News

By Jim Williams, CBS Chicago co-anchor

Think the Illinois budget is bad? We just got a new snap shot today and the number is unimaginable.

The state will have $8.5 billion in unpaid bills by the end of the year. CBS 2’s Jim Williams introduces us to some of those already feeling the pain.

Sue Loellbach, executive director the Connections for the Homeless shelter in Evanston, says it used to be “very, very busy in the morning,” but not now.

Lockers for the homeless who sleep on the streets are now empty.

“This allowed them a place to keep their valuable papers, clean dry clothes, medications,” Loellbach says.

They can’t use the showers either.

“If they can’t use a shower, that makes them stay away from people, less likely to engage, to go to the doctor when they need to, to come in and see a case manager,” Loellbach says.

Loellbach says the shelter lost its state funding in July.

“It was a pathway relationships in the community that will lead to a better life,” she says.

You could call Connections part of the unlucky 10 percent, causalities of the state budget impasse.

90 percent of state programs are still funded because of court decrees, including retiree benefits, salaries for most state employees and money to retire bond debt.

Comptroller Leslie Munger says with no budget, it’s adding up $8.5 billion in red ink.

“This is clearly a recipe for disaster and the longer this continues the harder it will be for our state to regain its financial footing,” Munger says.

Sue Loellback says it a sad message for the homeless she serves.

Which raises the question, if the state is only paying 90 percent of its bills, why is there a backlog?

It is because the temporary income tax hike expired and current spending levels are based on having the higher tax, so yet again Illinois is spending money it doesn’t have.

Link to the WBBM TV report.

Graham Bowman, CCH’s youth health attorney, requested a state hearing on proposed changes to the state appeals process for poor people who are denied public benefits, including Medicaid. His August 26 testimony can be read here.

By Maudlyne Ihejirika

Debra Hamilton and her disabled daughter were among dozens of critics of proposed changes to Illinois public aid rules at a Department of Human Services hearing on Wednesday.

The Rauner administration is seeking to revise the appeals process for those denied or terminated from aid programs including Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

A slew of advocates and attorneys for the elderly, disabled and poor pointed out legal issues with section after section of the proposed rule changes.

“The proposed rules dramatically limit the rights of people who are applying for benefits, which flies in the face of federal law. They are very similar to recent rule changes that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of due process,” said Anthony Ferraro, president of the Illinois Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Speakers such as Hamilton, 53, of Aurora, whose daughter Sarah suffers from epilepsy and autism and is legally blind and cared for at home, spoke about the potential effect on lives.

“I took the time to read and re-read this. Among the more glaring errors is a shift in responsibility in the ‘burden of proof’ sections, and I’m shocked by the dozens of times that I saw the words ‘fair’ or ‘impartial’ stricken,” Hamilton said, as Sarah and her seeing-eye dog, Jordan, looked on. “I urge you to sustain access to care for people like my daughter.”

As with the Rauner administration’s proposed changes to child care eligibility rules, advocates across the state have sounded an alarm over the DHS changes.

DHS spokeswoman Veronica Vera declined to respond to criticism of the proposed changes made at the hearing, conducted by a DHS attorney, at 160 N. La Salle. In an email, she wrote only: “DHS held a public hearing at the request of members of the community over federally mandated rule changes.”

Critics who spoke at the hearing included groups such as the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which has sued the state to force Medicaid payments during the budget stalemate, the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian, and Access Living.

Their complaints included proposed new limits to what can be appealed; how appeals can be initiated; the time period to appeal; limits to locations where appeal hearings can be held; who can represent applicants at hearings; and limits to access of DHS records for the purpose of appeals.

“Anyone who has ever tried to call a DHS office knows how difficult it is to get someone on the phone. The only way you’re guaranteed to do that is by filing an appeal,” said Graham Bowman of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which requested the DHS hearing. “These rules are going to make obtaining public benefits a lot more difficult and burdensome.”

State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), who sits on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which ultimately must approve the changes, said he was disheartened by what he heard at the hearing.

