RAC-CA New 2020 Policy Agenda to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 1, 2020
The health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus call us to respond together from our Jewish values and tradition to support Californians who are suffering – both inside and outside our Reform congregations and communities. Events are moving quickly. The agenda below may change as the political situation changes.
Housing/Homelessness:
Protect the homeless as well as renters and homeowners at risk of losing their homes, regardless of immigration status.
- Institute a complete moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, and rent increases.
- Provide rent and mortgage relief to those who need it.
- Provide emergency housing in motels, hotels, and other settings for all homeless people.
Criminal Justice Reform:
Protect incarcerated people who are at increased risk of infection and prevent prisons from becoming an ongoing source of the virus.
- Significantly reduce the population of prisons and jails and provide for the safe and healthy reentry of people released from incarceration, regardless of immigration status.
- Mitigate the spread of coronavirus in prisons and jails by maintaining social distancing and ensuring humane conditions of confinement – including good medical care and access to communication with counsel, family, and loved ones.
Immigrant Justice:
Provide health care to all immigrants and protect them from immigration enforcement actions that threaten their health.
- Provide free, quality health care for all, regardless of income, insurance, housing, or immigration status.
- Dramatically reduce immigrant detention and end immigration enforcement operations.
Health Care:
Provide health care to everyone who needs it
- Provide free, quality health care for all, regardless of income, insurance, housing, or immigration status.
- Provide funding sufficient to create and purchase additional hospital beds, ventilators, masks, and other necessary medical and protective equipment for patients and medical workers.
Economic Justice:
Provide assistance to employers and employees to stem unemployment and alleviate the effects of joblessness, regardless of immigration status.
- Increase the length, amount of payment, and eligibility period of unemployment benefits, while removing red tape and restrictions.
- Provide assistance to non-profit employers, including religious congregations, whose existence and ability to continue to employ workers are threatened by the economic crisis.
- Provide significant and immediate cash assistance to Californians in need, for as long as job losses continue to impact workers across the state.
For the most recent top priority within this Agenda, please go to the RAC-CA Group in The Tent at RAC.org/CAlegAgenda. For access or help with the Tent, contact Lee Winkelman at lwinkelman@rac.org or Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller at jsaxe-taller@rac.org.