News

By Reuben Unrau

While U.S. unemployment is at its lowest point in years, a new report shines a light on a racial gap that’s especially prominent in Illinois.

For the 15th month in a row, Illinois has the nation’s highest unemployment rate among African-Americans, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.

In an analysis of third quarter data, Illinois’ black unemployment rate stood at 14.2 percent, according to the EPI. Nationwide, unemployment for African-Americans was 8.4 percent.

The report, which analyzes unemployment rates by state and ethnicity, found a prevailing divide along racial lines despite overall employment improvements since the recession. In Illinois, the white-black unemployment gap is especially wide. While nationally, African-Americans are unemployed at 2.1 times the rate of their white counterparts, blacks in Illinois are unemployed at a rate nearly three times higher than whites.

“When unemployment decreases at a national level, we have to break it down by race,” said Janelle Jones, author of the report. “Saying simply that unemployment is down is really leaving behind entire communities who have barely recovered since the Great Recession.”

In an analysis of the EPI report, Michael Lucci, vice president of nonprofit think-tank the Illinois Policy Institute, argues that Cook County’s recent ordinance to increase the minimum wage to $13 per hour has hurt employment prospects for African-Americans.

“These laws effectively ban job opportunities that might otherwise employ young black men and women in the Chicago area,” Lucci writes. “The first solution is to stop digging a deeper hole with minimum wage hikes and roll back the misguided minimum wage hikes in Chicago and Cook County.”

Jones, however, says that African-American workers have been largely impacted by jobs in the manufacturing and construction sector which have failed to return to pre-recession levels. She also points to another EPI report that finds “no significant evidence that job losses in the post-2007 period were driven by federal minimum wage increases.” Institutions with better wages, and more worker protections and unions, Jones says, prove to be more stable for African-Americans.

“If the only way we can employ African-Americans is through low-wage jobs, that is a problem,” she said. “We can either design an economy that only employs minorities at low wages, or we can design an economy that raises the floor and let’s everyone have some bargaining power and a living wage.”

Unemployment is one of the key issues addressed in the Chicago Urban League’s “Blueprint for an Equitable Chicago,” a 10-year agenda to improve conditions for the city’s African-American population. The plan emphasizes education as the foundation for future economic success.

Shari Runner, CEO and president of the Chicago Urban League, is specifically critical of the state’s education funding mechanism that relies heavily on school districts’ property taxes. A 2015 Education Trust report reveals that Illinois has the nation’s largest funding gap between high-poverty and low-poverty districts, with the highest poverty districts in the state receiving nearly 20 percent less funding than districts with the lowest poverty levels.

“We know that there is a brain drain that eventually leads to a job drain,” said Runner. “These current outcomes are long-term and reflect the investments that the state of Illinois has decided to make, specifically in mind, against education and deeply rooted in race.”

Opinion

By Doug Schenkelberg

In Chicago this week, temperatures have dipped down to dangerously cold levels. When the weather reaches negative degrees and there is bone-chilling wind and snow, prolonged exposure can threaten health regardless of how many layers of clothing a person is able to put on. But it is particularly unsafe for the men, women and children experiencing homelessness on Chicago’s streets.

With over 35,000 individuals in Illinois using the state-funded shelter system in 2015, we know that this threat is widespread.

Every year, people ask us at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless how they can help homeless individuals they encounter.

I always say, if you are asked for help by someone on the street, you should not hesitate to give them money, food, blankets, etc., if you have the means and the desire. We do not think there is any downside to helping people in all of these ways.

But more importantly, make sure that whatever interaction you have is positive and respectful. If you can’t or don’t want to give anything, you can still make eye contact, smile and wish a person well. The key is to treat each person with the dignity and respect you would hope for if you were in that situation.

It is also important to speak up if you hear someone say something dismissive or derogatory about people who are homeless. Remind them that homelessness can hit anyone and those without homes are individuals with backgrounds and stories and dreams and ambitions. They need the same love and support we all do in order to make it through each day.

Beyond immediate support, there are other ways to give that can have a lasting impact. Find organizations that do direct outreach to those experiencing homelessness on Chicago’s streets and provide permanent housing options. You can find resources here that identify nonprofits active in this arena in Chicago.

