Are you keeping your head above water, financially? If you answer "yes", good for you. A more likely answer, especially in economic times such as these, is either "no" or the even more likely "I honestly do not know".
The Social Impact Research Center has created this brilliant thing called the Illinois Family Budget Calculator, which allows you to calculate how much family with X number of members, living in X part of Illinois, would need to earn in terms of hourly, monthly, and annual wage. With this calculator a person can enter their family size, place of residence, family income including any public supports, and a few other details and the calculator will produce a single-page report explaining how your household is doing when compared to what is known as a self-sufficiency standard for your area, what public benefits you may be eligible for, and compares your families income to the official poverty line for a family of your size.
In 2009, the Social Impact Research Center published Getting By and Getting Ahead: The 2009 Illinois Self-Sufficiency Standard which analyzes and illustrates the cost of living for families of various sizes in each county of Illinois. This report is unique in that it utilizes the actual costs of food, housing, health care, transportation, taxes, and it produces a minimum budget for a family- How much do you need to earn just to make ends meet. Meaning that the families will be able to pay rent but cannot afford a birthday cake, or pay down a personal debt, or put down a security deposit on a new apartment, or save toward a child's college education.
But this report does not just display income goals, it also presents income realities. For example, the report offers self-sufficiency wages for different counties and then compares them to the $8.25 state minimum wage and the $8.26 poverty wage (meaning the wage that a person would need to earn in order to hit the poverty line). A single-parent household with one preschool age child and one school-age child in DuPage County has a self-sufficiency wage of $29.34/hour (the highest in the state)- More than 3 times the poverty wage or the state minimum wage. The same family in Edgar County has a self-sufficiency wage of $12.78/hour (the lowest in the state), which is a little more that 50% higher than the minimum wage and the poverty wage.
All of this is important for the family to know, there is also a larger issue that is being illustrated by this report: The official poverty wage is woefully inaccurate in terms of the actual cost of living.
For one, the poverty line, while sensitive to family size, blankets not just the state of Illinois, which we have illustrated has widely varying levels of minimum income to survive, but blankets the entire country. In addition to that, the poverty line is well below the amount that a family would need to earn in order to survive in any county in the state of Illinois. In Edgar county, even if a family is earning 150% of the poverty line and therefore meeting the self-sufficiency standard for the county, remember that the self-sufficiency standard is an absolutely no-frills income level. There is still no way to pay down debt or save toward the education of children, which means that there is little chance of that family to get beyond scraping by, which means that should there be an illness, or... say, an economic downturn in which people lose jobs and businesses close down, that family has no leeway, no flexibility, no safety net. They are done.
So, what is to be done?
Well, first it is important for people and families all over the state to take stock of their situation. Find out if you are eligible for income supports and find out where your income places you in terms of income stability in your county.
Second, this country needs to adopt a poverty line that is based in the reality of people's lives. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which is currently being developed by the United States Census Bureau, will take into account the local cost of living, public aid, and other aspects of real life. This new measure will give us a real sense of impoverishment in our state, and a real sense of what we need to do to help those people living in the greatest economic instability.
7/29/2010
The Self-Sufficiency Standard versus an Insufficient Standard
7/28/2010
Remeasuring Poverty
When the United States government measures poverty, they use a standard that was created based on the percentage of earnings that a family spent on food in the 1960's which has been adjusted for inflation of the last five decades and applies that standard across the entire country. There are many problems with this, but the three big ones are:
- Different areas of the country have vastly different costs of living;
- The percentage of earnings that a family spends on food has changed over the years (From 1/3 of earnings in the 1960's to 1/7 of earnings now);
- The current measure does not take into account public supports like the Earned Income Tax Credit, thereby missing the opportunity to assess the success of such programs.
Supplemental Poverty Measure Explained is an animated video discussing the history of the poverty measure and the importance of the supplemental poverty measure that is currently being developed by the US Census Bureau.
The Center for American Progress has released "Ask The Expert: Fixing the Federal Poverty Measure", an interview with Melissa Boteach, the Half In Ten Campaign Manager, in which Melissa discusses some of the finer points of what is wrong with the federal poverty measure, what will be measured through the Supplemental Poverty Measure, and the importance of getting an accurate measure of poverty in this country.
What Gets Measured Gets Done, written by Melissa Boteach and Jitinder Kohli and published by The Center for American Progress specifically discusses the implications of an accurate poverty measure on public policies and public supports aimed at assisting impoverished families.
On March 4th, 2010, the brilliantly titled, "Five Questions for Someone Smart" podcast from miccheckradio.org presents Melissa Boteach's answers to the following five questions about poverty measures in the United States:
- Can you explain how the traditional poverty measure worked?
