I recently had the opportunity to give a speech focused on the campaign to the Peer-to-Peer conference in Springfield for the state's homeless service providers put on by the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies and the regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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I want to thank the Illinois Community Action Association, particularly Dalitso Sulamoyo, Al Timke and John Colgan for inviting me to speak today and for their strong support for the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign. I would also like to thank HUD’s regional office for making this conference possible, in particular Ray Canchola, Ray Willis, and Regional Director Joseph P. Galvan.
Let me set the stage for my remarks with this quote from the preamble to the Illinois Constitution:
"We, the People of the State of Illinois… in order to… eliminate poverty and
inequality; assure legal, social and economic justice; provide opportunity for
the fullest development of the individual; do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the State of Illinois."
Do me a favor – Could I see a show of hands for how many people knew this statement is in our Constitution? Few people do. So, let me ask you to keep those words in mind as I go over a few numbers.
As you may or may not know, one of the things we do at Heartland Alliance is produce an annual report on Illinois poverty. From our research we know that close 1.4 million people in Illinois are living at or below the poverty line – which is currently about $21,000 a year for a family of four. Close to 700,000 – the entire population of Washington D.C. plus another 100,000 individuals – are living in extreme poverty, which is half of the poverty line. So take that $21,000 a year for a family of four and cut it in half.
To put that level of poverty in context, if you are a family of three living in extreme poverty you are making just under $700 a month. If you renting a two bedroom apartment here in Springfield at the current fair market rent, you are pay just under $600 a month for that apartment, which means, after paying for rent, you have approximately $100 left for every thing else you have to pay for that month – food, clothing, transportation, healthcare, school supplies – everything.
Those experiencing extreme poverty are at the head of the pin. Think of a hardship, and those living in extreme poverty are most likely going to be hit first and hardest. Over half of those in extreme poverty in Illinois are without health insurance. People in extreme poverty are three times as likely to be living in crowded housing. What might be a minor crisis in our lives – a trip to the emergency room, a death in the family – can be a devastating event in their lives that may take years to recover from.
Our research also tells us that no place, no demographic is immune to poverty. Our last poverty report showed 87 counties in Illinois saw an increase in poverty over the previous year. Moreover, extreme poverty is everywhere. It exists in our cities, and it exists in our rural communities. If you make a list of the ten counties in our state with the highest concentrations of extreme poverty, Cook County is not on there. St. Claire is not on there. Jackson, Pulaski, Hardin, Gallatin are on there. It is also in northeastern Illinois. The collar counties around Chicago have seen incredible increases in extreme poverty, with Kane seeing over a 24% increase and McHenry over a 50% increase between 1999 and 2005. Men, women, children – people of all races, all ages, with and without disabilities – experience poverty.
I could go on listing numbers that shock and anger for the next thirty minutes, but this is a room full of people that know what poverty is and what in means in the day-to-day lives of those experiencing it. You know very well that anyone can end up experiencing poverty, experiencing homelessness. You know that poverty is not just some statistic – that it is families and individuals with names and stories and lives.
This is also a room full of people very familiar the concept of plans to end things. I am sure if I were to survey this room one by one about the concept and execution of various plans to end homelessness, I would get responses that range from hopeful to frustrated to cynical.
This frustration and cynicism is a reasonable response to two interrelated issues. The first is that too many individuals see the concept of ending homelessness as a rhetorical devise. They say it because it sounds good, but they are not prepared to address all the complex barriers that create homelessness, including tearing down the de-humanizing stereotypes that far too many people rely on to categorize people experiencing homelessness. If homelessness is dismissed as a series of bad decisions and individual failings, than systems change will not occur.
The second area springs from the first – the failure to provide adequate resources and leadership to truly make homelessness a thing of the past.
This is why I believe there must be a fundamental shift in how we think and talk about homelessness and poverty. Addressing these issues cannot be about charity – it is about a fundamental obligation we have collectively as society to bring them to an end. It is about human rights.
The From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign has been doing a series of what we call action forums around the state. As of last night’s forum in Centreville, we have done 13 of them, with ten or so more to go. To date, we have had close to 600 individuals participate in these events. One of the things the campaign has done at some of the forums is make two lists – First, we ask participants to say the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the words ‘human rights.’ Next, we ask them to say the first words that come to mind when they hear ‘poverty.’ Every time we do this exercise, I am struck by the lists that are created. We see two ends of the spectrum. Where people say ‘housing’ for human rights, they say ‘homelessness’ for poverty. Where people say ‘health care’ for human rights, they say ‘illness’ for poverty. Where people say ‘opportunity’ for human rights, they say ‘barriers’ for poverty. Where people say ‘equality’ for human rights, they say ‘discrimination’ for poverty.