Finally, keep in mind that homelessness does not just exist when it is cold. It is an issue 365 days a year. People do not live on the street because that is where they prefer to be. They live there because they do not have access to the permanent affordable housing they need. At a time when we should be investing more in both the housing and the supportive services—mental health services, job training, health care—people need to reach their potential, our state is failing to meet its current obligations.

Decision-makers need to know that this issue matters to you, that our state and our city should strive to be the best version of ourselves and adequately fund the programs those experiencing homelessness need to not only survive but thrive.

Specifically, with our state budget in disarray, the governor needs to hear from constituents that he needs to adequately fund homeless programs. We urge you to call him at 217-782-0244 and tell him to make addressing homelessness a priority.

Any and all these actions can make a difference. Let’s work together this holiday season and beyond to make homelessness a thing of the past.

Doug Schenkelberg is executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which advocates and organizes to prevent and end homelessness.

By Brandis Friedman

For some months now, controversy has been brewing over several homeless encampments under Lake Shore Drive viaducts. As the temperatures drop, advocates are even more concerned about the people living there.

Over the weekend, when we not only had temperatures below zero but also a few inches of snow, there were about 38 people living under the four viaducts on the north end of Lake Shore Drive.

That’s a relatively low number. A lot of people probably found places to stay indoors for the weekend. Homeless advocates say it’s normally closer to 75.

These tents are under Lake Shore Drive at Wilson, Lawrence and Foster avenues and Irving Park Road.

To keep warm, the folks there are layering up. Someone donated a tall industrial outdoor heater – like the ones you see at restaurants – and a few even have small propane heaters.

One resident who’s been living under the viaducts for nine months says a shelter isn’t an option for everyone, and the tents, while they provide little protection, are better than nothing.

“We’ve got to stay in ‘em because that’s the only shelter we have. We can’t sleep on the outside because wind chill factor drops to 30, the bone will freeze in 99 seconds,” said Louis Jones.

Shelters are typically at 95 percent full. Over the weekend when the weather has been atypically cold, that figure increased to about 99 percent.

When several dozen people are living in these spaces, without access to running water or restrooms, lots of trash and waste can accumulate. So the city plans cleanings every other week. This is a huge inconvenience for the folks living there because they have to pick up their tents and all of their belongings, including whatever donated food, shoes, water and blankets they have.

But when temperatures are this cold, advocates are more concerned than usual, because to do all of that in this cold can be dangerous.

The city does have to give the residents a week’s notice (see photo above), but advocates say the frequent cleanings have, in some cases, amounted to harassment.

“Treat people with dignity and respect,” said Doug Schenkelberg of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “It’s not to say that cleanings can never happen … but to really balance the needs of these individuals and the reality that they’re living in, with whether or not cleaning should be done.

“The items that they have here are portable … but they’re set up in this situation,” said Schenkelberg. “They have a tent up, they have their things in the tent. It’s not easy to break it all down; move it. And whenever they do that, it just makes things that much harder.”

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

The city says while they can’t stop the cleanings, they have agreed to not use power washers, so the area isn’t wet after the cleaning, when residents move back in with their tents and belongings.

In April, the city started a pilot program to house the chronically homeless living in this area. That program was able to get about 60 people off the street and into permanent housing. They’re still working on about 15 more folks from that original group of 75.

Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler says her department has taken some lessons from a similar program to house homeless veterans, and they may be ready for the next step in finding housing for the chronically homeless.

“I think that we feel, as a department, that we have done enough pilots, and with the mayor’s support now we’re ready to take some of those lessons and expand them system wide,” said Butler.

“So, for example: One of the things we’re currently working to do is to get a by-name list of all of our chronically homeless people in the city of Chicago, so that, like with veterans, we would know who they are by name and could really then dig deep into what combination of housing and supports do they need to be successful.”

And the Northside Housing Shelter, located in the Preston Bradley Center on Lawrence Avenue, is slated to close at the end of this week.

Advocates are concerned some of those folks will end up joining the tent encampments when that happens.

