The failures and wrongdoings of 2016 have been widely reported, and it wouldn’t take much Googling to find out how upsetting current events over the past year have been to big swaths of people from every imaginable culture and subculture.
It may come as news, then, that a lot of good was done throughout the year and that sometimes public policy made a positive impact on communities.
The U.S. has tried battling issues of poverty and homelessness for generations, but significant strides were made this year. And those efforts paid dividends no further than in Pasadena, Calif.
We take a look at that and two other instances here in our look at three times policy actually worked this election year:
National rate of homelessness plummets
There are plenty of telling encounters between wealthy “tech bros” and the homeless of San Francisco, but elsewhere in the United States the problem is actually getting better.
Look no further than a few hours south on the Pacific Coast Highway in Pasadena, where the city has recorded a 60 percent drop in its homeless population and recently announced it had zero families without shelter.
“We’re happy to say that according to our last survey, we don’t have any homeless families out on the streets,” a city leader told Pasadena News Now. Last year, 33 states and the District of Columbia reported decreases in their homeless populations, just one year after that rate fell 2.7 percent nationally.
Obamacare is saving young lives
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As abortion opponents continue their “pro-life” efforts at defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing Obamacare, it’s worth taking a look at some of the human lives protected under the Affordable Care Act thus far and some of the amazing work done by doctors throughout the nation.
The Huffington Post recently reported on Zoe, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and required multiple open heart surgeries before age 5. With the passage of the ACA, limits on expense coverage were lifted, allowing her hospital work to be covered by insurance and resulting in a healthy 6-year-old in the arms of her mother.
In total, Health & Human Services predicts 87,000 lives were saved by provisions under the landmark health-care law.
Believe it or not, bipartisanship is still a thing
Some good legislation made its way to the president’s desk even in 2016, a year many people are calling the worst. Yet even as Donald Trump stunned the nation with a headline-dominant campaign, we had some good people in government creating policies that might actually do some good in the world.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of senators announced legislation that would allow DREAMers to keep on dreaming under protection of federal law, although Mr. Trump has called for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and promised a lofty deportation effort.
President Barack Obama embraces Vice President Joe Biden after signing the 21st Century Cures Act, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The so-called Bridge Act would help 740,000 young Mexican-Americans retain their deportation reprieves and continue working under the visa program. Another rare case of bipartisanship in Washington emerged when mental health provisions were passed as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, which calls for billions of federal dollars to be spent on research fighting such diseases as Alzheimer’s. It also contains a cancer “moonshot” provision aimed at defeating terminal illness, something important to the vice president.
Additionally, a bipartisan energy bill passed through Congress that covered the future of energy in America, with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle having something to champion for the people.
The joint effort between Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell gives the Land and Water Conservation Fund reauthorization, and promises communities future energy efficiency and funds for research and development.