Even as they brace for state budget cuts that could hit this week, social service and community organizations met Monday to jump start grassroots support for longer-range revenue solutions.
Organizers conceded that their “progressive revenue platform” calling for higher income taxes on the wealthy and corporations has little chance for resolving the current budget crisis in Springfield.
But they said Wednesday’s looming state shutdown has created an opportunity to build support for a smarter, more equitable tax system in Illinois that could avoid such crises in the future.
“Reform is needed, but it’s not the reform the governor is talking about,” said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver Center on National Poverty Law.
On that much, at least, I found myself in agreement with this left-leaning bunch, which is backed by labor unions and was joined by a smattering of public officials.
At the heart of the matter is whether Illinois government generates enough tax revenue to support the services that the public expects it to provide.
Conservatives say it does, and that the problem is a matter of overspending, not a shortage of revenue.
If that’s the case, and I’m as inclined as most to believe there is fat in the government, then why has Rauner targeted so many of his cuts at individuals who are clearly in need of the services he proposes to withhold?
Those pushing Monday for a “People’s Budget Plan” are hoping the public will soon awake to the problems inherent with Rauner holding the needy hostage so that he can prevail on his anti-union, pro-business agenda.
“You’re playing a dangerous game here,” Bouman warned leaders in Springfield. “There are lives at stake here.”
A similar message was directed at Mayor Rahm Emanuel with financial problems at the city and Chicago Public Schools also coming home to roost.
“You’re not going to able to cut your way out of this challenge,” warned Brandon Johnson, an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union.
Rauner and Emanuel would probably say you can’t tax your way out of it either.
Ed Shurna, director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said the answer is for Illinois to “make the rich pay their fair share.”
That could either take the form of a millionaire’s tax, which I am on record as opposing, or a graduated income tax similar to the federal government, which makes a lot more sense.
Illinois has a flat tax on income, currently 3.75 percent on individuals, down from 5 percent last year.
Switching to a graduated income tax with higher rates for individuals with more income would require a state constitutional amendment, which is why that can’t be used as a solution to the state’s immediate problems.
How about another temporary income tax increase that would sunset in time for Rauner to still be able to control the tax overhaul on which he campaigned but has since forgotten?
Rauner has even voiced support for one of the items proposed Monday: a tax on “luxury” services, although the governor and the liberals would undoubtedly have different ideas of what should be taxed.
In his own brief trip to the podium Monday, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who lost to Emanuel in the mayor’s race, said the state Legislature should also empower local governments to enact their own local income tax.
That wasn’t part of the group’s official revenue platform. Instead, it opted for a commuter tax on suburbanites who work in the city.
I’m sure all this seems completely tone deaf to those who voted Rauner into office just last November and support his agenda.
Perhaps, but at some point soon if these budget cuts are allowed to go forward as planned, the worm is going to turn and somebody else is going to be on the offensive.
Name of school or program: West Aurora High School
Degree or certificate earned: High school graduate
Why you’re honoring this graduate:
“T’Prinn is one of five winners of a 2015 college scholarship from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH). During her senior year at Aurora West High School, she also joined CCH leaders on two trips to the state Capitol to advocate on budget issues affecting programs for youth and homeless families.
“‘It seems like legislators can be out of touch, but when you go down there, you talk to them face-to-face. A lot of times people think why vote, but when you go to Springfield, you realize wow, I can make a difference,’ T’Prinn said.
“T’Prinn became involved in advocacy through Hesed House in Aurora, a shelter and transitional housing program that has helped her family. Hesed House is among more than 30 groups from nine suburbs and downstate cities that are mobilized by CCH’s statewide organizing network.
“Statewide organizer Jim Picchetti told T’Prinn to consider applying for the $2,000 renewable scholarship. She was an obvious candidate – graduating in the top 12 percent of her class. T’Prinn has been active in school and the Aurora community.
“That includes serving six years on the Teen Advisory Board of the Aurora Public Library and four years on the Citizen Advisory Group that helped design Aurora’s new public library building.
“She also participated four years in Upward Bound at Northern Illinois University and several years each in her school’s Book Club, Multicultural Club and Best Buddies.
“T’Prinn is excited to be heading off to college, with plans to live on campus while pursuing pre-medicine studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
“As T’Prinn wrote in her winning scholarship application, ‘There are many people who are homeless that have great things to offer the world. They simply need the chance.’”
Honored by: Anne Bowhay of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which works to end homelessness. On June 25, CCH will honor all of the scholarship winners.
The weeks leading up to a concert being held tonight at Chicago’s Montrose Beach have not gone as smoothly as organizers might have hoped, and not just because it’s suddenly dawned on them they’re going to have to sit through a Mumford & Sons show. The performance by the British troubadours, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but postponed due to inclement weather, is expected to draw 35,000 people to the waterfront location, a venue that has been a sticking point in the past, most recently when the Wavefront Music Festival was canceled last year after complaints about traffic and noise pollution. In order to allay neighbors’ concerns, the promoters and the city have assured residents that they have nothing to worry about, planning for extra buses and trains to the show, and parking for 5,000 bicycles. “The audience is not the type of audience you have to worry about,” David Carlucci of JAM Productions told The Chicago Tribune.