A word about donations: Some of the folks under the Lawrence Avenue viaduct tell us they’ve received so many donations over the weekend, they now have more than they can use – some food and water freezes.

The city suggests donating to shelters and nonprofits, and allowing them to distribute goods. At the same time, advocates don’t oppose giving donations directly to the homeless, but recognizes the folks in the encampments may have received a lot of support lately because of the news coverage.

Editor’s Note: CCH’s State Network co-founded the DuPage Homeless Alliance, which advocated for the voucher ordinance. 

By Genevieve Bookwalter

The Naperville City Council has approved requiring city landlords to accept federal housing vouchers as income when considering potential tenants.

The 5-4 vote Tuesday came after more than two hours of passionate arguments for and against the proposal from both from the audience and on the dais.

Councilman Kevin Gallaher gave emotional testimony of his experience with vouchers, not because of the council debate but because he was once close to applying for one. He voted in support of the proposal.

“Not that long ago I was flat on my back financially,” Gallaher said. “I was weeks away from having to participate in some government programs.

“I’ve probably done more research on this than any matter that’s come before council,” Gallaher said.

Others wondered if the issue was inviting government to overstep its reach, and proposed education — especially of the potential tax breaks — as a way to entice landlords to sign up voluntarily.

“Educate instead of expand the scope of government,” said Councilman Kevin Coyne, who voted against the measure.

Council members Gallaher, John Krummen, Rebecca Boyd-Obarski, Judy Brodhead and Becky Anderson voted in support of the measure. Coyne, Paul Hinterlong, Patty Gustin and Mayor Steve Chirico voted against.

Current city rules state that Naperville landlords cannot discriminate against potential renters based on income. The change approved Tuesday states that landlords must consider federal Housing Choice Vouchers as income and those vouchers cannot be the sole grounds to disqualify an applicant.

The change, however, would only require landlords to allow a voucher-holding resident to complete an application. If an applicant does not meet the landlord’s other standards — acceptable credit, for example — the landlord would not be required to accept that person.

Representatives from two of Naperville’s most prominent community groups, the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation, spoke against and for the proposal, respectively.

“We encourage more landlords to participate voluntarily,” said Colin Dalough, speaking for the Naperville chamber, whose board voted against supporting the proposal.

“A landlord should be able to weigh both the positives and the negatives” before deciding whether to accept federal housing vouchers, Dalough said. The chamber would encourage education of members to teach them more bout the pros and cons of renting to tenants who hold the vouchers.

Bob Fischer, president of the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation, said his board unanimously voted to support the income proposal.

“The anti-discrimination moral fiber of this city is at stake,” Fischer said.

Meanwhile, North Central College student Johan Hendrickson said he participates in the voucher program, and called at least 20 places before he found a landlord that would consider accepting his voucher. He and his family, which includes a teenage son, live in a one-bedroom apartment because that’s all that was available to him as a voucher holder.

“Housing discrimination exists, even here in Naperville. I felt it first hand,” Hendrickson said.

Other Naperville residents were forward in their opposition.

“When I see this Section 8 stuff, it raises the hair on the back of my neck,” Naperville resident Michael Costello said. “We don’t want that here.”

About 2,900 vouchers have been issued in DuPage County, with about 2,700 are currently in use. Of those, 500 — or 18 percent — are being used in Naperville, according to statistics from the DuPage Housing Authority.

Ordinance supporters have stressed that they don’t want the ordinance to create a burden for landlords, a concern for some potential opponents. If another likely tenant came along, cash in hand, before a voucher-required property review is done, the landlord could rent to that person. If the improvements required during the review are too expensive for a landlord to do, he could skip the repairs and rent to another tenant without a voucher.

By Josh McGhee

UPTOWN — A group of homeless people who have been camping out under Uptown’s viaducts for months have organized a neighborhood group that will fight for their rights against city restrictions.

Uptown’s “Tent City,” concentrated mostly under the neighborhood’s viaducts at Lawrence and Foster avenues, hosted a press conference Wednesday under the name Tent City Voices Heard, which was referenced in a related press release as “the homeless encampment residents’ group.”

