A report released today by the Heartland Alliance for the Illinois Poverty Summit spotlights annual increase in Illinois poverty rates for second year in a row.
Two years ago, when Illinois and the rest of the nation were basking in the waning months of the go-go economy, politicians and policy makers might have seen the lurking shadow of growing poverty had they looked beneath the veneer, a report released today says.
The poverty rate grew to 11.6 percent in 2000, up from 10.7 percent in 1999, representing 1.5 million people in the state who were struggling to keep a roof overhead or put food on the table, the study prepared by the Heartland Alliance for the Illinois Poverty Summit says. It was the second year in a row the rate increased.
"We should have been planning for this because there was a sense of false security," said Sid Mohn, president of Heartland, a 113-year-old agency that provides housing, health care and other services for the poor. "We should have known the go-go years couldn't continue forever.
"But we didn't start planning, and we were backed into a corner, and now we need to do something before we are trapped in that corner."
He said he hopes the report will nudge policymakers into action so they can be prepared to grab the attention of the next governor when he takes office. More than 500 Illinois municipalities have seen poverty increase during the last 10 years, the report says.
"There were indicators that things were slowing down" in 2000, said Dan A. Lewis, professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University. But most people were better off, and the warnings "didn't translate into putting your acorns away for the winter," he said.
Behind the numbers in the 44-page report are counties such as Cook and Downstate Pulaski and Massac, which the report has put on a warning list because they have three or more indicators for poverty. The Summit measures poverty by four indicators--education, the poverty rate, infant mortality and housing costs.
During 2000, there was not one county in the state where someone making the minimum wage could afford a two-bedroom home, Mohn said. The report cites the National Low Income Housing Coalition in saying an Illinois resident would on average have to make $14.92 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The minimum wage is $5.15.
Aside from the wrangling over the state's budget, there are other signs that policymakers are taking notice of the faltering economy's impact on health and housing issues, says Robin Snyderman of the Metropolitan Planning Council. The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, which represents 274 municipalities, has formed a housing task force, which is beginning to address apartment shortage and other housing issues.