The area’s homeless population, on the other hand, has been given no such a blessing. On Tuesday morning, as DNAinfo first reported, they were abruptly removed from a pair of viaducts that commonly serve as shelter from the type of heavy rains that hit the area earlier this week in order to clear paths that will serve as access points for the concert. The aptly named “street-cleanings,” as they’re called, are something the city’s homeless population is familiar with, but, as local advocates say, this time it was carried out capriciously, and without much in the way of warning, assistance, or instructions for where exactly they were meant to relocate to.
The homeless stuff their belongings into garbage bags which were loaded into cars. Photo via Mina Bloom/DNAinfo
“Up until a few days ago, 13 tents were there,” he notes. “They were there all winter long and they just got thrown out.” One of the chief indignities of such cleanings comes not in the relocating of the people themselves, but the manner in which their possessions are essentially confiscated, or thrown out, by city workers, meaning they can lose necessary coats, blankets, tents, or identification.
Kaeseberg spoke to a woman who was wandering around, confused as to what had happened. “She was looking for her partner, they had shoved him into a Catholic charities van, and they threw his tent and all his stuff into a garbage truck.”
He points to what he calls a campaign waged against the homeless by the area alderman James Cappleman as the motivation for the clean up, a politician who the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has said “systematically reduces low-income housing in favor of a gentrification strategy” and “regularly vilifies” the homeless.
“So you’ve got this Mumford & Sons concert, and they went in and they used that as an excuse to go and kick these people out,” Kaeseberg says. “It wasn’t necessary at all. They’re talking about massive crowds and the fact that they’d have to get these people out of the way, but there’s a sidewalk on either side of this two-lane street. They could’ve stayed there.”
The area is semi-dangerous, he says, with a shooting taking place just the other night, “but the folks under the bridges, they’re not in gangs, they’re just homeless people. And they survived the entire winter, 20 below zero, now they finally get a break, we have nice weather and they’re gone.”
Photo via Mina Bloom/DNAinfo
Patricia Nix-Hodes of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless was in attendance on Tuesday morning during the removal. Her group settled a case with the city of Chicago earlier this year that amended the manner in which the city is meant to carry out such street-cleanings, stipulating that it provide ample notice, and requires the Department of Family and Support Services to be the primary point of contact for the homeless population as opposed to law enforcement, as it had been in the past.
What took place this week was different than standard procedure. At the time of the removal, a full day before the concert was originally scheduled to take place, there was no other concert preparation going on, erecting barricades, raising structures, and so on.
“With every other cleaning, the individuals who are homeless were not forced to leave, but because of the concert, the city was requiring that homeless people vacate the area,” Nix-Hodes says. “That raised a lot of concerns, particularly, was it even necessary to disperse them for the concert? If there really was a need to do so, our position was, the city should’ve provided a plan, communicated the plan, and provided an alternative for people, like short term housing situations, and help moving them and their belongings.”
“It’s very common for people to want to have people experiencing homelessness removed from areas where there’s going to be some kind of public event or concert and they don’t necessarily think about connecting people with resources to end the situations they’re in,” Lydia Stazen-Michael of homelessness outreach group All Chicago says. “It’s really about removing something that they perceive as nuance.”
On any given night there are 6,500 people living on the streets of Chicago, not including those in shelters, Stazen-Michael estimates.
“What has been happening in that particular area is a lot of people experiencing homelessness have been going under that aqueduct and throwing up tents, and creating a more stable settlement for themselves there. We’ve been seeing more of that for the past couple months. The people in that neighborhood are uncomfortable with that and feel like their neighborhood or quality of life is threatened by the presence of people experiencing homelessness.”
Matt Smith, spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services provided a statement to Noisey that pointed to the city’s “compassionate and consistent approach to ensure public safety and balance residents’ concerns while respecting the legal rights of the homeless and following legal agreements that govern how the city can interact with this vulnerable population.”:
“DFSS serves the city’s homeless population on a daily basis, providing shelter and services as needed. In certain areas, including the Wilson Avenue viaduct, the city performs monthly cleanings of the public way in addition to conducting homeless outreach through DFSS and our social service allies weekly and often on a more frequent basis. These routine cleanings include an advance notification period so that our homeless residents have ample time to prepare and remove their possessions from the area being cleaned.
Additionally, the city engages in periodic cleaning efforts in advance of large-scale events in which tens of thousands of pedestrians and cyclists are expected to be traveling through the area. These efforts are done in order to ensure that the public way is kept safe and accessible. This week, it just so happened that the monthly cleanup of the Wilson viaduct coincided with a necessary cleaning and securing of the public way in advance of a large event, the Mumford & Sons concert.”
Nix-Hodes disagrees with that sentiment, saying uncertainty and confusion have been rampant. “I think people were very upset, and I would describe them as being in a panic,” she says. “Part of the reason was that there was no clear communication to the people of what the process or procedure would be.”
