The homeless encampment under the viaduct on Wilson Avenue. (DNAinfo/Josh McGhee)
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.
Earlier this year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a task force to reduce homelessness.
“While we are encouraged that we have fewer residents impacted by homelessness this year, our work to address homelessness is not done until every Chicagoan has a place to call home,” Emanuel said in a statement Monday.
The decrease recorded in the count, conducted Jan. 26 when survey teams fanned across the city, may be attributed to multiple factors, said Julie Dworkin, director of policy for Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
In addition to implementing a more exact way of counting people on Blue and Red lines trains, an initiative to get veterans housed may have also helped.
The Ending Veterans Homelessness Initiative is an “all-hands-on-deck effort to identify every veteran in Chicago.”
“It’s about coming up with one consolidated list then going through that list systematically working to ge everybody housed,” Dworkin said.
While the count may have shown a drop with some homeless populations, Dworkin said the count is also flawed because its “narrow” definition of homelessness doesn’t include families who are “doubled-up” living with friends or families, instead of on the streets or in shelters.
The count also explored how the homeless population was concentrated in parts of the city.
Downtown community areas including Loop and Near North Side are near the top of the list of neighborhoods with the largest homeless populations. Uptown’s share of the homeless population has more than doubled and accounts for 9.4 percent of all homeless people in Chicago, according to the count.
A homeless man bundles up in blankets on a January morning in downtown Chicago. Officials say seasonal changes may account for discrepencies between perceptions of how many homeless people live in Chicago, and the decline documented by this year’s point-in-time count. (Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)
Chicago officials are touting numbers that indicate that homelessness in the city has hit its lowest point in more than a decade.
During the annual point-in-time count, conducted on the night of January 16th, 2016, hundreds of city workers and volunteers counted 5,889 homeless. That’s almost 900 fewer than last year.
A press release from the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel noted declines in homelessness among veterans and unaccompanied youth in particular, saying they showed “progress toward the city’s goal of addressing any and all instances of homelessness.”
“I was actually very surprised, given the folks that I work with day in and day out,” said Julie Youngquist, executive director of Streetwise, a workforce development agency and weekly magazine publication that aims to help people overcome homelessness. Youngquist said that working from her office in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, she doesn’t see homelessness on the decline.
“Just this summer a new encampment has literally popped up in a little grassy area across the street,” she said.
The city’s annual report rarely accounts for factors that may affect the numbers, but this year it acknowledged that “the visibility of homelessness in Chicago is on the rise.” It noted, “Results show that locations where unsheltered homeless persons are found have shifted over time.”
Seasonal changes may account for the discrepancy between perceptions and the count as well, said Youngquist. “In the colder months people can find options, or more compassionate friends and family to stay with,” she said, highlighting that the count was taken on a winter night. “And then in the summer months they’re just out.”
“I do think that that sort of congregate living situation is what’s making it seem more visible,” said Julie Dworkin, director of policy at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, referring to so-called “tent cities” that have emerged in several areas of the city. “They’re forming these communities that are longer-lasting and are growing, because people feel safe in numbers. I think also the fact that a lot of people started using tents in Uptown makes the problem more visible because it’s just a lot easier to see a big, bright tent.”
The count found the largest drop among the unsheltered homeless, meaning individuals in streets, vacant buildings, CTA cars, or other places not intended for sleeping. That count, of 1,243, was 40 percent below what it was last year. In part, this may have been because the number of homeless who sleep on the CTA was projected well above the actual number; this year, those people were counted more systematically. Another significant change was seen in the number of homeless veterans.
The number of unsheltered veterans fell by half, and the overall number of homeless veterans was 151 fewer than in 2015. The effort to house homeless veterans has been a priority of the Emanuel administration since 2014, when the mayor announced that Chicago would work with local and federal agencies to eliminate homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015. According to the latest count, the initiative succeeded in placing 2,339 veterans into permanent housing since 2015.
“I think this is an important takeaway because it shows that when you have real money on the table and real political will behind something, you really can have a significant impact,” said Dworkin, “and I think that’s what happened here.”
A similar effort to apply that model toward housing 75 chronically homeless people from Uptown has proceeded slower than planned.
“We’re feeling very pleased about the results,” said Nonie Brennan, CEO of All Chicago, referring overall to the results of the count. “We know we still have a lot of work to do, but we are focused on making sure that everybody in Chicago has a place to live.”
The count also showed a steep drop in the number of homeless who access certain public benefits, such as food stamps and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Brennan said individuals typically need help applying for those benefits, but many social service agencies have cut back due to the state’s ongoing fiscal crisis. “One of the things we do know is that an enormous number of case managers have been laid off in the past year,” said Brennan, “and it’s usually case managers who are working to get people connected to the appropriate benefits and services.”
A new feature of the count broke down homelessness by community area and ward. It found that the communities of Uptown and the Loop both contain the largest numbers of homeless, each having nearly 10 percent each of the whole count of homeless Chicagoans.