Charles Holder, 47, a homeless Uptown resident for five years, said the association is advocating for the basic rights of its members.

“The bottom line is, we are human too,” Holder said. “We eat, we sleep, we breathe just like everyone else.”

Tent City Voices Heard members spoke out Wednesday against the seizure of their property by the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), which has been responsible for sweeping clean-ups of the viaducts in the past, confiscating tents, blankets and bedding and other belongings from the sidewalks.

“The tent [confiscations] have become a crisis for us,” said Maria Murray, a viaduct encampment resident who expressed worry about approaching winter weather.

Tents are vital for providing protection from the elements and storing the homeless’ few personal items, which for Murray include clothing and prescription medications, she said.

With no income, like many viaduct residents, Murray said she is “hard to house.”

“I’d love to get a job,” she said, “but it’s hard to get an interview with three garbage bags.”

The public address Wednesday was co-hosted by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and ONE Northside, a collective of advocacy groups. Both have worked with Uptown’s homeless in the past on a variety of initiatives.

Speakers representing Tent City Voices Heard decried “frequent and unnecessary ‘cleanings’ of the viaducts” in recent months for accomplishing little beyond “mak[ing] life more difficult for the homeless people” in a press release.

Tent City Voices Heard characterized their interactions with the alderman’s office and the city as unproductive, despite the recent launch of a pilot program that promised in June to find permanent housing for 75 homeless Uptown residents.

“No one has the nerve to really talk to us,” Holder said. “We go to the alderman’s office, he tells us to go away.”

Wednesday’s press conference preceded a scheduled meeting between the homeless neighborhood association and Lisa Morrison Butler, commissioner of DFSS.

During the meeting, Butler updated the group on the pilot program and addressed questions about the cleanings, which will happen weekly for six weeks, along with twice-a-week garbage pick-up.

When DFSS started the pilot program, Butler suspended the cleaning of the viaducts to engender trust between the residents of the encampments and the city, which was missing, and vital to housing efforts, she said. But the result was an increase in garbage and human waste, motivating DFSS to end the forgiveness program.

Along with reinstated garbage pick-ups, the city will also be cracking down on “over-sized items” like recliner chairs that crowd the viaducts where people walk.

For now, tents won’t be confiscated, Butler said.

“There’s a difference of opinion [regarding tents] among some important folks,” said Butler, adding the tents would be allowed at least until Oct. 14, the last scheduled cleaning day, which “gives us time to continue that conversation.”

The City and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless are at a “stalemate,” Butler said. While the City believes that “from a legal standpoint” the tents are not allowed, the coalition maintains that they are, she said.

Butler will revisit the tent issue at a meeting still being scheduled after Oct. 14, she said.

Uptown’s homeless population was recently logged by the city at 73 people, up from 41 last year, though those numbers are constantly in flux.

The pilot program launched in June promised to find permanent housing for 75 of Uptown’s homeless residents, but Tent City Voices Heard members say the city has failed to deliver on that promise.

Forty people have been have been housed in the pilot program, 32 in bridge housing and 8 in permanent housing. Fifty-one people assessed in April are now off the street, while 11 people have been deemed inactive, Butler said.

“We know who those eleven individuals are. We know them by name and we know why they are inactive,” said Butler, adding that some have been incarcerated and others have moved out of the state.

While the city failed to reach their goal of housing all individuals within 90 days, the federal guideline of how long the process should take, Butler said they were still ahead of Chicago’s normal time span, which is usually around 235 days.

The goal now is to house the remaining participants by the end of November, which would fall between 180 and 210 days since the start of the program, she said.

“That’s still way too long,” Butler said.

Donald King is one of the pilot program’s success stories. Now living in an SRO on the North Side, he said “I’m happy I got it.”

“Last year was my first winter on the street. I couldn’t do that no more,” King said. “I won’t be on the street this winter, and that’s great.”

While King hopes the program will help house the homeless citywide with more urgency than previous years, he asked the city to continue to work towards housing those under the viaducts.

The City plans to continue the program next year, but will likely focus on different encampments around the city, like the one at Kedzie Avenue and Belmont Avenue in Avondale, and Lower Wacker Drive, Butler said.