“If I was the average citizen or family, I’d be scared to death. This is the bureaucrats’ dream,” said Harris, shaking his head. “DHS is saying, ‘We’ll make a decision. You’ll have 10 days to gather your documents. You may have to drive to a whole different city for a hearing. And if you do one thing wrong, you lose.’ You simply can’t pass something that will have a disparate impact on the elderly and disabled.”

Editor’s Note: CCH Youth Health Attorney Graham Bowman will testify at the August 26 hearing.

The Illinois Department of Human Services is holding the second of two public hearings Wednesday over the Rauner administration’s proposals to toughen the appeals process for key benefits programs.

The Rauner administration’s proposed rule changes would impact Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), according to disability advocacy group Access Living.

The group says the Rauner administration is seeking to make the appeals process harder for people who are denied benefits or terminated from those programs.

The Rauner administration’s proposed rules “do not provide customers with due process, are unnecessarily complicated and confusing, and in some cases are in conflict with the federal statutes and regulations protecting the rights of those eligible for the various benefits programs,” Access Living’s advocacy director said in a posting on the group’s website.

SEIU* Healthcare Illinois is also speaking out against the proposed changes.

“The Rauner administration is adding a blizzard of new barriers to access services as well as denying due process to the very poor in ways that conflict with existing statutes, regulations and court cases–not to mention Rauner’s own public statements that he is committed to preserving benefits for the vulnerable,” the union said in a media release. “Among the changes, the state would alter the entire premise for Illinois social services and place the burden of proof for aid on those who need help the most — a drastic departure from current conditions — and would move hearings when benefits are denied far away from access points for the poor.”

Wednesday’s hearing on the administration’s proposals will take place at the Michael A. Bilandic Building in Chicago at 1 p.m. A DHS hearing on the proposed changes was held in Springfield on Tuesday.

By Frank Main

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has been on a crusade this year to keep some accused shoplifters and trespassers from having extended stays behind bars before trial.

Dart recently notched a bipartisan victory in that campaign when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the so-called “Rocket Docket” bill into law.

Rep. Mike Zalewski and Sen. Bill Cunningham, both Democrats, were the primary sponsors of the bill envisioned by Dart. Zalewski is from west suburban Riverside and Cunningham is from Chicago.

Rauner signed the bill late Friday, according to Dart’s office. It passed unanimously in the Senate and by a margin of 71-36 in the House.

“This is a good first step to rethinking how our criminal justice system works to punish and correct unlawful behavior,” Zalewski said.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has supported the measure. So has Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, who visited the jail in July.
“These are people who have made mistakes and are looking for ways to move forward,” Cupich said at the time, echoing a similar statement by Pope Francis after he visited a prison in Italy last year.

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) voted against the legislation.

“I don’t hate the bill,” he said. “I think Sheriff Dart has done a terrific job of highlighting the problem that we are using our jails for mental treatment. But I am not sure we should be releasing those people to the street, either.”

Batinick said he thinks the real issue is that “we underserve the mentally ill in this state.”

The new law creates the Accelerated Resolution Court in Cook County. Under a two-year pilot program, the court will dispose of low-level shoplifting and trespassing cases within 30 days from their assignment by the presiding judge.

More than 100 inmates could immediately take advantage of the court, according to the sheriff’s office, which operates the jail.

Dart has emphasized that the primary reason for the court isn’t to reduce the jail population, which has been below capacity this year. Instead, it’s to give those inmates a chance to work outside the jail while they fight their cases, he has said.

The program is limited to people charged with retail theft of property under $300 or criminal trespassing.

Dart said the inmates who will go before the Accelerated Resolution Court have committed “crimes of survival.” Many are homeless and mentally ill, and have been in jail frequently on such charges, he said.

Defendants eligible for the court can’t have a prior conviction for certain violent crimes over the previous decade. The crimes include murder, sexual assault, armed robbery, kidnapping, arson and offenses involving discharge of a firearm. People eligible for the program are unable to post bond or are ineligible for electronic monitoring because they’re homeless or lack a proper host site.

If their cases aren’t resolved within a month, they must be freed on their own recognizance or placed on electronic monitoring pending the conclusion of their cases.

The judge may require a defendant to refrain from drugs and alcohol; undergo mental treatment; and live in a facility selected by the court.