By ward, the 42nd, which includes downtown, the South Loop and River North neighborhoods, showed by far the highest homeless population, at 120 individuals. Behind that was the 32nd ward, with 69 homeless.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting to see what the response is to these ward-by-ward breakdowns,” said Dworkin, “and how aldermen are going to perceive this and think about allocation of resources based on what they’re seeing in their wards.”
Unity Parenting and Counseling supervisor Anne Holcomb buys single-ride Ventra tickets from a vending machine at a CTA Green Line station Aug. 22, 2016, as James Ivory, left, a client with the social service agency, looks on. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
After a night at an Englewood shelter for homeless youth, James Ivory used to be handed two CTA single-ride passes — one to go to school or look for work, the other to return to the shelter in the evening.
But after the CTA started the Ventra system, a 50-cent surcharge was tacked on to single-ride passes, and cash-strapped Unity Parenting and Counseling, which runs the Ujima Village Shelter, could give clients only one pass each.
Now the homeless get back anyway they can — walking miles across gang boundaries, jumping turnstiles or begging strangers to use their Ventra cards for a free ride, said A.Anne Holcomb, supportive services supervisor for Unity.
“We’d wait for someone to come off the train and ask, ‘Can you put me on?'” said Ivory, 26, who has since left the shelter and has a job. He said asking strangers for free rides hurt his pride, and he saw a friend arrested for it.
After a bumpy transition that eliminated the old magnetic-stripe card system in July 2014, the CTA touts Ventra, run by Cubic Transportation Systems, as a success, with 4 million accounts. CTA says Ventra cuts waste, saves time at turnstiles through tap-on technology, and allows customers to add value to their cards online, at vending machines, at retail locations or by phone.
But for social service agencies that give away CTA passes to the poor to use for traveling to job interviews or doctor visits, Ventra is cumbersome and costly, and has cut into the number of rides they can offer. The CTA said it has been working to address these concerns, but social service providers say they keep running into delays and misunderstanding.
“Adding the extra 50 cents on seems like they’re trying to stop people from helping people,” Ivory said.
Demand for change
Last week, the Chicago Jobs Council, an employment advocacy group, sent a letter to CTA President Dorval Carter and the CTA board. The letter, signed by more than 40 social service providers and policy advocates, including StreetWise, The Night Ministry and the Active Transportation Alliance, wants three improvements to the Ventra system.
The letter asks the CTA to waive the 50-cent surcharge for paper passes for social service providers; facilitate online bulk purchases of Ventra tickets to replace the current, antiquated paper order system; and implement high-capacity vending machines for Ventra purchases. All of these changes would save money and administrative work for agencies already hit hard by state and federal budget cuts, providers say.
Social service agencies are a big transit client — the Jobs Council estimates that services that help the homeless and unemployed in Cook County spend $1.5 million a month on Ventra.
Most agencies that help the poor prefer to use single-ride or, to a lesser extent, multiday paper passes for transient populations rather than Ventra “hard cards,” because they are easier to distribute and keep track of.
But the surcharges on the passes cost agencies at least $280,000 a year — which is a lot for services already operating on thin margins, according to the Jobs Council, which published a report about Ventra in May.
“I’ve got a guy sitting at my front desk right now who needs a bus pass for a new job, and we can’t afford to buy it,” said Charles Hardwick, manager of the Howard Area Community Center, which provides employment resources.
Waiving the surcharge for passes is not an option — it covers the production and administrative costs of the limited-use tickets, said CTA spokesman Brian Steele. Former CTA President Forrest Claypool, now head of Chicago Public Schools, had predicted the cards would be used mostly be tourists.
The CTA recommends that agencies use rechargeable Ventra cards instead of paper passes to get the most transit value for the money, Steele said. But social service providers say buying the plastic cards at $5 each can be risky.
To convert the $5 cost of the card to transit value, the cards must be registered with Ventra. Many social service clients cannot register the cards for themselves, because they lack addresses, phone numbers and email. If the cards are registered to the agencies, clients can run up negative balances — one agency got stuck with $500 in debt on just 25 cards, said Eric Halvorson, policy and communications director for the Jobs Council.
Social service recipients also lose the cards or walk off with them, providers say.
“With the population I’m serving, there is a challenge to do their due diligence with everything in life,” Hardwick said. “That’s why we call them clients.”
Bulk purchase woes
Agencies also complain of the CTA’s system for buying fare cards in bulk, which requires a check or money order and a handwritten order form. The CTA said most orders take 10 to 14 days, but some providers reported waiting two months, the Jobs Council said. Because of the wait for orders, providers often choose to buy the passes at “L” station vending machines.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Unity Parenting’s Holcomb. She can spend as much as three to six tedious hours a week standing at vending machines, buying hundreds of cards in sets of eight.