By Mark Brown, columnist

The city conducted what it calls a “cleaning” Friday morning at the homeless encampments beneath the Wilson and Lawrence viaducts at Lake Shore Drive.

This required the homeless people to move their tents and belongings for a few hours while city crews tossed any junk left behind before sweeping and power-washing the sidewalks.

All things considered, it went relatively smoothly, with only a few last-minute dust-ups.

It had been a few months since the last cleaning, and nobody could really argue there weren’t legitimate public health reasons for another.

Cleanings, though, are only partly a matter of cleanliness and sanitation.

They are also a form of harassment of the homeless, a way of letting them know they aren’t supposed to make themselves too comfortable.

“They want to show who’s boss,” said viaduct dweller Mark Saulys, 55, who grew up in Beverly, the son of Lithuanian refugees.

If public health was the overriding issue, the city would put a portable toilet in the area, as some homeless people suggested to me Friday. But it won’t do that because that would spoil the illusion the homeless situation is temporary.

Some Uptown residents believe the homeless have made themselves way too comfortable in the past year, by first acquiring tents and later discarded furniture.

These neighbors keep demanding the city “do something.” For now, a cleaning is about all the city can do while trying to solve the larger problem.

City officials know homeless people regard the cleanings as a hassle, which is why they had slowed the pace this summer while trying to win cooperation from the viaduct residents for the city’s pilot program that promises to get 75 of them housed.

Now, apparently in response to the push to do something more, city officials say they plan to conduct weekly cleanings beneath the viaducts.

“It seems pretty clear that for them to do it every week there’s another purpose involved,” said Saulys, comparing the situation to a landlord who wants to evict a tenant but legally can’t, so instead just makes his life miserable.

There is no legitimate way to argue that weekly cleanings are for the benefit of the homeless people, all of whom are forced to put their lives on hold for a day to protect their possessions. For some, this requires taking a day off work. Yes, some of them work.

I truly believe new city Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison-Butler has been trying to do right by homeless people. But the plan for weekly cleanings runs counter to that approach.

A week ago, city workers tagged all the viaduct tents for removal in advance of Friday’s cleaning, throwing a scare into the homeless community. Officials later clarified that no tents would be seized on this occasion.

Homeless advocates, though, say the city is reserving the right to dispose of the tents in the future.

Taking away the tents just before the cold weather also would be a major mistake.

The tents indeed can be a jarring sight, especially for people who don’t like to think about homeless people living amongst them. I’ve come to believe allowing the tents is only humane.

The process of housing the homeless continues to move slowly, too, although I can report that Donald King, one of the individuals on the waiting list who I told you about a few weeks ago, proudly told me Friday he was moving to his new apartment that morning.

Many of the homeless people I met Friday never made it on the waiting list for the pilot project, so they’ll still be out there on the streets even if the city finds housing for the original 75.

By afternoon, the sidewalks were slightly cleaner, one less person was homeless, and most of the tents were back in place.

By Emily Olsen

Jayme Robinson became homeless when she was a senior in high school.

“My mom threw me a bag with two shirts and two pair of pants. She was like, ‘You have to go,’” she said.

Robinson, now 21, said she was kicked out of her family’s home in Chicago because of her sexual orientation. After Robinson left, she moved in with her paternal grandmother whom she didn’t know very well.

Her grandmother was recovering from breast cancer and didn’t have the means to support her. So Robinson became “doubled up,” a term the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uses for individuals who rely on friends or extended family for housing.

But Robinson loved school and going to college was crucial. She knew it was a path to stable housing, a job on campus and a good education.

“I would be in the computer lab in the college room all day,” said Robinson. “During my lunch period, after school. It became really important to me that I went off to college.”

Robinson said she applied to around 30 to 40 schools to ensure she had options and a number of scholarships to help fund her education.

One of those scholarships was from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for policies to end homelessness. During the upcoming year, the scholarship program will provide a $2,500 renewable annual grant for 20 students who have succeeded in high school while coping with homelessness.

Since the scholarship program began in 2004, 13 students who won the award have graduated from college.