In a statement Tuesday, Dart said the average cost of keeping an inmate in jail for a day is $143 — more than the value of the goods a shoplifter is typically caught stealing.

The average jail stay for people charged with retail theft is 59 days. One alleged shoplifter has been behind bars for 270 days, according to the sheriff’s office.

Examples of such detainees include a man who has spent 86 days in jail for allegedly stealing five packages of T-shirts from a Walgreens store in May. The 47-year-old man has a history of arrests for retail theft, according to Dart’s office.

Dart said the man has cost taxpayers $12,298.

A 39-year-old man has spent 46 days in jail for allegedly trespassing at a fish restaurant in July. He has a history of criminal trespassing, including at the same restaurant, the sheriff’s office said.

Cara Smith, the chief strategist for the sheriff’s office, said the Rocket Docket program stems from an analysis of the jail population ordered by Dart.

“Low-income people charged with minor offenses spend a shocking number of days in custody,” Smith said the study found.

In the first six months of this year, 590 people in the jail were sentenced for various crimes — from robberies to drug possession to shoplifting — and were immediately freed because they had served more time in jail awaiting trial than the length of the sentence they received. They had spent 44,448 days in jail above what they needed to satisfy their sentences, Smith said.

Smith said other types of offenses — such as drug crimes — could eventually be included on the Rocket Docket, depending on the results of the pilot program.

“We are trying to expedite the process for those people who should not be here,” she said.

By Bridget O’Shea

The North Shore-based Student Alliance for Homeless Youth hopes to make the transition back to school easier for dozens of children, ages 3 to 16, who are currently living at the Madonna House, a Chicago shelter for homeless women and children.

On Aug. 15, members of the SAHY, which includes students from New Trier and Maine South high schools, completed a school supply drive that filled 31 backpacks with pencils, erasers, pens, notebooks and other school supplies, organizers said.

New Trier senior Olivia O’Bryan said she and other SAHY members encouraged shoppers at an Office Depot store in Evanston and a Walgreens in Glencoe to buy supplies or give cash donations for the cause.

“We had a basic list of things for people who were going into Office Depot and Walgreens,” she said.

Lauren Miller, another New Trier senior and member of SAHY, said after researching several Chicago-area shelters, the alliance chose the Madonna House, which gives women and children a place to stay for up to six months.

“They have about 15 families and it provides a stable place for them,” she said.

When collecting the supplies, Miller said, the alliance wanted to be as mindful as possible of all the age groups they were serving.

“Our main focus was that we don’t want to give a 16-year old the same supplies as a 5-year old,” she said. “We wanted to get things that would serve their specific needs.”

The alliance collected cartoon-themed backpacks and colorful pencils and notebooks for younger students, while high school students received sturdier backpacks and supplies like calculators, Miller said.
O’Bryan and Miller explained that SAHY utilizes a three-pronged approach that includes raising awareness for homeless youth, reducing barriers to education for this population, and providing them with services.

To increase awareness, Miller said, the alliance brings people who have experienced homelessness to Hubbard Woods Park every fall.

“To raise awareness and understanding, we have a vigil and we invite people who have experienced homelessness to come and share their story,” she said. “For example, a lot of people don’t know that technically you’re homeless if you’re living with a grandparent because your parents cannot afford housing.”

To provide services for homeless youth, the alliance, which has previously included students from Loyola Academy and North Shore Country Day School, hosts fundraisers and parties throughout the year for homeless youth, members said. Fundraisers and events include Halloween and holiday parties at places such as the Kelly Hall YMCA in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, they said.

“It’s mostly drives, fundraisers and parties for homeless children,” said O’Bryan.

“We try to do something every month,” Miller added.

Miller said the alliance, which was started about five years ago, has also raised funds for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and the Greater Bethlehem Healing Temple in Chicago, where members hold a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless every year.

By Chuck Goudie & Barb Markoff

CHICAGO (WLS) — The new face of homelessness is families. An estimated 140,000 homeless people live in the city including thousands of public school students in shelters, in tents, in parks or just in whatever place they can find across Chicago.

For one month, the I-Team asked city officials to appear in this report and discuss what you are about to see. They said no.

Kaleyah Wesley, 16, her mother and siblings spent two years living in a Rogers Park shelter.