A sign that had been posted announced a street cleaning at 10 AM on Tuesday, but with no additional information provided as to when they could return, or alternative locations they could go, or places to store their belongings, or about where the could later retrieve the ones that were taken away. Despite the cleaning being scheduled for 10, she says, by 9 AM that morning, the Chicago Park District was already on site removing people’s property.
“I would describe it as a situation of chaos,” Nix-Hodes says. “There had been different people coming through telling people when they had to leave. Some were told they could stay on an adjacent lot. Some went to a nearby lawn, after they were cleared out, and the police told them they had to disperse.” She and her colleagues were not instructed to leave themselves.
“The most common solution is to just remove people from the neighborhood,” Stazen-Michael says. “But the people experiencing homelessness have to go somewhere. It doesn’t solve a problem, it just moves it.”
Advocates say a delayed outdoor rock concert in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood has created uncertainty about if and when a homeless encampment can return to the area.
For months now, a line of nearly 20 tents in orange and blue have lined both sides of Wilson Avenue under the Lake Shore Drive bridge. That’s where about 40 homeless people have been living and had formed a makeshift community. There was a similar encampment under the Lawrence Avenue viaduct. Each person or family had an unofficial space, surrounding their tents with belongings including wheeled carts, camping chairs and even a full-sized grill that some of the men took turns cooking on.
But all of that changed earlier this week in advance of a Mumford and Sons concert that is expected to draw thousands to nearby Montrose Beach. Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the concert was postponed until Friday.
On Tuesday, city workers ordered the homeless people to leave so they could clean the area. The workers also threw away many of the people’s belongings, including blankets and clothing, in what advocates call a violation of city policy.
“You know, it’s like we’re not people, like our stuff doesn’t matter,” said a homeless woman named Susan, who declined to give her last name. “We’ve got nowhere to go. We’re just trying to live.”
Susan said she was devastated about losing her blankets: “They’re even expensive at the secondhand store when they’re half-off. It gets cold out here — we were freezing in May.”
Clearing out a viaduct under a bridge isn’t unusual: The city routinely asks people who are homeless to leave for short periods of time so they can clean the area.
But advocates say it was different this time. They charge the city violated its own policy for handling the personal property of the homeless.
“There’s an agreement that before property’s thrown out, people should get notice if there’s a problem with the property and have time to do something with the property,”said Patricia Nix-Hodes, an attorney for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “That didn’t happen.”
Workers put up a sign saying the cleanup would start at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Instead, a team of ten city workers arrived in a van around 9. They said they were following city orders to clean the area and were instructed to throw out anything in their way. Some bags, carts, and boxes were still under the viaduct.
Rene Heybach, another attorney for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said she told the workers they were early for the cleanup and to stop what they were doing. They reportedly refused.
She said she told them they were in violation of the city agreement. But Heybach said that none of the workers she spoke to Tuesday had been properly trained in that protocol, and none of them, including the supervisor, had even heard of it.
The supervisor on the ground did order her staff to weed whack and cut the lawn first to give people more time to remove their things.
But Heybach said the city’s approach to clearing the area this week was disorganized and confusing. She said they created an emergency situation and added undue stress while not offering any help for the situation.
“Everyone is saying different things, they are not coordinating,” said Heybach, “Everyone’s been confused and remains confused.”
Susan, the homeless woman who lost her blankets in the cleaning, said workers put up signs with Tuesday’s date for the street cleaning. But she said they told her a day earlier that she had to leave, and that she’d only have to leave for a day.
“They changed their story, they are trying to get us messed up so we lose all our stuff,” Susan said. “It’s like we’re not people, like we don’t exist.”
Susan, who said she struggles with anxiety, PTSD, neuropathy and other medical conditions, was a single parent and ran a daycare before becoming homeless.
“It’s embarrassing that life can get this low,” she said. “We’re not bad people, we’re just homeless.”
Attorney Rene Heybach said the Department of Family and Support Services was supposed to help transport some of the homeless people and their items to a nearby safe location. The city agreement says the DFSS “will lead the City’s contact with homeless persons during the cleanings.” But she said DFSS didn’t arrive until after the other city crews were already there and clearing the area.
DFSS spokesman Matt Smith said the department’s team is trained in the procedure for handling homeless people’s belongings, which includes notification so there’s “ample time to prepare and remove their possessions from the area being cleaned.”
He said this cleaning was different than routine monthly ones because multiple other city services were involved. The size of the concert also made it necessary for people living under the bridge to leave the area for a longer time period.
Smith said the show is expected to draw thousands and will bring a lot of foot traffic there. He said having tents and people blocking the sidewalks would present a health and public safety issue.
“What I believe we are going to be doing is taking tents or possessions or anything that shouldn’t be here … and taking them to a shelter and inventorying them,” Smith said. “If they want to reclaim those items later, they can make arrangements with our staff to do so.”
But by the time DFSS arrived, workers from other departments had cleaned out all but a few items remaining beneath the viaduct.
