Community leader Charles Jenkins represents CCH on the Social Services Advisory Council at the Illinois Department of Human Services.
The advisory council sent the following letter to state legislators in April 2014:
On July 1, Illinois human service providers will find ourselves in the unenviable position of reducing services to Illinois’ neediest citizen unless the legislature acts to protect human services funding. Thousands of employees will lose their jobs while tens of thousands of vulnerable Illinois citizens will lose the services upon which they depend for their basic existence, if the General Assembly refuses to back Governor Pat Quinn’s recommended budget that includes an extension of the 2011 Illinois income tax increase.
Simply put, the loss of $1.6 billion in tax revenue will shrivel human services to unrecognizable shapes:
*At least 15,922 persons will be eliminated from drug prevention and treatment and 750 will lose heroin addiction treatment, exacerbating the Illinois heroin crisis.
*At least 500 individuals with developmental disabilities will lose access to care and the transfer of 100 persons from state institutions to community settings will be terminated.
* At least 600 individuals with developmental disabilities transferred this year would be cut from housing.
* At least 23,000 families – 41,269 children – would lose access to child care. At least 61,000 at-risk pregnant women would lose pre-natal services.
We, the non-profit profit providers of the Illinois Social Services Advisory Council, have unanimously voted to support the Governor’s budget that includes an extension of the current income tax.
We urge you to support the governor’s budget, to ensure continuation of services to the nearly 3 million people served annually by members of this Council through Illinois’ Human Services system.
Sincerely,
Maria Whelan, Chair and Sara M. Howe, Vice-Chair
Social Services Advisory Council
Illinois Department of Human Services
Signed by representatives of the following organizations:
Ada S. McKinley Community Services, ARC of Illinois, Association House of Chicago, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Community Assistance Program, Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois, DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform, EverThrive Illinois, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Healthcare Alternative Systems, Illinois Alcohol and Drug Dependence Association, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Illinois Collaboration on Youth, Illinois Hunger Coalition, Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living, Illinois Partners for Human Services, Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Latino Policy Forum, Ounce of Prevention, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and Statewide Independent Living Council of Illinois.