Earlier this year San Francisco became the first city to provide diapers for families living in poverty. A bill before Congress would pilot a similar program nationally. Meanwhile, several state legislatures have looked at providing diapers for low-income families or exempting diapers from sales tax to at least reduce the cost.
Research shows that 30 percent of low-income families struggle to afford diapers. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who introduced national legislation, says that's not acceptable: "Diapers are a basic need for parents of young children. No parents should have to choose between buying diapers for their child or buying groceries. Diapers are expensive, but necessary, to keep children healthy and in daycare, giving their parents the freedom they need to work. This bill is a simple, straight-forward proposal to change the current law to allow diapers and diapering supplies to be provided to families in need."
"With millions of families struggling to provide diapers for their children, it's time we recognize that families are being forced to make tough decisions that affect their child's health. We all benefit when children are healthy, and families are not worried about how they will care for their infant or toddler," said U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who introduced the bill with DeLauro.
In an age of tight budgets, getting legislators to support new spending is tremendously difficult. Diapers are getting their day because it is becoming clear that they are a low-cost way to make substantial change in a family's life. In San Francisco, less than half the families eligible for The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) have signed up. That means families are lacking necessary support and that the local economy suffers as the buying power of a large section of the population decreases. Officials are using diapers as a means to draw families in and make sure that they get the assistance they need.
Win or lose, the number of "diaper bills" before state and national lawmakers is cause for celebration. This signals a recognition on the part of our leaders that meeting a family's basic needs is often the most direct path to help them out of poverty. We can pour money in workforce development programs - but if parents don't have diapers, they can't put their babies in daycare and therefore cannot work.
It also shows that lawmakers are willing to learn from success. Making sure a family's basic needs are met pays off. For example, every dollar the government spends on Food Stamps generates $1.73 in economic activity, according to a study by Moody's, producing a far greater stimulus than tax cuts or infrastructure projects. Furthermore, children who benefitted from food stamps show lower rates of diabetes and other chronic illnesses as adults. Particularly for girls, there is an association between receiving food stamps and becoming economically self-sufficient.
The research validates what seems intuitively obvious. Providing a basic need to a family just scraping by will generate more spending. The family that saved $30 on diapers will quickly redirect their cash to other urgent needs. They'll buy food or warm winter clothes. Maybe they'll finally fill that prescription that they were holding back on because they could not afford the co-pay.
And of course kids do better when basic needs are met. The Yale study showed that mothers found diaper need even more stressful than food insecurity and that it was associated with maternal depression, which we know can put a strain on families and lead to poor outcomes for children. When a family is pushed into crisis, they often come in contact with many public systems. This is invariably expensive, though not always effective. If we can keep a family on track by providing something as simple as diapers, we need to seize the opportunity.
We will never get people to self sufficiency until we look at the details of their lives and all the snares along the way that make it easier to sink down deeper than to climb out. Some of our leaders obviously get that meeting basic needs is an essential first step to eradicating poverty. This gives me cause to hope.