“It was really tough,” Kaleyah says. “It was really heartbreaking.”

Thousands of others live in small tent villages, spanning the city from in the shadow of North Lake Shore Drive to one on Columbus Drive near downtown. Still others sleep on park benches and on the banks of the Chicago River.

For months, the I-Team watched as these encampments popped up across the city, where people struggle to be respected and understood, wanting only to be treated like human beings.

“All we’re asking is to be treated like human beings,” says one homeless man named Meechie.

The challenge may be as ancient as the Old Testament, but the new face of homelessness is far younger.

“Chicago Public Schools keeps track of how many students are homeless,” says Ed Shurna, Executive Director of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “Last year there were over 22,000 homeless students.”

The I-Team found that’s up nearly 20-percent from the year before. Shurna is a longtime homeless advocate in Chicago.

“Last year there were 2,500 students who have no adult in their life and still go to school. Those numbers, to me, have changed over the past 20 years,” he says.

For Kaleyah Wesley, that translated to a four-hour commute to North Lawndale with her brother and sisters to attend William Penn Elementary School located near the apartment where they lived before becoming homeless. For a student in a shelter, the new normal was a challenge.

“I would have to go in the bathroom at maybe 3 o’clock in the morning to do my homework because I still wanted to be that student I knew I could be,” Kaleyah says.

Kaleyah’s mother, Marilyn Escoe, says losing her apartment was devastating but that the support she received from others in the shelter helped.

“They became like a second family because we embraced each other’s struggles,” Escoe says.

The I-Team found sometimes those struggles clash with political reality. Under this agreement between the city and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, people are supposed to be notified of street sweeping so they can take down their tents, move their bicycles and bags of clothing and then return once cleaning is finished.

“But recently we found out that the system didn’t work when there was a concert at Montrose Beach in the city,” Shurna says. “They very haphazardly came in and moved people.”

Attorneys from the Coalition say they are working with the city to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.

“I think the mayor cares about this, but the problem is pretty awesome, pretty big. It’s really an affordable housing and jobs problem. It’s a problem of disparity in terms of wealth,” Shurna says. “He’s created some of the first youth shelters, overnight shelters and drop-in shelters that didn’t exist before.”

Kaleyah and her family say the city’s Students in Temporary Living Situations program helped her become salutatorian of her 8th grade class.

“I really appreciate everything that I went through. It really opened up my heart so much,” she says.

Watch the I-TEAM report here.

Since 2003 Chicago has spent $50 million dollars on homeless prevention and there are numerous homeless aid programs. But neither the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services nor Mayor Rahm Emanual would talk about them for this report.

A mayoral spokesperson said there is no single city official capable of addressing our questions about the new face of homelessness.

City of Chicago officials refused repeated invitations from the I-Team to discuss a burgeoning homeless problem, the growth of tent cities or the programs on which they spend millions of taxpayer funds. Instead, after a month of requests, they sent the following two-sentence statement:

“The City of Chicago is committed to a compassionate and consistent approach to providing homeless services and outreach that will ensure public safety, while respecting the legal rights of this vulnerable population. In addition ongoing outreach efforts to offer shelter and social services to homeless individuals on a daily basis, we remain engaged in an ongoing dialogue with homeless advocates about how to best address the special needs and challenges of our homeless citizens, and to assist every Chicagoan in having a place to call home.”

Background from city on homelessness:

HOMELESS EFFORTS:
– Mayor Rahm Emanuel has increased funding for homeless services by more than 10 percent and invested in new programs targeting veterans, youth, families, and victims of domestic violence. With the support of the Mayor, DFSS continues its work with non-profits, advocacy groups, and service providers to establish funding priorities for homeless populations via the community-driven Plan to End Homelessness 2.0.
– Worked to pass the Affordable Requirements Ordinance in March 2015, which expanded the City’s commitment to providing affordable housing in Chicago. The City estimates the revised ordinance will create 1,200 units of housing and generate $90 million in funding by 2020.
– Launch a campaign to end homelessness among veterans in Chicago (with the federal and local partners). Over the past year, a team of more than 25 non-profit organizations and public funders designed and implemented a coordinated entry system for veterans that will ultimately lead to providing permanent housing to veterans and ending veteran homelessness. Since the inception of the initiative we have housed more than 800 veterans.