DFSS encouraged people to sign up for a system that determines eligibility for supportive housing. The Salvation Army showed up to offer their services too. But Smith said even though people were offered shelter, the city can’t force them to take it.
Susan says she was abused in a local homeless shelter, and doesn’t want to go back.
People who’d been living under the bridge spent Tuesday spreading their remaining belongings on the grass and over benches at a nearby park to dry out from a rainstorm. Some did go to shelters, while others found temporary housing with family.
But several of them have spent the week sleeping in the open on blankets and mats. They said DFSS had found them temporary storage for their stuff at a nearby CVS.
Susan had planned to join them in the park, but said she was afraid to sleep out in the open like that. She found temporary shelter across town instead.
“I don’t want to just lay on the ground on top of blankets, I’m a woman, I need privacy,” Susan said. “Every other woman (who lives) down there has a man, or husband or someone to protect them. I don’t.”
But like many of the others, Susan plans to return to her spot under the bridge as soon as she can.
It’s unclear when, or if, that will happen. Thursday, a representative from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless said she had not heard back from the city on whether the homeless people could return after the concert.
Melissa Muto is a WBEZ Pritzker Journalism Fellow.
Advocates from Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Community Renewal Society and Heartland Alliance with Chicago Democratic Senator Patricia Van Pelt (middle), sponsor of HB 494.
Illinois lawmakers were not able to reach an agreement on the state’s budget in the spring session. However, both chambers managed to approve a number of bills that could make it easier for those with criminal records to secure jobs or at least get a foot in the door.
Almost half of the state’s offenders return to prison after completing their sentence according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. When people with criminal convictions try to reenter society, they face difficulty with basic things like finding work and housing because of their criminal history.
While most misdemeanor violent convictions are eligible for this remedy, this bill would allow judges to consider higher-level drug-related and more serious crimes that did not result in bodily injury or death. “You have to jump through all types of hoops to prove that you’ve changed,” Mayfield says. “It doesn’t guarantee anybody a job, but it does give them a chance to say they’ve turned their lives around and paid their debt to society.”
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless leader Charles Austin talks with Rockford Republican Rep. Joe Sosnowski.
Charles Austin, a community leader for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, has two Certificates of Rehabilitation. More than two decades ago, Austin served 60 days in Cook County jail and two years’ probation for possession and distribution of drugs—an offense that carries a lifetime ban on working in any school-related occupation.
Because of his record, Austin lost a job as a delivery truck driver for a Chicago Public Schools sub-contractor. “Nobody really knows the long-term impact that this [kind of] behavior has on our lives,” Austin says.
That’s why he advocated for HB 494, which would provide an opportunity for ex-offenders with criminal convictions for nonviolent crimes, including drug convictions more than seven years old, to be considered for jobs and volunteer positions in Illinois school districts. The bill passed with bipartisan support.
“Schools are a very focal part of most communities, especially in the inner city,” says Jonathan Holmes, a policy fellow at the Coalition for the Homeless. “We realize that absolute bars are not appropriate and prevent people from being assets and involved in their community.”
School officials would still be required to perform complete criminal background checks on all applicants as well as search sex, murder and arson offender registries.
However, some legislators say they are apprehensive because the bill would extend eligibility criteria to include those convicted of prostitution, public indecency and victims of human trafficking. These convictions are classified as misdemeanor sex offenses. But, Holmes says these cases should be viewed as “a particular circumstance of being homeless.”
“We don’t see those as sex offenses as opposed to someone who has done direct harm to a child,” Holmes says. “A lot of people who are prostitutes are victims of sex trafficking. Because they’re victims, [these crimes] shouldn’t prevent them from ever working.”
Rep. Litesa Wallace, a Rockford Democrat, voted against the bill. “I’m not against any types of reform that allow people to get back on their feet, so we can reduce recidivism,” Wallace says. “I think we have to be very careful as to how we do it and what populations we start to allow individuals to work with.”
Another bill, which also cleared both chambers with bipartisan backing, would give a head start to those who prepare for employment while they are still incarcerated.
HB 3149 would allow prisoners, who complete their education while incarcerated, the right to apply to have their records sealed immediately after completing their sentence. Currently, there is a waiting period between three to five years, depending on the severity of the offense.
Sealing legally restricts many employers from viewing an applicant’s criminal history and removes the person’s name from public records. Only law enforcement, courts and those required to conduct background checks such as school, park and health officials, would have access to the information.
The types of offenses eligible for sealing would remain the same, including most misdemeanor and felony charges that are not sex offenses, violent crimes, gun-related charges, reckless driving or DUIs.
Todd Belcore, lead attorney in the Community Justice Unit at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, estimates that over 200,000 people across the state could potentially take advantage of sealing based on arrest and incarceration rates related to eligible offenses. “These are people that generally our society has deemed should not be serving significant time in prison and certainly should not be denied access to jobs and housing as a result,” Belcore says.
Rep. John Cabello, who sponsored the bill, says those who’ve committed violent crimes should not be eligible. “If you murdered or hurt somebody in the commission of a crime, that raises it to another level,” says Cabello, a Loves Park Republican. “I want to make sure the victims’ families are always kept in mind when we try to pass these types of laws.”