Because the machines limit purchases to 64 cards on one credit card, she has to use different cards, including her own. “Good thing I have good credit,” she said, laughing.
The CTA has offered some solutions, such as allowing service agencies to act as retailers and keep a bunch of blank Ventra cards to register and hand out to clients as needed and replenish funds when requested. About two dozen agencies do this, according to CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase. Bulk ticket orders make up about 1.5 percent of the CTA’s Ventra sales, Chase said.
The agency also plans to streamline the bulk ordering process by the end of the year and enable providers to use credit cards to make orders, which they can then track online, Chase said.
She said about two dozen social service agencies act as a Ventra retailer, providing cards to their clients and replenishing funds on those cards for them when requested. Halvorson said keeping a stock of Ventra cards works for some agencies that have small groups of regular clients, but it does not work for others with more transient populations.
As for CTA’s offer to streamline the ordering process, Halvorson said providers have been hearing this promise since they first started talking with the CTA about Ventra in October 2013. First that was supposed to happen in early 2014, then late 2014 and now 2016.
“They’ve continued to push the timeline back,” Halvorson said. “I hope it’s true this time.”
Halvorson noted that Metro Transit of Minneapolis-St. Paul provides discounts on passes for service providers for the homeless, and wonders why the CTA and Cubic cannot provide a break on the surcharge, or on bulk orders.
“In pretty much any other purchasing situation, buying in bulk gets you a discount,” Halvorson said.
Chase said the agency already provides $100 million annually in free and reduced rides to the elderly, students, military members and the disabled. Because of Illinois budget problems — the same problems hurting the service agencies — the CTA gets back only about $28 million of that from the state.
Social service agencies should investigate whether some of their clients may be eligible for free or reduced fares, Chase said.
Hardwick said everyone he has talked to at the CTA about his agency’s Ventra troubles has been “very nice,” but he does not think anything will change.
“The attitude is ‘This is how it is,'” he said.
Back-to-school on transit
Speaking of reduced fares, classes have just started for many suburban, parochial and charter school students, and will begin for CPS on Sept. 6, so now is a good time to get transit cards for kids.
On the CTA, students age 20 or younger qualify for a 75-cent student-reduced fare with a valid student Ventra card. CPS issues the cards directly, as do some private, charter and parochial schools. If your school does not, you can find out about getting the cards at www.transitchicago.com/students/. The cards can be used on school days between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
College students have a separate CTA program, known as the U-Pass.
Metra also offers full-time elementary school and high school students reduced one-way, 10-ride and monthly passes. When buying a ticket, students must present a valid letter of certification from their school or a valid student identification card. Discounted tickets are honored from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Pace offers a reduced-fare 30-day pass for students for $30, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. Pace also offers a Campus Connection pass that gives unlimited rides to college students throughout the semester.
Donald King is one of the 75 homeless people living under North Lake Shore Drive picked for a pilot city project to find them housing. “They’re going slow, but it’s a process,” King said. “You’ve got to be patient.” | Mark Brown / Sun-Times
By Mark Brown, columnist
The Emanuel administration is expected to report soon that its annual head count shows the city’s homeless population is Chicago’s lowest in 10 years.
The 5,889 homeless persons found living in shelters, on the street or riding mass transit on the night of Jan. 26 is 13 percent fewer than counted in 2015.
But the tally will provide little solace to the Uptown residents who packed a hospital auditorium earlier this month to hear city officials report on their efforts to reduce the burgeoning tent encampments beneath North Lake Shore Drive viaducts.
Whether one’s sympathies lie with the complaining homeowners or with the homeless people, the news was not particularly encouraging.
Fewer than half of the 75 homeless individuals selected in April for a city pilot project that aimed to find them housing within 90 days are actually off the streets.
Of those, only 25 to date have found housing through the city’s efforts.
Another 11 are categorized as “inactive” because they left town, landed in jail, found a place on their own or just disappeared. Keeping track of homeless people can be like holding water in your hands.
Lisa Morrison Butler, the city’s family and support services commissioner, said November is the new target for getting housing for the other 39 people.
Even if that goal is met, there’s no reason to believe the Wilson, Lawrence and Foster viaducts will look much different to the public than they do now. More homeless people keep arriving to take the place of the original 75.
Many of those individuals came to the area as soon as they heard about the program, hoping to be the next to get housing. I predicted as much. Butler, though, said it caught her by surprise.
Although the rollout of the program has definitely been much slower than expected, I don’t see the delay as a sign of bad faith by anyone with the city. It’s more an indication of how daunting the problem is that the city decided to tackle without really having the resources to do it.
A shortage of suitable North Side housing for the tent-dwellers recently prompted the mayor to write a letter to landlords to seek their cooperation.
Butler never claimed the project was intended to solve homelessness, only to house the 75 and, in the process, to learn what it would take to help more.
I continue to find that refreshingly realistic. But it caused considerable grumbling at that community meeting, which was thick with the tension that comes when neighbors have passionate disagreements.