HOMELESS FAMILIES
– Placed nearly 300 households into housing through its Rapid Rehousing Program.
– Funded and broke ground on the first new domestic violence shelter in more than a decade which will have 40 beds and serve more than 100 families annually. It is expected to open late 2015.
– Added a new facility with 75 beds for homeless families that has come online since a 2015 survey.

HOMELESS YOUTH
– Increased shelter beds for homeless youth by 33%.
– Established three regional drop-in centers that serve 1,400 homeless youth annually .

OUTREACH AND CLEAN UP
– DFSS conducts outreach and cleaning efforts while abiding by joint terms with homeless advocates, which set clear parameters for how cleanings take place and the types of personal property permitted. 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. Residents are not permitted to erect tents, or other structures, on the public way, and the City has been working to address tent cities throughout the city as part of these coordinated cleanup efforts.
– DFSS HOP teams encounter close to 7,000 homeless individuals per year with a primary focus to build rapport with homeless individuals and try to engage them in services.
– City engages in periodic cleaning efforts in advance of large-scale events in order to ensure that the public way is kept safe and accessible.
– In 2014, the Human Services Mobile Outreach Program, which is operated by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, responded to over 39,000 requests for shelter placement and transportation, well-being checks, emergency food assistance requests as well as providing assistance to victims of fires and natural disasters.
– The City conducts mandated counts using federal criteria and guidelines to secure a comprehensive count/survey of Chicago’s homeless population in both shelters and living out on the street. The needs identified in previous counts have helped us with the development of Chicago’s recently updated Plan to End Homelessness – Plan 2.0. Each year, the City of Chicago establishes funding priorities that align with the priorities of this community plan.
– According to our surveys, the homeless population has been relatively stable over past five years.

By Nancy Cambria

Summer is one of the trickiest times to run a profitable small child-care business.

On average, about a quarter of a child-care center’s children move on to kindergarten. Ideally those empty slots are filled by a new crop of infants and toddlers, so business — and revenue — can continue as usual.

But in Illinois, this summer is shaping up to be particularly cruel for the child-care providers who serve the working poor and the children and parents who need their care.

A $4 billion deficit and a political stalemate surrounding the state budget has prompted Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to order an emergency freeze on most new child-care subsidy enrollment. Under it, the vast majority of families earning a little more than $10,000 year will not qualify.

As a result, independent child cares in low-income communities are shutting down or are nearing the end, fearing they will not have nearly enough children to fill those August slots with needed younger children.

They and child-care advocates say working, low-income parents will not be able to afford child care without the subsidies, and the expected closures will severely damage the state’s child-care supply for the poor.

Some child-care providers consider the freeze the end of the line after years of dealing with a state subsidy system that more than once has run out of money because of budget shortfalls and delayed state budgets. As recently as March, child-care providers scrambled to operate for several weeks without being paid.

This month, Leonard Richie, the 17-year owner of Leonard Bo Peep Preschool Academy in Brooklyn, decided to let go staff and clients and shutter his child care licensed for 50 children.

He said the state could not guarantee that it could pay him for the summer.

“This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Every time it’s time for a new budget, come July the first thing they stop paying is the child-care subsidy,” he said. “It punishes the poor.”

Richie said he was getting out of day care for good and going into the gourmet hot beverage vending machine business.

Children’s Home and Aid, an Illinois agency contracted to administer the subsidies in Southern Illinois, knows of three centers that have closed and one more that will close in the fall. It expects dozens of smaller child cares to shutter in the Metro East area as the legislative problem moves into the fall.

“It’s just only a matter of time as the state budget crisis continues and centers are not paid,” said Renae Storey, of the agency in Granite City, who said parents would be forced to leave their children in unsafe or questionable child-care situations or quit their jobs.

“This is just a giant step backwards in families’ achieving self sufficiency,” she said.

Last year, about 600 providers in the southern region received about $36 million in subsidies to care for 15,000 low-income children.