SB 844 would shorten by one year the overall waiting period before a person would be able to request sealing. If Gov. Bruce Rauner signs the measure, the average wait for all eligible offenders would be three years.
Rep. David Harris, who voted in favor of this bill, says that generally employers should have access to every applicant’s criminal history. “I have voted for some sealing in the past, when it’s on a very limited basis,” says the Arlington Heights Republican. “But, I have a general reluctance to sealed records.”
But Harris says he did not support HB 3149 because: “The mere fact that an individual has obtained a high school diploma or a GED while incarcerated, does not give them the opportunity to have their records sealed [immediately upon release] on that basis alone.”
Belcore says without policies in place to counteract the stigma of having a criminal record, ex-offenders would not have much hope. “There is a population of people who are just opposed to the notion of limiting who can look at old records,” Belcore says. “They don’t know that 65 percent of employers (nationally) won’t hire a person with a conviction of any kind, no matter how long ago it is, no matter what it was.”
Although these bills could, in theory, help ward off bias in the employment process, more research is needed, Belcore says.
Chicago Democratic Rep. Mary Flowers introduced House Resolution 498, which calls on Rauner’s commission on criminal justice reform to study re-entry issues, including the effectiveness of sealing in breaking employment barriers. The commission was created through an executive order earlier this year and is tasked with reducing the state’s prison population by 25 percent by the next decade.
One of the co-sponsors of the resolution, Chicago Democratic Rep. Esther Golar, says the proposal would put “the real responsibility on government to allow them to begin to look at some of the issues that ex-offenders have to go through in order to reintegrate into their communities.”
Flowers says her goal is to find effective ways to empower those who have served their time, especially African American men and women. A group she says is subject to “post-incarceration, a life sentence of second-class citizenship.” The House unanimously approved the resolution.
After a lawsuit by homeless people who lost possessions to street cleaning, city now gives notice of sweeps
By Wilson Dizard
Tents on Lower Wacker Drive provide shelter for homeless people. The visible tags have the date and time of the next sanitation sweep. Photo by Saiyna Bashir
For those living on the street, keeping track of one’s most precious mementos and clothes for survival can be a daily challenge. For some of Chicago’s homeless, that task was supposed to have been made a little easier this year, with a new policy designed to provide greater warning when an area would be cleaned — a process that often results in the loss of keepsakes, advocates say.
But months into the new program, those who pushed for the changes say the results are limited.
In February, the city of Chicago settled a 2013 lawsuit brought against it by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which had challenged the city’s policy of removing and discarding the property of homeless people when conducting street sweeps.
The policy as laid out in the settlement states that the city must give people living on the street a chance to move their belongings.
Orange stickers must be affixed to the sides of tents and near makeshift cardboard shelters a week in advance and display the date and time of the next sweep.
The city also removed police from the street cleaning process. The homeless say officers would harass and arrest them without cause.
“It was illegal for them to do what they were doing,” Renard Parish, 47, one of the homeless people who joined the suit, told Al Jazeera. “They didn’t come down and give us any warning.”
Well-intentioned as the changes may be, they don’t give members of Chicago’s homeless community complete peace of mind over their belongings.
“It’s not a guarantee,” said Carol Boyd, president and founder of Humble Hearts, a charity that helps the homeless. Boyd goes out twice a week to distribute food to the homeless.
Since the policy was implemented in February, Boyd said she still hears of incidents of police harassment and the sanitation department’s removal of homeless property, especially what’s been unattended. She said it forces the homeless to move from place to place.
“They will take homeless people’s belongings even if the homeless people are there,” Boyd said. “I’ve had a few that have had their things taken away. Yes there’s a policy but some of the City of Chicago workers are plain assholes, and they throw it out anyway.”
Chicago’s Department of Family Support Services, referred to Al Jazeera by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s press office as the relevant agency, did not return request for comment.
The new policy only applies to two areas in the city — Wacker Drive and under the Wilson Ave. bridge — both places where homeless individuals congregate. For now, that’s as far as the program goes.
Boyd said an additional problem with the system is that people new to homelessness don’t necessarily understand the new rules and can find themselves caught off guard without a chance to defend their property. A sweep can take place in the time it takes to stand in line for free food or use a restroom, she explained.
The city needs to do a better job of educating the homeless and providing them enough time to ensure their belongings are secure, advocates say.
Patricia Nix-Hodes, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless’ law project director, who fought for the February policy change, hesitated before calling it a success.
“We certainly think the policy is a step in right direction, with more notice. It’s a shift, and we have more work to do to monitor to be able to comment more broadly,” said Nix-Hodes.
Problems with implementation aside, the homeless and their advocates say that respecting the property of people who have nowhere to live makes it easier for them to find work, as they are able to leave their property without fear of it winding up with the trash.
This is a particular problem for people forced to abandon possession while seeking day labor in the mornings or looking to get into a shelter to survive the cold of a winter night.During this last winter, at least 26 people died of hypothermia, many of them homeless. Removing the clothes and blankets of the homeless — sometimes the only protection they have against the cold — puts their lives in danger, advocates say.