Uptown continues to be split between the “taxpaying homeowner” contingent, who want the “people under the bridge” to be removed one way or another, and the liberal types like me, who wish they had somewhere better to stay but aren’t bothered living around them.
Roger Gardner and Denise Goad are among the homeless people living under the Wilson Avenue viaduct at Lake Shore Drive who hope the city can help them find housing before winter. | Mark Brown / Sun-Times
On Friday, I visited with Donald King, 59, as he sat beside his tent on Lawrence. King — who was among the 75 chosen for help — said he’s been homeless since April 2015 after losing a warehouse job.
“They’re going slow, but it’s a process,” he said. “You’ve got to be patient.”
Still, King was frustrated he never got a chance at the community meeting to respond to audience members complaining about not being able to reach the lake for fear of the homeless people on the sidewalk.
“I would have told them: What you afraid of? We’re people just like you,” King said.
Over at Wilson Avenue, Roger Gardner and Denise Goad were more concerned they’ll still be in their tents when the weather turns cold.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I don’t do drugs,” said Goad, 63, who grew up in Summit. “I just want somewhere to lay my head.”
Butler said her agency is encouraged by the reduced homeless count but won’t be celebrating “because there’s still so much to do.”
Using data from Chicago, a new University of Notre Dame study affirms the impact of homeless prevention grants to families who call for help – those who received a grant were 76% less likely to move into a shelter within six months than those turned away.
“There is evidence that it’s a sustained impact up to two years later,” says the the study’s author, economist James Sullivan.
CCH’s statewide housing campaign successfully advocated to start the state-funded prevention program in 1999. It has helped 109,652 Illinois households through mid-2015. The program did not receive any state funding during last year’s budget impasse.
By David Schultz
If someone is about to become homeless, giving them a single cash infusion, averaging about $1,000, may be enough to keep them off the streets for at least 2 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that programs that proactively assist those in need don’t just help the victims—they may benefit society as a whole.
“I think this is a really important study, and it’s really well done,” says Beth Shinn, a community psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who specializes in homelessness but was not involved in the work.
Homelessness isn’t just bad for its sufferers—it shortens life span and hurts kids in school—it’s a burden on everyone else. Previous studies have concluded that a single period of homelessness can cost taxpayers $20,000 or more, in the form of welfare, policing, health care, maintaining homeless shelters, and other expenses. To combat homelessness, philanthropic organizations have either tried to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place or help them regain housing after they are already destitute. But there aren’t many data on whether giving cash to people on the brink of becoming homeless actually prevents them from living on the street.
So economist James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, took advantage of a natural experiment. Funding for homelessness prevention programs is highly unpredictable, and thus many programs are often temporarily unable to give money to people about to lose their homes, even if they qualify for the assistance. That allowed him and his colleagues to compare the eventual fate of individuals and families who called into a homelessness prevention call center in Chicago, Illinois, when funds were available versus those who called when funds were not.
The programs work by giving one-time cash quantities to people on the brink of homelessness who can demonstrate that they will be able to pay rent by themselves in the future, but who have been afflicted by some nonrecurring crisis, such as a medical bill. Recipients need to be able to demonstrate consistent future income, and the amount given needs to actually cover their housing expenses for the month. The average amount paid out, according to Sullivan, is about $1000.
The team tracked the two groups for several months. Those who called when funding was available—and received the cash infusion—were 88% less likely to become homeless after 3 months and 76% less likely after 6 months, the researchers report today in Science. “We found no evidence that this effect fades away,” Sullivan says. “There is evidence that it’s a sustained impact up to 2 years later.”
Although it might seem obvious that giving people money would keep them off the street, many antiwelfare critics have argued that such charity only prolongs the decline into homelessness. But that appears not to be the case, Sullivan says.
The researchers also found that targeting only the people who will actually go on to become homeless both increases the program’s impact and reduces its cost. Many people in the study who qualified for the financial assistance but did not receive it because of lack of funds did notgo on to actually become homeless—they found some other solution to pay their bills or were able to move in with friends and family. Determining who will or won’t actually become homeless is a tricky business, but the data suggest that the poorest people—those furthest below the poverty line—are more at risk and thus receive the greatest benefit from the cash.
If programs can find a better way to target the most vulnerable people, Sullivan’s research suggests they could save everyone money in the long run. The study found that, on average, it costs $10,300 overall to prevent a spell of homelessness when the costs of operating the call centers and maintaining the funding networks are included. But that figure can be reduced to $6800 by targeting very low-income families. This may seem high, especially considering only a fraction of that money goes directly to the person in need, but even its current state, that number is roughly only half the $20,000 that a period of homelessness may cost society.
Shinn says the study shows that these types of programs are absolutely effective and worthy of more consistent funding. And economics aside, there’s a definite moral benefit to helping people staring down the real possibility of becoming homeless, says social scientist Dennis Culhane at the University of Pennsylvania. “These are generally very, very poor people for whom our safety net has been dramatically eroded over the last 30 years,” he says.