The new income qualifying rules — 50 percent of the poverty level — have, for now, put Illinois dead last in the nation for access to the Federal Child Care Assistance Program, which gives states the right to set its income thresholds for participation.

A family of three can earn no more than $10,045 a year to qualify even though the federal poverty level for that family is $20,090. Previously, Illinois families of three could earn up to $37,166 annually to qualify. In Missouri, lawmakers recently approved an increase in income eligibility. A family of three can get a full subsidy if they earn less than $27,724 — 138 percent of the poverty level.

Families in Illinois essentially have to be poorer than anywhere else in the country to apply and qualify, said Dan Lesser, director for the office on Economic Justice at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, based in Chicago. Even holding a minimum-wage, part-time job at Walmart would bump most of them out of the program, he said.

The Center on Poverty Law anticipates the new income threshold, along with other restrictions, will weed out 90 percent of the working families that would previously qualify for the subsidy and force parents — most of them single mothers — out of the job sector.

“This is a program for working parents, and they’ve just eliminated working parents as an eligible category,” Lesser said. “They’ve undermined the whole purpose of the program with these changes.”

Under the freeze, parents on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, teen mothers in school and parents with disabled children would still qualify for the program under the previous standards. The terms of the freeze also enable parents with higher incomes who were previously qualified to keep the assistance if they drop off and need to re-enroll within the year.

On July 1, dealing with a state budget that has yet to gain legislative approval and massive budget shortfalls, Rauner looked to the state-funded match of the federal Child Care Assistance Program for cuts and savings and ordered the freeze.

Historically, the state has funded about $355 million annually to the state’s nearly $1 billion annual subsidy program, with the federal Department of Health and Human Services funding the rest.

Though the state has not given child-care advocates an actual estimate as to how many children they expect to shed from the subsidy rolls, Samir Tanna of Illinois Action for Children said that state had indicated it could save about $5.3 million per month and an additional $47 million annually from other changes to co-pay and background check standard.

Illinois could ultimately opt at any time to reverse the income thresholds, but when and if that will happen remains unknown. In an email, a state spokesman with the Illinois Department of Human Services could not discuss whether it would be lifted at all, “until there is a balanced budget in place.”

Tanna said the temporary freeze — regardless of duration — would affect thousands of child cares and dismantle the supply chain of providers who cater to poor families, leaving poor areas with a dearth of licensed providers.

Lesser, of the Shriver Center, is worried about the worst-case scenario: Even though child-care subsidies had broad support in Congress during their federal reauthorization last year, Illinois, on its own, may be setting an example for other cash-strapped states in the country to follow.

“I think it does have national implication to dismantle a state’s child-care program,” he said of Illinois.

ILLINOIS CHILD CARE CRISIS

Child care subsidies help low-income, working parents and students afford day care. In Illinois they:

• Support about 155,000 children annually.

• Cost about $1 billion annually: 40 percent state money, 60 percent federal.

To save money, the state has temporarily changed its family income qualifications:

• Prior to July 1, income capped at 185 percent of the poverty level or $37,166 for a family of three.

• After July 1, income capped at 50 percent of the poverty level: $10,045 for a family of three.

While college is already a huge transition for young adults, some college students face an entirely different hardship — homelessness.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) reported that there are 58,000 homeless students on campuses nationwide. FAFSA is the only reliable source for these statistics since colleges are not technically required to keep track of their homeless students.

Barbara Duffield — policy director at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) — believes that the number of homeless college students has increased over the years.

“Parents tend to start focusing resources on younger kids, and sometimes that can lead to abuse and neglect,” Duffield says.

“Sometimes they just can’t take care of them anymore. But for most students, they haven’t had that support their whole lives.”

– Barbara Duffield

According to the NAEHCY, many homeless young adults who are trying to go to college don’t receive enough financial aid money because they are unable to fill out parental or guardian-related information on the forms.

Tina Giarla — a student at Salem State in Salem, Mass. — understands this all too well. Her father passed away in 2007 and her mother was constantly in and out of jail, so she classified as an “unaccompanied youth”. She initially lived on campus, but eventually, her resources ran out and she could no longer afford housing.