Parish was living on Lower Wacker Drive during the bitter winter of 2013. Police arrested him for “trespassing,” even though he told Al Jazeera he was on public property. After placing him in handcuffs, the sanitation department threw his belongings into a garbage truck.
Parish said he lost his wallet, his social security card, obituaries of lost friends, his mother’s bible and his father’s razor, which he’d had kept on him for 40 years and through other episodes of sleeping on the street. He said he had been hoping to give the keepsake to his son, who lives in Chicago’s south suburbs with his mother. The city also trashed photographs of his children and step-siblings.
Those heirlooms kept Parish connected to family and friends he had lost. It was an emotional blow, he said: “There are things that can never be replaced.”
UPTOWN — In anticipation of 35,000 music fans flooding the lakefront in Uptown for Wednesday’s Mumford & Son’s concert at Montrose Beach, city workers cleared out the homeless living under nearby viaducts.
An official with the city’s Department of Family and Support Services said Tuesday’s action was part of a larger effort to secure the area for the concert. But some homeless advocates said the move lacked coordination and led to confusion.
The move at Lawrence Avenue and Marine Drive was chaotic, but there wasn’t noticeable tension between the homeless and city workers.
Some of the homeless people stuffed their belongings into garbage bags, exchanging hugs and shedding tears before getting into cars with Family and Support Services workers. Others talked to Salvation Army workers and Chicago police officers or dried their clothes in the grassy area near the viaduct.
Mina Bloom says some are questioning the city’s motives: (video link)
The area was hit by a huge storm Monday night, flooding the viaducts under Lake Shore Drive where the homeless had set up tents.
Billy Bowers, who lives in one of those tents, said the city gave him some extra time to let his belongings dry after the major storm that flooded several neighborhoods.
Bowers was one of many who was taken to homeless shelter Cornerstone Community Outreach, 4628 N. Clifton Ave.
“We have no choice but to move,” he said.
According to homeless advocate Patricia Nix-Hodes, who works as the director of the Law Project for organization the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the scene demonstrated a lack of coordination on the part of city agencies, which resulted in confusion.
“Some people thought they had to leave on Tuesday. Some people were told they could stay on adjacent lawns. There seems to be so much lack of information that was consistent and communicated to everyone,” she said.
It’s common for the city to clean the viaducts, which forces some of the homeless people living there to move their stuff temporarily to a nearby hill.
But Tuesday’s street-sweeping was different.
They weren’t allowed to relocate to a nearby hill or anywhere near the viaduct because the cleaning was part of a larger effort to secure the area ahead of the Mumford & Sons concert Wednesday evening.
“It’s not unlike what we’d normally do, but there’s another issue tied to it. There is a concert expected to attract 35,000 people and they’ll be using this viaduct [Lawrence Avenue and Marine Drive] and the one at the Wilson [Avenue] as access points. They’ve got to keep them clear, it’s a safety issue,” said Matt Smith, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, who was out at the viaduct with other city workers.
“We’re here to make sure people here know that there is going to be an event in the area. We’re here to offer shelter and services and, in some cases, transport people,” he said.
Smith said in addition to posting signs, DFSS officials came out to the viaducts prior to Tuesday to “make sure” the homeless people knew they’d have to leave the area.
But Nix-Hodes said taking the homeless to shelters isn’t enough.
“If homeless people are being displaced by a concert, they should be offered housing assistance and resources and have some place safe to go,” she said, adding that shelter is different than housing and many of them have tried shelters and have had “bad experiences.”
Nix-Hodes and her colleague, Diane O’Connell, who works as a staff attorney for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said if the clearing of homeless were a measure used to secure the area before the lakefront show, the city would likely be doing other things like putting up barricades.
“I’ve been Downtown and they start barricading the area for the Blues Fest, but that’s not happening. They’re just saying the homeless people have to leave,” said Nix-Hodes.
She added: “The concert’s tomorrow night. It’s not this morning. If that was the concern, why not do something closer in time to when people would be coming to the area?”
O’Connell said while she understands the city has the authority to secure an area in preparation for a big event, requiring that homeless people leave the area isn’t necessary.
“When you tell people who are homeless that they have to get off the grass in the park, but other people are free to sit on the grass in the park … there’s no real apparent reason why it’s necessary. That violates the Homeless Bill of Rights, which says homeless people have the right to freely move about public spaces,” she said.
O’Connell had been sitting on the grass near the viaduct since 8:40 a.m.
She and Nix-Hodes were still sitting in the grass on the nearby hill around 12:15 p.m. — at least an hour after all of the homeless people had vacated the area. That’s because Nix-Hodes and O’Connell wanted to make sure a shopping cart full of someone’s belongings would get picked up, stored in a safe place and eventually reunited with its owner.
They were told a truck with the city’s department of streets and sanitation would be coming to pick up the belongings on Tuesday morning but it hadn’t arrived as of 12:30 p.m.
