Ginny Monk

Carmen Diaz remembers what it was like to be forced out of her home — to be a 13- or 14-year-old who had to pack up her room and stay at a family friend’s house, unsure of where her family would go next.

When Elizabeth Rodriguez tells her 8-year-old son that she doesn’t have any of his baby pictures, not even one or two, she starts to break down.

This project was produced as project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2022 National Fellowship and its Kristy Hammam Fund for Health Journalism.

The upcoming legislative session is likely to bring a new effort to pass meaningful zoning reforms, according to advocates for a fund that rewards towns that create affordable housing and eviction protections for tenants.

Educational and child care disruptions because of housing instability are growing increasingly common. The disruptions can have immediate and long-term impacts on kids’ mental health, academic success and social lives.

Since early pandemic-era protections against eviction expired, the number of filings in Connecticut has spiked as rents rise, inflation impacts budgets and families continue to struggle financially.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital saw an increase in the number and severity of child-abuse-related cases last year, a troubling pattern in a state that had high rates of child maltreatment before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

This is what happens when the hot line receives a report of alleged child maltreatment, according to interviews with Arkansas State Police and Arkansas Department of Human Services officials, state documents and state webpage.