Youth and Adults)
Monday, March 22 – Tentative reopening based on COVID-19 case numbers.
Sports fields for league games and tournaments (Baseball/Softball – Youth and Adults)
Playgrounds
Outdoor exercise stations
Tennis courts for tennis tournaments
Small picnic pavilion rentals
Small bootcamps
Lake Houston Wilderness Park archery range and playground areas
Depending on COVID numbers, reservations will begin on March 15, 2021.
Monday, March 29 – Tentative reopening based on COVID-19 case numbers
Other sports fields for league games and tournaments (soccer, football, and lacrosse fields – Youth and Adults)
Basketball rim installations begin
Soccer mini-pitch courts
HPARD adult sports
HPARD youth sports (Soccer for Success, H-Town Academy, and GHPAL)
Depending on COVID numbers, reservations will begin on March 22, 2021.
Most community centers, swimming pools, the Lake Houston Wilderness Park dining hall, group camping sites, and group lodges will remain closed until further notice.
The Metropolitan Multi-Service Center will also remain closed until further notice, except for outdoor activities.