- Can you discuss a little why we need a supplemental poverty measure?
- Let's discuss things that the new measure will change and won't change from the traditional measure, especially when it comes to government and unemployment benefits.
- Can you explain how this supplemental measure will promote efficient governance across the country?
- Can you discuss the state of poverty in our nation today and the importance of congress tackling the issue within the next decade?
The From Poverty To Opportunity Campaign and the Commission for the Elimination of Poverty are working toward fighting poverty using just such a comprehensive poverty measure as the Half In Ten campaign is advocating. Because it is not enough to assess how much a family earns compared to an out-of-date standard. Fighting poverty is about ensuring that families and individuals have access to sage, decent and affordable housing; access to adequate food and nutrition; access to affordable and quality healthcare; equal access to quality education and training; dependable and affordable transportation; access to quality and affordable child care; opportunities to engage in meaningful and sustainable work; and the availability of adequate income supports.
Poverty is not just about comparing incomes- it is about fulfilling the human right to a standard of living that has been promised by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Illinois State Constitution. Read More......
7/22/2010
The TIF tiff over affordable housing
There is an ordinance before the Chicago City Council to devote 20% of the City's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars to the development of affordable housing. The Sweet Home Chicago Coalition (SHC) is leading the charge to get Aldermen to pass the ordinance.
Tax Increment Financing: Basically, TIFs were intended to take property tax revenues and direct them to helping redevelop blighted neighborhoods. Since 1986, when TIFs started, they have generated $3.5 billion dollars. Seems like a pretty simple, good idea, right?
Except that, according to the SHC report, Who's Getting Your Tax Dollars?,
While some of those dollars go for public improvements or cultural institutions that benefit many Chicagoans, a large amount has been funneled to private corporations to rehab new office space....Ummm.... UPS (the largest package delivery company in the world) received TIF money. MillerCoors received TIF money. Willis Holdings (of Willis Tower) received TIF money. Quaker Oats received TIF money. QUAKER OATS! (You can learn all you ever wanted and more about how Chicago has used TIFs at the Chicago Reader.)
And while this does seem ridiculous, there could be some legitimate reasons behind such moves. For example; Give TIF money as incentive for companies to locate their offices in the city which then brings jobs.
The point being that while there is money out there to help with redeveloping poor neighborhoods there is little oversight into how much of the TIF money goes to developing affordable housing and no oversight in ensuring that the neighborhoods that do benefit from TIF funds will remain affordable to impoverished people.
From the Sweet Home Chicago Fact Sheet:
- Between 1995 and 2007 only 4% of TIF funds went toward developing affordable housing.
- Within 50% of the wards that received TIF funds, at least half of the housing units paid for by TIF were too expensive for current residents.
Which leads to the Sweet Home Chicago pushing Chicago Aldermen and Mayor Richard Daley to support an ordinance before the City Council which would dedicate 20% of each year's TIF money to the development of affordable housing. If this ordinance were currently in effect, it would have presented the city of Chicago with an estimated $100 million from last year's TIF, which could have really helped out the city's affordable housing market.
Housing developers would only be eligible for the dedicated Affordable Housing TIF funds if 50% of the units constructed are affordable to a household earning less than 50% of the area median income (AMI: $37,700 for a family of 4). In addition, 40% of the units created citywide must be affordable to a household earning less than 30% of the AMI ($22,600 for a family of 4).
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has posted a list of Aldermen who have signed on as sponsors of this ordinance.
Take a look at the list.
If your Alderman is on it, please get in contact with them and thank them for voting to help Chicago's most vulnerable. If your Alderman is not of the list, please contact them and tell them that you, as their constituent, want them to support the ordinance dedicating TIF funds to the development of affordable housing.
After all, if we can help Quaker Oats, why not help people in need? Read More......
7/21/2010
July 29th Telebriefing on Human Rights Advocacy
From 3 to 4 PM on Thursday, July 29th, The Opportunity Agenda will be hosting a telebriefing to examine various developments in human rights advocacy and efforts toward the ratification of human rights treaties.
Speakers will include:
- David Morrisey, Executive Director of the US International Council on Disabilities
- June Zeitlin, Director of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Education Project at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Ejim Dike, Director of Human Rights at the Urban Justice Center
- Julie Rowe, Framing and Messaging Coordinator of the Opportunity Agenda
7/20/2010
Meetings for Human Service Providers to be Held Across the State
Two New Laws Impacting Those in Poverty Now in Effect
With the beginning of the new fiscal year, there are two laws that went into effect July 1 that impact individuals experiencing poverty.