Robinson was one of them. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in sociology in May.

“I was able to gain a group of friends that I know I’ll have for the rest of my life,” she said. “I was able to create relationships and gain mentors. I was able to gain a sense of independence that I’ve held ever since then. And so that was college for me.”

College attendance and graduation can be a huge hurdle for kids who come from low-income families. According to a study from the University of Pennsylvania and the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in 2013, 77 percent of people from families in the highest income quartile earned at least bachelor’s degrees by the time they were 24. For those in the lowest income quartile, only 9 percent had completed at least an undergraduate degree.

The difficulty of attending college as a low-income student can even transcend how well those students do in school. A study from the National Center for Education Statistics found a student from the lowest quartile based on parents’ income and education with the very top scores in math exams in high school had the same likelihood of graduating from college as a student from the top quartile with only average scores.

Since its founding, the Coalition for the Homeless has focused on ensuring homeless students are able to access education between preschool and 12th grade.

The coalition expanded its focus to college at the behest of Patricia Rivera, at the time director of what is now the Students in Temporary Living Situations program within Chicago Public Schools.

Trying to start a scholarship program, Rivera faced bureaucratic obstacles within the Chicago Public Schools.

“We realized that once students were finished with high school and looking on to college, there were a lot of barriers and challenges, including financial,” said Patricia Nix-Hodes, director of the Law Project at the coalition.

She argues the problem is more than just money. Nix-Hodes said many of the students they work with are unaccompanied youth, meaning they may not have someone to help them through college applications, scholarships or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Though there are resources available through their high schools, Nix-Hodes said school counselors, including liaisons for homeless youth, can be stretched pretty thin.

“I think all kids need a lot of support in the application process, in the financial aid process, in deciding what is the appropriate school for me,” she said.

Anne Bowhay, director of foundation relations and media at the coalition, helps select students for the scholarship.

“They don’t always realize that what they’ve done is pretty special,” said Bowhay. “They’ve shown a lot of tenacity.”

Though the scholarship doesn’t cover the entire cost of college, Nix-Hodes said it does fill a funding gap. They may be able to live closer to school or cut down on the amount of debt they accrue.

The coalition also tries to be flexible when distributing scholarships, knowing students may have different needs.

Bowhay recalled one student who needed to use her award to cover rent, since her college didn’t provide on-campus housing for her and her child. Over the past few years, second-year students who have maintained a good grade point average have been eligible for a scholarship for a new laptop.

“We want them to finish,” said Bowhay.

Jennifer, 22, who prefers not to use her last name, has been taking post-graduate classes using some funding from the coalition.

She was the first in her family to graduate from both high school and college.

“I was technically born into homelessness,” said Jennifer.

She spent much of her childhood living in shelters, but there was a period when her family had a stable living situation. She applied for the coalition’s scholarship as the building her family lived in was going into foreclosure.

“There was points when we didn’t really have gas, and electricity would go off and on,” said Jennifer.

Jennifer said she was very involved in high school, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to get to drill team and color guard practice. She graduated fourth in her class.

She said she loved college, and her scholarship allowed her time to focus on her studies. Now she plans to go back to school to become a physician’s assistant.

“In high school, I learned who I’m not. But in college I realized who I am and who I will become,” said Jennifer.

Since graduating from UIC, Robinson has been working with the coalition as an AmeriCorps VISTA, managing the Speakers Bureau, a group of formerly homeless leaders advocating for affordable housing, access to schools and programs to help the homeless. She’s also been active in organizing for homeless youth rights within CPS. She’s also considering going back to school to become a therapist, since she knows how traumatizing becoming homeless was for her.

“Being directly impacted has made me more motivated to make change,” said Robinson.

(Photo for CCH by Simon Molnar)

By Tanveer Ali

Chicago’s homeless population has dropped by 13 percent since last year, according to a count conducted by the city.

According to the 2016 Homeless Point-in-Time count, 5,889 people were experiencing homelessness in January compared with 6,786 the year before.

The count found a 22 percent drop in veteran homelessness since last year. Chronic homelessness is down 68 percent and the number of minors living homeless without an adult is down 14 percent.

Read the report here.