A spokesperson for the department said the “brief delay in the process” was due to car problems.
“The process quickly resumed once the vehicle was operational,” the statement reads.
O’Connell said if she and Nix-Hodes weren’t there, the homeless people may never have been reunited with their belongings.
Nix-Hodes asked the city in advance if they could give the homeless people information about where their belongings are being stored, but the city didn’t seem prepared.
“As they were taking these people to the shelter, Patricia was like: ‘Are you going to do that? Can I get a copy in writing?’ Of course they didn’t have that ready.”
She said while they did end up writing down addresses last minute with a Sharpie, the destination of their belongings was not clearly communicated.
“It was not clear at all that they understood where the objects were going to be. It wasn’t clearly communicated,” Nix-Hodes said.
Ald. James Cappleman (46th) whose ward includes the two viaducts, has said that the city needs to do a better job of getting the homeless off the streets, which includes better coordination among city agencies. He could not be immediately reached for comment.
JAM Productions, which is putting on the show, is expecting 5,000 bikes at the concert Wednesday.
The production company, which could not be immediately reached for comment regarding the homeless people being required to leave the area, is encouraging people to take public transportation or ride their bikes because there is no parking near the Cricket Hill show.
UPTOWN — In response to Ald. James Cappleman’s (46th) recent remarks about how the city needs to do a better job of addressing homelessness, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless shot back by publishing a letter saying the alderman “systematically reduces low-income housing in favor of a gentrification strategy” and “regularly vilifies” the homeless, among other things.
In the June 7 letter, the organization said Cappleman “implied that CCH has not fought for housing to help eradicate homelessness on our streets” when he made a comment about the organization at the State of Uptown Luncheon a couple of weeks ago.
Cappleman said while it was “commendable” that the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless fought for homeless people’s rights to sleep outside, he’s “fighting for the right to sleep inside.”
The alderman was referring to the February settlement of a legal case that resulted in a new city policy, which protects the homeless living underneath Wacker Drive and Wilson Avenue viaducts during street-cleaning sweeps. The city must now give them 24-hour notice.
The letter goes on, saying: “If you’re puzzled, you should be: Yes, Cappleman is the alderman you’ve read about who systematically reduces low-income housing in his ward in favor of a gentrification strategy. He regularly vilifies those who live on the streets, as he did at last week’s luncheon, blaming homeless people for ‘preventing economic growth.'”
The organization also pointed to a 2013 dustup, when Cappleman made headlines for asking the Salvation Army truck to stop giving food to the needy.
Lastly, the letter alleges that the alderman’s office has “not once” reached out to the organization to “encourage assistance for the homeless, join our efforts for increased funding or to find solutions.”
But Tressa Feher, Cappleman’s chief of staff, denied that claim, saying she has “sat in meetings, in our office, with CCH staff on a number of occasions.”
“Alderman Cappleman has and will continue to fight for coordination of homeless services in the 46th ward, more affordable housing and harm-reduction shelters,” she added in an email.
Since 1980, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has been advocating for public policies that curb and ultimately end homelessness, according to its website.
The organization blamed a lack of funding for the city’s inability to create sufficient housing for the homeless.
“It is our expectation that the city must fulfill its obligation embodied in its Plan to End Homelessness 2.0 to create sufficient housing for those who are homeless and living on the streets. The plan is not adequately funded by the city, which has more than 20,000 people in its ‘Central Referral System’ awaiting affordable housing,” the letter reads.
“It’s simply wrong to blame those on the street for the systematic lack of adequate housing.”
Chicago needs “increased investment in proven evidence-based strategies,” according to Mark Isaug, CEO of nonprofit organization Thresholds, which provides healthcare and housing for people living with mental illnesses across the city and state.
And it needs to come from both the local and federal government, he said in a written statement.
“There are cities across the country that have ended chronic homelessness, and Chicago can be one of them,” the statement reads.
Isaug said that requires two things: more affordable housing and outreach services.
“[Homeless people] have lots of understandable fear, so engaging them in services requires a sensitive, compassionate approach. It may take longer, but the results are more sustainable and long-lasting. These proven solutions are better for everyone involved,” the statement reads.
One of the city departments that Cappleman accused of not coordinating its efforts is the Department of Family and Support Services.
In response to Cappleman’s remarks, a department spokesman said in a written statement that the agency “provides shelter and services to more than 3,000 persons per night in both our shelter and interim housing programs, taking a service-oriented approach to our homeless clients on the streets.
“Every day DFSS strives to balance the needs and rights of homeless Chicagoans with the legitimate concerns of other neighborhood residents about safety and cleanliness,” the statement reads.
The ongoing budget clash between Democrats and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has complicated financial planning for non-profit organizations across Illinois.
The state provides more than $5 billion in social service funding — mostly through the Department of Human Services — which represents a huge share of the budget at scores of agencies. But until Illinois has its fiscal plan in place, agency leaders say they have to look for financial alternatives to avoid service interruptions, missing payroll or even closing their doors.