Giarla worked two-and-a-half jobs and went to school full-time. “I had to save extra money to rent a hotel in the case of an emergency so I wouldn’t have to go to a shelter,” she said. “It wasn’t a comfortable feeling.”

Efforts are being made to change this, though. Specifically, the recently passed Higher Education Act allows students to apply for federal aid without having parental information or a signature.

Additionally, some universities — such as UCLA — are implementing economic crisis response programs to help homeless college students stay in school.

Giarla plans on using her situations and experiences to spread the word and raise awareness about the growing population of homeless college students nationwide.

Editor’s Note: Chicago Coalition for the Homeless co-leads the organizing for the Westside Community Benefits Coalition.

By LaRisa Lynch

A coalition of churches, community groups and residents is urging West Side political leaders, particularly Chicago Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), to require that a community benefits agreement (CBA) be tied to any public tax dollars requested by Gateway Development Partners (GDP) LLC.

The firm is spearheading the Illinois Medical District Commission’s (IMDC) $300 million mixed-use retail and commercial development project, which is estimated to create 1,000 permanent jobs and 1,000 temporary construction jobs.

Called the Gateway Real Estate Development Project, the 9.5 acre project is set to be located between Odgen and Damen Avenues and consists of 1 million square feet of retail and office space. The site will include a 225-room hotel, young professional housing, parking facility, conference center, green space and multi-family housing.

GDP has yet to ask for any public dollars for the project. But the coalition held a rally last week at the First Baptist Congregational Church, 1613 West Washington Blvd., to put the developer and local aldermen on notice. Community residents say any use of public land or dollars should be tied to a community benefits agreement. The coalition also wants to secure a CBA for the proposed redevelopment of the former Cook County Hospital building.

“We know that they are going to ask and we felt that this was important because a lot of these communities are right in the area where they are building. So we figure why not [give] the people who live there [an opportunity] to work there,” said Christina Rice, of the Community Renewal Society, one of 20 groups involved in the Westside Community Benefits Coalition (WCBC).

Communities like North Lawndale and East and West Garfield Park have high unemployment rates and residents often leave their communities in search of jobs, Rice added. New housing developments that have cropped up in the area have traditionally focused on market rate housing, not affordable housing, she noted.

In additional to affordable housing, the WCBC would like the CBA to mandate that new businesses prioritize the hiring of local residents, including those with criminal backgrounds and the long-term unemployed, and offer jobs that pay at least $15 an hour. The coalition also wants a new hiring referral service to be created as a means to connect local employment agencies, like the North Lawndale Employment Network, with hiring managers for construction and retail jobs.

The coalition met with the developers and IMDC in September, and Rice said the parties were less than receptive to the idea of a CBA. Led by developer Jack Higgins, Gateway Development Partners LLC is a partnership between Thomas Samuels Enterprises, East Lake Management & Development Corp., Higgins Development Partners and Isiah Real Estate, LLC, which is headed by NBA legend Isiah Thomas.

“They’re like, ‘Just trust us. We are going to do the right thing.’ But they said right then and there [that] they are not looking to sign the CBA,” Rice said.

IMDC signed a lease agreement with Gateway Development Partners LLC in October 2014 to develop the site. The agreement includes minority recruitment goals and support for local hiring, according to an undated press release on IMDC’s website. However an IMDC spokesperson said it is under the contractors’ “sole discretion” to hire local residents.

“There is a community hiring provision under which the developer is required to work with the IMDC to introduce local employee candidates to contractors’ hiring managers who may, in their sole discretion, consider interviewing such candidates,” Heather Tarczan, IMDC’s director of communications and administration, said in an email.

As a result, the coalition is pressuring Ervin, whose ward includes the medical district, to get behind the push for a CBA “because we realize that he has the power to make them do this.” He has the authority to grant or reject tax increment financing dollars or zoning changes, all of which will be needed for the project, according to Rice.

Ervin was among several aldermen invited to the packed standing-room-only rally. Event organizers sought to get aldermen on the record as to whether they will advocate for a CBA as part of any request for public dollars from the developer.

The coalition got commitments from Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th), and a representative for Ald. Michael Scott (24th) pledged his support. Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), who was invited, did not attend.