Culhane says the programs can help prevent people from having to resort to prostitution and other dangerous behaviors to pay off debts from payday loans or other means of making ends meet. “These are not things that are easily quantifiable the way an economist would do it, but I don’t lose sleep at night about the fact that a lot of very poor people are getting emergency cash assistance when facing a financial crisis—even if they wouldn’t have become homeless without it.”
Patricia Scott, laid off Friday from her job as a clerk at Prosser Career Academy after 23 years, earned a reputation as a passionate advocate for the school’s many homeless students. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
By Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times columnist
There were only two students identified as homeless at Prosser Career Academy in 1996 when the principal made Patricia Scott the school’s liaison to a new federal program for Students in Temporary Living Situations.
The number jumped to eight soon after that, and at its high point, ballooned all the way to 81 homeless kids.
At the end of this past school year, Prosser counted 68 homeless students among its 1,400 enrollees, 26 of whom were seniors.
“They all graduated,” Scott told me Wednesday. “I’m very proud of that.”
That group of 26 seniors will be the last class of homeless students Scott shepherds to their high school degree at Prosser.
On Friday, she was among 1,000 Chicago Public Schools employees to learn they were getting laid off.
Scott is not a teacher. She’s a clerk, one of 521 support staff included in the layoff tallies.
When we talk about CPS layoffs, we usually concern ourselves primarily with teachers. But Scott is a good example of why we shouldn’t overlook what’s lost when many of those support jobs are eliminated.
During her 20 years as the Northwest Side school’s homeless liaison, Scott earned a reputation as a fierce advocate for her students, not only helping them receive the free school supplies and bus passes to which they are entitled, but also going the extra mile by supplying the mothering that so many of them desperately need.
“You could see how she cared so deeply for her students and how they respected and trusted her,” said Hannah Willage, an organizer with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “It is heartbreaking to know her students will not have her to return to and that she is one of 1,000 staff and teachers impacted by the layoffs. These layoffs hit homeless students hard.”
It was Willage who alerted me to Scott’s layoff, which I mention in case prospective employers get the idea she is the type to run to the press. She’s not.
But she did agree to speak with me. I arrived at her door the same moment as the mailman delivering the registered letter with official notification of her layoff.
“They say they’re putting me in a recall pool,” Scott said after taking a moment to read it. She didn’t sound very optimistic.
At age 57, Scott is concerned about finding another job, but not as concerned as she is about the homeless students under her care, many of whom stay in touch with her long after leaving school.
She knows the time and difficulty involved in building relationships with homeless students, many of whom don’t trust adults because of traumas suffered in their young lives.
“I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for her,” said Liz Rodriguez, 27, who just completed a bachelor’s degree in information technology.
Rodriguez told me she was kicked out of the house at 13 and eventually came to live with an older sister, but was left homeless again when the sister moved out of town.
She credits Scott with guiding her through her senior year and giving her a “base” on which to build a life. The same goes for her husband, Jose, a U.S. Marine who was also in the Prosser homeless program, Rodriguez said.
Jasmine Edwards, 26, was put out of her home at 16, and says Scott not only raised money to help her pay the security deposit on an apartment but also gave her a vision of what she could accomplish with an education.
“She’s been like a mother. She never judges you,” said Edwards, who turned a part-time high school job into being a Wal-Mart store manager in Indiana.
If there are any principals in need of a strong candidate to take over their school’s homeless program, I know where to find one.
As Illinois government has lurched along for nearly a year without a formal budget, women who rely on state services have been among those suffering the most.
Frozen out of the haphazard funding system that’s emerged during the impasse are social service providers, many of them not-for-profit organizations whose largely female workforce deliver state-subsidized help for struggling mothers and their children as well as victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
“It’s hitting women and children disproportionally hard and in ways that lots of us are still trying to get a grasp on,” said Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, who chairs the human services committee. “It’s across the board. It’s really sad.”
Women make up nearly two-thirds of the recipients of a low-income college tuition grant program that’s been underfunded. Women are also the ones seeking help through programs that have lost state funding entirely, including intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, home visits for teen parents, and prenatal and family care management for at-risk mothers. The funding crunch has gotten so bad that low-income women seeking breast and ovarian cancer screenings are being told to wait in a long line, unless they’re already displaying symptoms.
A bill to spend $715 million to help salvage those programs has been sitting on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk for a month, the result of a rare team-up by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The state has the money — it’s sitting in special funds that are earmarked for social services and represents about half of what the state spends on human services in a normal budget year.
But Rauner has additional priorities. He’s pushing for a six-month budget that would release the special funds for social services while also covering costs for prisons, veterans homes, road maintenance, public universities and community colleges. Plus, he wants a full-year spending plan for elementary and secondary schools.