1) No Fee State Identification for those Experiencing Homelessness
As of July 1st, the $20 fee for state identification will be waived for individuals that can document they are experiencing homelessness. The Secretary of State's office has set up a process, per the statute, for receiving a no fee waiver. Information on the process can be found on the Secretary of State's website. For more information, please see our post on the new law.
2) Changes to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
The following changes to the state's Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program to effect on July 1st:
- shifting the eligibility for cash assistance to all families with earned income below 50% of the federal poverty line (extreme poverty). Prior to July 1st, only families with earned incomes below 30% of the FPL were eligible.
- requiring benefits to be paid within 30 days of the date of application instead of 45 days;
- making benefits payable from the date of application rather than 30 days after application;
- allowing applicants 30 days after their application before they are required to participate in work-related activities; and
- disregarding-once an application is approved-three-fourths instead of two-thirds of a recipient's earned income; this encourages employment and keeps eligible for limited assistance those families with earned income until they reach the federal poverty level.
Through the Family Violence Option (FVO), previously known in Illinois as the Domestic Violence Exclusion, any program requirement may be waived when compliance would make it more difficult to escape the violence, when compliance would put an individual at further risk of violence, or when compliance would unfairly penalize an individual who is or has been victimized. This waiver includes victims of sexual violence.
More details on these changes can be found in a fact sheet (pdf) produced by the Shriver Center.
Read More......Updates on the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign and the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty
The From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign
Campaign staff have been focused on providing support to the Commission over the past few months. In particular, the Campaign worked on ensuring those impacted by poverty were able to make their voice heard at the Commission's public hearings. This Winter and Spring, three public hearings were held throughout Illinois. Thanks to the support of the Chicago Foundation of Women, the Campaign was able to provide those experiencing poverty critical supports - food, childcare, transportation costs reimbursement - to make sure they could make their voice heard at the hearings.
Go to YouTube to watch an excerpt from some testimony given at the southern Illinois public hearing.
In the coming months, the Campaign will focus on the advocacy strategy needed to ensure Illinois' decision makers adopt the human rights recommendations in the Commission's plan. This next year will be very active on legislative, budgetary, and administrative fronts as we press for the incremental changes needed to realize the 2015 goal.
Look for opportunities to help us strategize and get more involved in the coming months. Have innovative ideas on how to get more people and organizations involved in the effort? Drop us a line.
The Commission on the Elimination of Poverty
The Commission on the Elimination of Poverty has been dilligently working over the past several months to develop its Poverty Elimination Strategic Plan to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 in Illinois. The Commission's three working groups - Living with Dignity, Making Work Accessible, and Making Work Pay - wrapped up their work in early June, turning over their recommendations to the full Commission and the Steering Committee. Since that time, the Commission's Steering Committee has been reviewing the recommendation and discussing how to refine and organize them for the final plan which is now slated to be released in November.
The new November release date is the result of The Commission on the Elimination of Poverty being able to work with the Urban Institute over the next few months to measure the potential impact of particular recommendation on the state's comprehensive poverty rate. The Urban Institute has done similar work with the Half in Ten Campaign, the Minnesota Legislative Commission to End Poverty, and the Connecticut Commission on Children.
This modeling work, which relies on using a comprehensive poverty measure that better reflects the full range factors that impact whether someone is living in poverty, will allow the commission to uphold its charge to produce substantive, measurable recommendations.
Watch for opportunities to learn more about alternative poverty measures in the coming months.
Have questions about the Commission? Contact us and we will be happy to help out.
7/19/2010
Illinois Poverty News Weekly
July 12th to July 18th
Health Department Cuts Tabled by Board- St. Charles Republican, by Hal Conick, 7/15/2010
Lending Crisis May Hit Libraries - Chicago Tribune, by Joseph Ruzich, 7/14/2010
State Sells $900M in Bonds- Chicago Sun Times, by David Roeder, 7/15/2010
Treasury Loans May Not Solve Illinois' Fiscal Woes, After All- Progress Illinois, by Aricka Flowers, 7/14/2010
Obama HIV/AIDS Plan Could Revitalize Local Work, Activists Say- Chicago Tribune, by Dahleen Glanton, 7/13/2010
7/12/2010
Illinois Poverty News Weekly
July 6th to July 11th,
As State Cuts Aid, a Scramble to Get Benefits for the Homeless, Chicago Public Radio, Gabriel Spitzer, July 9th, 2010
Illinois Budget Keeps Arc Running Day-to-Day, WQAD.com, John David, July 9th, 2010