“It makes it make it really difficult for service providers and organizations – and even businesses – to plan for staffing and operations,” says Jennifer Cushman, policy manager for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH). “There is a May 31 deadline for a reason and that is so that a responsible budget can be passed so that people can plan.”
Cushman says her organization does not get government money, but it represents other agencies that depend on it. CCH brought busloads of citizens who receive social service aid to the state Capitol throughout the session to lobby legislators.
”We will continue to put pressure on legislators to pass a responsible budget,” she says. “It’s a comprehensive budget that responds to the needs of the people.”
Democrats passed a budget before the General Assembly adjourned May 31, but Republicans didn’t support it and the first-term Republican governor has repeatedly called it “phony.” The Democrats’ proposal included millions of dollars in cuts to social service programs. But they were hardly the deep cuts that the governor proposed, including to autism, mental illness and epilepsy programs; child and senior care subsidies for low-income families; and aid to help the poor pay their utilities.
Leigh Grannan is director of the The Autism Program (TAP) at the Springfield-based Hope Institute. She says state funding is 90 percent of her agency’s revenue. TAP provides an array of direct, behavioral and other services to families, often on a sliding scale. The budget stall puts TAP’s planning in limbo.
“Although we have some — limited — funding through private insurance, a large of portion of our clients do depend on [state] funding,” Grannan says. “So it’s hard to project what we’ll be able to do for the central Illinois community.”
This is the second round of budget strain that non-profit leaders like Grannan have dealt with in recent months. On Good Friday, $26 million in funding for grants in the current budget year was canceled. The cutoff came despite fund sweeps that pulled money from other accounts to — at least as Democrats say they intended it — pay for several social service programs, including TAP.
At this point Grannan says she doesn’t know what funding will look like for autism services next year. Rauner proposes to eliminate it.
“It’s just makes it very difficult for us to plan for serving,” she says. But facing the reality of the state’s money problems, “we’d rather be partially funded than not funded at all.”
The state is expected to fall short by at least $6 billion of its $75 billion budget. To help make up the shortfall, the governor has proposed cuts, called for reducing government pensions and making changes to worker’s compensation and other areas of law. Most of which Democrats have rejected. They say their budget fulfills moral obligations to residents — even though it is $4 billion short.
“The number one problem facing Illinois today is the continuing budget deficit,” House Speaker Michael Madigan says. “My view is that you cannot simply cut your way out of a deficit. There has to be a balanced approach of cuts and new revenue.”
Republicans blast the Democratic budget proposal as continued “reckless” spending — without revenue ideas or consideration for Rauner’s agenda. They call it “more of the same” that has led Illinois into its current financial quagmire.
“This budget is about the Democrats demanding revenue, revenue, revenue. That’s called taxes. The fact is, the governor has made it clear that there has to be reform before there’s any discussion of revenue. I think it’s fair. That’s what the people of Illinois want,” says House Republican Leader Jim Durkin. “We’re not going to walk out of this building and say, ‘OK, we’ll pass a tax increase,’ just to placate the majority party.
And so the stalemate continues, though party leaders and the governor say negotiations continue behind the scenes. Organizations are left to wait to see what happens.
Rauner has proposed cutting $110 million from the Child Care Assistance Program, including not providing care subsidies for children older than age 6. Democrats say no to both.
But since Maria Whelan, head of the child care services agency Action for Children, doesn’t know where the actual funding will fall in in the budget year that begins July 1 — and when that money might come through — she’s making alternate plans. Action for Children’s state grant helps pay for its 400 staff members and other overhead. Whelan says without a budget in place, the agency may have to consider a line of credit to pay its expenses.
The General Assembly is scheduled to remain in session throughout the summer — until a budget is passed and approved by the governor. Madigan says he’s hopeful a fiscal plan will be in place by June 30.
Durkin, however, offers an alternate prediction: “We may be in for a long summer.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s immediate reductions to child care for working parents, home-based services for the elderly and disabled and home energy assistance show stunning disregard for working families and the less fortunate.
The governor’s recommended funding cuts in his proposed FY16 budget further demonstrate this lack of concern. Particularly callous is his proposal to terminate all services for wards of the state when they reach age 19, greatly increasing the risk that former wards will become homeless. Meanwhile, the governor’s budget also proposes cutting back services to homeless youth by more than 50 percent.
This double blow would eliminate the basic safety net for older youth who fled homes of abuse, dysfunction and rejection. Without essential services and protection, these young people face abuse and exploitation in their struggle to survive.
The governor’s disregard for those who are young and vulnerable is alarming. It breeds a lack of confidence in a political leader who has claimed compassion would be a priority of his administration.
Fiscal policy experts agree that we need to raise adequate revenue to support state priorities, make smart investments and avoid making further cuts to critical human services. The spending plan advanced by the General Assembly also includes funding reductions, yet rejects drastic cuts to vital services, pointing to new revenue as the solution.
A state that does not protect the less fortunate and give working families an opportunity to get ahead is a place without hope. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is in the business of hope — hope for a better future for youth, families and communities. We invite the governor to join us in this vision for Illinois.
— Ed Shurna, executive director, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