Asked recently why he hadn’t approved the bill, Rauner cast the legislation as part of a broader strategy he says Democratic foes in the General Assembly are employing to prevent an end to the budget crisis.
“It does not have essential services in it,” Rauner said. “It is incomplete. And it will still — this is what I need you to understand — it will still create a crisis. That bill is designed to still create a government operations crisis. That’s the key distinction that you’re missing.”
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan responded by firing off a statement accusing the governor of putting “office supplies over life-saving services.”
While the war of words rages on, service providers and their advocates say every day that goes by is causing damage to the social service network and the people it serves.
Cancer screenings
Normally, the state sets aside roughly $13 million to provide breast and ovarian cancer screenings for low-income women, a program primarily administered by local health departments or other women’s service agencies. But without a budget, the only money flowing to the program is about $6 million in federal funds.
The state is supposed to match those dollars but has yet to do so. While it’s unlikely the federal government will ask for the money back, the situation remains “a sticky wicket,” said Heather Eagleton, director of public policy and government relations at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
That means many agencies have been forced to cut the number of hours they offer screenings and move to what’s known as a “priority list.” As a result, women who are displaying symptoms, be it a lump in the breast or abnormal bleeding, are prioritized for testing. That’s created long waiting lists, and some agencies have stopped advertising their services amid concerns they will be flooded with women they can’t help.
“It’s scary. The longer you wait, the cancer can progress to a much later stage, and in turn it becomes more difficult and more expensive to treat,” Eagleton said. “Just because you cut the program, it doesn’t mean you are going to get rid of cancer.”
Those who are diagnosed with cancer are then enrolled for treatment in the state’s Medicaid program, though Rauner has proposed cutting spending there, arguing the Affordable Care Act has expanded health care access.
Advocates argue women are still falling through the cracks.
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, which connects women to health care providers, says it is owed more than $164,000 for data it collects on behalf of the state tracking the quality and effectiveness of mammograms. The program is aimed at ensuring testing and diagnosis is accurate, and without the funds, executive director Anne Marie Murphy said her group may not have the legal authority to collect the data at all.
“Women’s lives are being sacrificed to the budget,” said Murphy, whose agency specializes in finding women the care they need, including working with hospitals and doctors who volunteer their services to make up for the lack of funding.
“Right now, services are choppy. Depending on when and who you call, you might get in, but a lot of the time women are told they have to wait,” Murphy said.
The bill that lawmakers sent to Rauner includes about $5 million for breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Sexual assault counseling
Illinois’ network of 29 rape crisis centers are “operating at bare bones,” said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Without money to pay employees, the centers have had to lay off 16 workers while delaying hiring and furloughing some workers at centers across the state. Volunteers are chipping in to keep the 24-hour rape crisis hotlines operating, but the waiting list of people who need counseling services has grown to 175 statewide, Poskin said.
“It’s further traumatizing to victims to call and ask for assistance and to have to be on a wait list,” Poskin said. “When people suffer trauma, a critical piece to trauma is consistency in support. And when you interrupt that … you’re not only hurting the families of the individuals who will be without that income, you are devastating survivors and their need to recover as quickly as they can.”
The social services bill on Rauner’s desk, which includes about $2.76 million for sexual assault programs, “would be a godsend,” Poskin said. With it, “we could limp along until November. And without it, we’re facing the dreadful closure of some centers. It’s needed, and it’s needed now.”
Homeless youth
At The Harbour Inc., based in Park Ridge, officials are bracing for the possible closure of a program that provides housing for young mothers as they receive training on parenting, budgeting and employment. The agency usually receives about $200,000 from the state for a housing transition program, an emergency homeless shelter it operates for teens and another program for young parents.
The agency is one of many that provides housing and services for the homeless that have not been paid since July. Normally, the state sets aside roughly $40 million for such providers. But without state funds, many have dipped into reserves, laid off staff or cut services to make ends meet.
The Harbour has been able to get by because of federal dollars and unexpected donations from a trust, but it’s possible they could lose that federal money if the state doesn’t provide matching funds. Program director Kris Salyards says the housing program cannot operate without state support past the end of July.
“We are faced with making some very tough decisions,” Salyards said. “This isn’t just impacting 12 young moms who are working and paying rent, who are being a family own their own, but it also impacts about 20 little kids who will become homeless.”
Advocates for the homeless point to people like Latoya Lawrence as examples of how the state-sponsored services they provide can help to turn a person’s life around.
Before receiving help from the Harbour, the 22-year-old Lawrence and her now 4-year-old son Cleo were sleeping in her cousin’s living room. She struggled to afford rent while working as an in-home nurse and worried she would never be able to provide her son “a place we could call our own.”
Now nearing the end of her 18 months in the transitional housing program, Lawrence works as a pharmacy tech representative at CVS/Caremark and plans to begin a licensed practical nurse program this fall. The housing assistance initially allowed her to live rent free, giving her flexibility to work and take classes, along with training on budgeting and other life skills. She can now afford housing and will soon strike out on her own.