“I would not be surprised if they asked for TIF dollars, [but] my stance has always been the same. We want to see permanent jobs and construction-related opportunities for residents in these communities. That is something that I am committed to 100 percent,” Ervin said.

Burnett said it is “an uphill battle” to get contractors and developers to be responsive to the community. A lot of developers placate aldermen by hiring a few neighborhood people, according to Burnett.

“A lot of us have been bamboozled by developers and contractors in the past, so this is definitely needed,” Burnett added. “We need this kind of help when we are trying to get jobs for our folk. It is even hard for us by ourselves trying to get contractors and developers to hire our people from the community … So when you have people power, it is harder for you to be denied.”

IMDC Commissioner Blake Sercye is confident that some middle ground can be reached. He said many of the investors that are part of Gateway Development Partners have ties to and have worked on the West Side.

“We have a labor agreement in the lease agreement. We were very cognizant to try to be sure it was inclusive as possible to people from the West Side of Chicago,” Sercye said, adding the project will bring jobs and boost the area’s economy.

The hiring and job component is essential for North Lawndale resident Teleza Rodgers. She knows all too well the struggle to find employment. She has been sporadically employed since her release from jail 16 years ago. Her background, she noted, is a barrier to finding a job even though she’s certified in medical billing and coding.

“The purpose of a community benefits agreement is it specifies in the language that people with records will be hired [as well as the] long-term unemployed,” said Rodgers. “And many people who are long-term unemployed are [in that position] because they have a record. People have worked hard to turn their lives around and [the CBA] would give them a chance to provide for their families. It must happen. It is a necessity.”

Burnett is optimistic about the CBA. He said if all the elected officials, including the Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the IDMC commissioners get on board, “then I think we can put [the developer’s] feet to the fire.”

“We need to demand jobs whether they ask for TIFs or not,” Burnett said.

By Eleanor Goldberg

The thing that often stands in the way of a homeless person and housing is just a state-issued identification. But a new law in California is making sure that its residents are no longer stranded on the streets because of that issue.

In order for a homeless person to do something as simple as apply for a job, enroll in public school or access homeless shelters and food stamps, they need to provide official identification. But those IDs often get lost or stolen and homeless people lack the funds and resources to obtain new driver’s licenses or birth certificates.

“If you’re living on the street it’s very difficult to keep ahold and keep your documents safe,” Janet Kelly, a senior attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, told Hawaii News Now.

But a new California law, which went into effect this month, is making the process of obtaining identification much easier by requiring state recorders to hand them out for free, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Davida Gomez, who has been homeless for five months, felt particularly heartened by the new law.

Gomez has three kids and each birth certificate would’ve previously cost her $28. The DMV charges $26 for a new ID card and $8 for certain people living on low-income salaries.

Those were expenses Gomez simply couldn’t afford before on her monthly $785 public assistance checks, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Now, that she can get those IDs for free, she’ll be able to transition her children from a local charity school to public school and move out from friends’ houses and into their own place.

The bill was inspired by Kelly Thomas, a homeless man who lived on the streets of Fullerton, California, and had schizophrenia, according to KCET. Thomas was beaten by three police officers in 2011 and died five days later.

“We are making sure they have IDs to access the services to get back on feet — either social services or mental health services,” Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva told KCET. “This is a simple step. Let’s just get these IDs in their hands.”

California’s government officials have stepped in where nonprofits often have to pick up the slack in other states.

In Central Florida, for example, IDignity –- a group formed by five churches –- helps homeless people navigate the bureaucratic process of obtaining identification.

Since 2008, the organization has held monthly events to help clients in need and typically serves about 225 people each time. The demand is so great that IDignity often has to turn people away, according to the group’s website.

In Hawaii, Waikiki Health and Legal Aid Society typically pitch in to help homeless people gather the documents they need so that they can move on with their lives.

But while homeless shelters, and other programs, require identification so that they can perform background checks and other safety measures, advocates say that the system is flawed and inherently preclusive.

“We’ve created a system that keeps the barriers up for people. It’s not an easy system to access,” Joy Rucker, director for community services at Waikiki Health, told Hawaii News Now. “If people don’t have a place to live and all their stuff organized — it’s a nightmare. It’s just a nightmare.”