SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Advocates, elected officials and residents gathered Monday at the Green Ridge Club in Scranton for the SOS! Affordability Crisis: Community Conversation, an event focused on rising household costs and the local effects of federal policy one year after the One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law.<\/p>\n
Organizers said the event was meant to give Northeastern Pennsylvania residents a place to discuss pressures involving health care, groceries, housing, energy and other everyday expenses while hearing from local elected officials about those concerns. The conversation also focused on how residents could stay informed and become involved in efforts addressing affordability.<\/p>\n
The event was organized through a partnership between Action Together NEPA, Affordable Pennsylvania, Families Over Billionaires, For Our Future Pennsylvania Action, Pennsylvanians Together in Action and Oxfam America Action Fund.<\/p>\n
State Reps. Kyle Donahue and Jim Haddock, Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan and Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo served as panelists to hear the voices of concerned residents.<\/p>\n
According to a Congressional District Fact Sheet distributed at the event, Pennsylvania\u2019s 8th Congressional District has a population of about 773,200 and a median household income of $69,700, while 13.8% of residents live below the poverty line and the child poverty rate is 20.1%.<\/p>\n
About 54,700 workers in the district make $15 an hour or less, while approximately 152,300 make $25 an hour or less. The average monthly rent is $1,200, with 52% of renters spending more than 30% of their income on housing.<\/p>\n
Medicaid enrollment in the district stands at 202,384 people, while 18,700 are projected to lose coverage because of Medicaid work requirements by 2034. Another 11,600 Pennie coverage terminations are projected, with an estimated 39,000 people becoming newly uninsured by 2034 as a result of changes affecting Medicaid and Pennie.<\/p>\n
SNAP participation in the district declined from about 119,600 recipients in August 2024 to 105,000 in May 2026, a decrease of about 14,600 people. The district is also projected to lose $3.2 billion in Medicaid funding by 2034, along with 3,900 jobs and $340 million in state and local tax revenue.<\/p>\n
Families Over Billionaires, one of the hosts of the town hall, is a national organization working in more than 30 states alongside local community groups, advocacy organizations and unions to connect federal policy developments with local organizing efforts.<\/p>\n
The organization is led by Executive Director Kristen Crowell, who said the gathering was designed to put residents\u2019 experiences at the center of the conversation while giving elected officials a chance to hear directly how economic pressures were affecting the community.<\/p>\n
“We expect to hear elected officials share their stories of what the last year has been like for them and their constituents. But really, this is about local residents right here in Scranton. We expect to hear stories of a lot of hardship as folks see their daily costs increase. So we expect tonight to be a pretty profound and haunting conversation,” said Crowell.<\/p>\n
Crowell added that health care, food assistance and other household expenses had remained persistent concerns over the past year. She pointed specifically to changes involving Medicaid, Medicare, ACA premiums and access to SNAP as pressures affecting families.<\/p>\n
Donahue, who represents Pennsylvania\u2019s 113th District, said the event gave lawmakers an opportunity to hear directly from residents about how costs involving housing, groceries, gas and other necessities were affecting them. He also said state leaders were preparing for additional effects from federal policy changes that could influence funding flowing through Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
“I’m just going to talk about what we’re trying to do in Harrisburg. After this event, I hope people become more informed about what’s going on and that we can build a grassroots organization that can really tackle this in the fall,” said Donahue.<\/p>\n
Donahue anticipated some of the larger effects of the federal law would begin Jan. 1, particularly as changes in federal funding flow through the state. He said those changes could create added pressure on Pennsylvania\u2019s budget and the programs it helps support.<\/p>\n
People looking for more information about affordability issues, research and ways to get involved can turn to Affordable Pennsylvania<\/a>, Action Together NEPA<\/a> or Families Over Billionaires<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Advocates, elected officials and residents gathered Monday at the Green Ridge Club in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}