“It helped me and a lot of other people that I do know that were in the program, take the chance to actually experience life, and the obstacles that come our way,” said Lawrence, of Evanston. “It gives us a chance to get ahead in life.”
Women workers
For women, the budget impasse hurts two ways. Not only are the services that some women rely on getting cut, but women make up the majority of the home health care and social service agency workforce funded by the state.
The situation has led one major union critical of Rauner to declare he’s instigated “a war on women.”
According to figures from SEIU Healthcare Illinois, there are roughly 20,000 home child-care workers whose clients rely on state subsidies to pay for their day care services. That’s down from 25,000 a year earlier, which the union chalks up to program restrictions Rauner has put in place to control costs. Roughly 95 percent of those child care workers are women, and nearly 64 percent of those workers live on the edge of poverty, earning less than $14,999 a year.
Additionally, SEIU spokeswoman Brynn Seibert estimated that Rauner’s cuts to child care have pushed as many as 55,000 children out of the program, which she said could force thousands of parents to leave the workforce as a result.
That breakdown is similar for home care workers who help the elderly and disabled, with the majority of the workforce being female, poor and non-white.
“The bottom line is that they need to pass a budget that raises taxes because otherwise there is no hope of funding all of these services,” said David Lloyd, director of the fiscal policy center for Voices for Illinois Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group. “Gov. Rauner has said it. The Democratic leaders have said it. Everyone knows what needs to be done, they are just unwilling to do it. That’s the most frustrating part about this.”
Higher education
The uncertainty over higher education funding looms especially large for women. Caught in the middle is a state scholarship grant for low-income students known as the Monetary Award Program. According to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which oversees the program, roughly 80,000 of the 128,000 students who received the grants last year were women.
Kayla Gubov is among the students who has found it difficult to plan college because of the budget impasse. She was several months into what was supposed to be four years at Bradley University in Peoria when she decided to take a break and head home, saddened to be so far away from family in Skokie and overwhelmed by mounting costs.
After taking time to regroup, she enrolled at nearby Oakton Community College. This spring, she earned her associate degree, helped along in part by a MAP grant. Most schools had to pick up the cost of the scholarships during much of the budget impasse. While some funding was finally released in April, it was only enough for one semester, and it’s unclear if schools will be able to afford the extra expense if there’s not a full budget come this fall.
Now looking to complete her bachelor’s degree, Gubov said she’s planning to head out of state, where universities can offer more competitive and stable financial aid.
“It’s discouraging. I am lucky that I got into a school outside of Illinois, but that was never in my original plan, especially considering that just a three-hour drive was pretty far for me,” Gubov said. “I realize now how much people’s futures are really in the politicians’ hands, and I just hope they see how incredibly important this is.”
A new study calls for an intense focus on helping homeless students stay in school, noting that new requirements and supports in the Every Student Succeeds Act can aid that effort.
“Hidden in Plain Sight,” released Monday, documents the disconnections that are already familiar to many who work with homeless students. Using surveys and interviews with a small pool of young people who are, or have been, homeless, and with some of the state liaisons who try to help them, Civic Enterprises and Hart Research Associates paint a portrait of a system that too often fails to provide the supports necessary to keep them in school, and even worse, creates barriers to their retention or re-entry.
The new federal education law, ESSA, for the first time requires states to track and report the academic achievement and graduation rates of homeless students, like any other subgroup. That reporting requirement alone could apply pressure to states and districts to do a better job identifying and supporting homeless students, the report suggests. ESSA has a flock of other new provisions that bolster resources and requirements aimed at helping homeless students.
But the problems that lead homeless students to leave school—or have trouble re-enrolling after being gone for a while—are so deep and complex that they demand more than changes to federal law, the report says.
Being aware of, and abiding by, existing law would be a start: School officials are often unaware that the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act already guarantees students the right to re-enroll in school after an extended absence, or change schools, without having to show proof of residency. Students who have experienced homelessness told the researchers that this was one of the biggest hurdles to continuing their schooling as their home situations were in flux.
The students also told the researchers that they need a mix of both physical and emotional supports to enable them to re-enroll or stay in school.
Schools and districts are unable to meet those needs with any consistency, however. Special liaisons hired to identify and help homeless students find themselves spread far too thin: Ninety percent said they have other duties, too, and spend half their time or less on helping students who are homeless, the study says.
The result is an alarming, if familiar, profile: Homeless students find it harder to make good connections with peers and adults, and are more likely to fall behind in school and drop out (42 percent of the students interviewed by the researchers said they had dropped out of school one or more times.). And the reach of these problems is growing: The number of homeless students in the country doubled between 2006-07 and 2013-14,to 1.3 million, the report says.
Many layers and levels of attention are required to help homeless students stay in school through graduation. The report identifies efforts necessary on the state and federal level, such as enforcing ESSA’s provisions for homeless students and stepping up efforts to provide affordable housing.
Schools can make a difference by connecting homeless students with a web of community services, paying closer attention to early-warning signs of trouble, such as chronic absence or poor grades, and training school staff in better identifying homeless students. Also key: Going the extra mile to provide missed assignments, being flexible with assignment timelines, facilitating transcript and test-score paperwork in a transfer; and helping navigate tricky legal issues such as getting parental consent for school activities or re-enrollment.
The Civic Enterprises/Hart Research Associates study was based on three telephone focus groups with state coordinators or liaisons for homeless youth, an online survey of 504 liaisons, a survey of 158 young people who were homeless at some point in middle or high school, and 44 interviews with young people who are currently
The Cook County Board Finance Committee approved a redevelopment plan for the old Cook County Hospital, over objections from some community advocates.
The Westside Community Benefits Coalition, spearheaded by Action Now, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and the Community Renewal Society, wanted the plan tweaked to “include community hiring for people with criminal records, residents of the 29th and 37th wards [on Chicago’s West Side], and that the commitment to local hiring increases significantly.”
The plan was ultimately approved by a 10-1 vote, with Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, whose district includes Chicago’s West Side, voting “no.” While the commissioner said he does not “have any problems with redevelopment,” he wants to see measures approved to bolster funding for anti-violence and youth employment efforts.
Under a redevelopment agreement proposed last month, the old Cook County Hospital building would be rehabbed into a mixed-use site with a hotel plus retail and residential space. The privately funded project is part of a larger, multi-phase redevelopment plan for the area, including construction of a new research and technology center.
“Given the high unemployment on the West Side, it would be shameful for a development of this size to come into this area and not allow nearby residents the opportunity to be productive citizens where they live and work,” Gale Lewis, a Community Renewal Society leader, said in a statement.
The agreement reportedly requires at least 7.5 percent of construction jobs go to area residents.
After performing work for the State of Illinois for nearly a year without getting paid, a coalition of 64 social service providers filed suit Wednesday against Gov. Bruce Rauner and six of his agency directors.
The group, calling itself Pay Now Illinois, demanded immediate payment in full for more than $100 million owed for services performed under the organizations’ various state contracts.
These are the victims of the state budget impasse that I have been trying to tell you about for the last year: the human services providers that do the heavy lifting of helping people in need.
They are collapsing under the weight of not getting paid. And in a desperate attempt at survival, they’ve gone to Cook County Circuit Court.
What took them so long to file suit, you might well ask?
That’s a legitimate question with court orders having proved the one surefire way for other social service providers to continue to get paid during the budget battle between Rauner and Democratic leaders.
The answer is complicated.
There are a lot of reasons:
• Optimism, or at least hope, that a state budget deal between Rauner and the Democrat-controlled Legislature was just around the corner.
• Fear of biting the hand that feeds them and, in the process, getting crossways with the new governor.
• Pessimism that the courts can help, given language in their state contracts that says they will be paid when there is an appropriation, which there still isn’t.
Finally, though, they are forced to try.
“We had no other recourse. Nobody wanted to do this. We just can’t go on this way,” said Ric Estrada, president of Metropolitan Family Services, a coalition member owed nearly $2 million by the state.
The organization has already informed state officials and its own workers that it will discontinue four state programs serving 900 people if there is no state appropriation to fund them by June 30.
The programs slated for closing include small group homes for people with mental health issues, a counseling program for juveniles at risk of winding up in prison, mental health services for children under age 6 who have been the victims of severe trauma, and home visitation services for teenage mothers and their children.
Metropolitan Family Services operates other programs that have continued to receive state payments during the budget standoff because of federal court orders.
Estrada said state officials were disappointed to learn of his agency’s plan to halt the four programs and urged it to continue to provide the services.
“They said, ‘Couldn’t you pay for this privately?’” Estrada said.
Estrada had to explain that private donations, which the organization already solicits, couldn’t possibly cover the gap.
This is the point where somebody always writes me to say the wealthy Rauner should just pay for it himself.
Sorry, even he doesn’t have enough money to fill all the holes created by his intransigence on the budget.
Rauner spokesman Catherine Kelly naturally pointed in another direction.
“While we understand that frustration is driving many worthwhile organizations to seek solutions anywhere, including the courts, the only solution is for the General Assembly to pass a balanced, reform-oriented budget as soon as possible,” she said in a statement.
I’ve tried to explain all along that the groups going unpaid weren’t somehow singled out as being less worthy than the ones who were paid. They just fell victim to the vagaries of the situation, in which the state is required to continue providing some services under prior federal court orders but not others.
These services are important, too, and the money is owed.
Unfortunately, as much as I think the organizations are only requesting what is fair, their court argument strikes me as legally dubious.
If nothing else, maybe their long-shot effort will force more people to pay attention.