Poverty is the absence of human rights. When people begin to think of poverty in those terms, they begin to shift their priorities. Our efforts to address poverty can no longer be put on the back burner – they must be front and center and be focused on the goal of bringing poverty to an end.
This is why Heartland Alliance initiated the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois. The campaign has set the goal of cutting extreme poverty in half by the year 2015 in our state, mirroring the international goals set through the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. This goal will be achieved through establishing a legislative commission during the 2008 legislative session that will be charged with creating and monitoring a Poverty Eradication Strategy for Illinois. The strategy will be a measurable, substantive plan that will address the host of issues that impact poverty – housing, hunger, transportation, education, jobs, health care, and others. Moreover, this plan will be grounded in human rights standards.
I sincerely believe this is an achievable goal. Some of you may have heard of Muhammad Yunus. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Indonesia with micro credit – giving small loans to the poor. He made the following statement in his speech when he received the prize:
"I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not
created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and
social system that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts
that make up that system; the policies that we pursue."
To that end, this campaign is much about developing the political will to address poverty head on as it is about creating the substantive plans that will bring it to an end. We are building a grassroots human rights movement that allows us to raise our collective voice to the leaders in our state, telling them that ending poverty is a priority that they must address.
Several months ago, I met with a state legislator about the campaign, and the legislator drew me a picture. It was clock. The hour hand symbolized public policy and the action of our elected officials. The minute hand symbolized us, the public. The legislator used this illustration to make two points. One – the hour hand moves slooowly. Two – the hour hand does not move forward without the minute hand. The policies and priorities of our government does not change without pressure – without movement – from us.
And when I say us, let me be clear that it is not just those of us sitting in this room. It is our neighbors who are not engaged this type of work, it is our congregations and temples and mosques, it is our businesses. Most importantly, it is the people who are or have experienced poverty. They know what barriers they have faced in their lives. They know what they need in their lives to have real opportunity. Without their voice, their leadership at the table, we are not only missing critical insight into what needs to be done, but we are failing to honor human rights values themselves – respecting the capacity and contributions of any and all individuals.
I also want to be clear that the obligation to end poverty does not solely rest on the shoulders of government. This is a universal responsibility. Each of us can and do honor our role in meeting this obligation in different ways. We do it through talking about poverty and working to break down stereotypes and misconceptions. We do it by treating those experiencing poverty with respect and dignity. We do it by pushing the private sector to improve working conditions and wages. We do it by not giving up on this long, entrenched struggle.
Allow me to make one more clarification before I go on. When I say “human rights”, I am referring to a continuum of rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural. None of these rights can be fully realized without realization of the others. We will never fully achieve civil rights without an honest conversation about economic rights, and economic rights cannot be achieved without realizing civil rights. Let me put that in blunter terms. Discrimination is real. We must not shy away from discussing and addressing discrimination – be it race, gender, age, sexual orientation, national origin or disability – if we are going to end poverty. Dividing and compartmentalizing these issues as though they are not interrelated and interdependent only keeps us from achieving our goal.
Now, some say that this idea of human rights is too foreign. That it has meaning in developing nations where extreme poverty is defined as making less than $1 a day, but in stable democracy like the United States, it is not a useful concept.
As you might imagine, I have a couple responses to this thought. There is a United Nations document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Let me share with you a couple of lines from the Declaration, first a line from the preamble, then one of the articles:
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
What you may not know is that the United States was one of the primary authors of this document and one of the first nations to sign it. Many of the rights that are listed in this document have been added to our domestic body of law, especially those addressing civil and political rights. These rights are part of our history as nation and are as applicable here as they are in any other part of the world.
That being said, we do not have the greatest track record of protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights domestically. We have taken steps away ensuring the “right to security” and our nation has chosen not to ratify several key human rights treaties that have sprung from the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most notably, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by every country that is a member of the United Nations except for two – Somalia and the United States. In light of the key role the U.S. has historically played in framing human rights, this failure is especially troubling.
Another reason I believe human rights is not too foreign is that people truly believe in human rights. I used to work at Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, a Chicago-based organization that does great work providing legal assistance to low-income tenant facing eviction and poor living conditions. At one point in that job, I was meeting with a group of people that all had been evicted from their home. All of them were living near or below the poverty line. One of the questions I asked of the group was, “What do you believe?” Without hesitation, one man said, “Everybody should be able to put a roof over their head.” The rest of the room nodded emphatically in agreement. This was not a “human rights” conversation with a capital H and a capital R; this was a conversation about their lives, what they have experienced and what they believe. It was grounded in faith, in the promises of our nation, and a basic vision of fairness. It was the essence of human rights.
Finally, while the numbers may be different when we look at extreme poverty in the United States versus extreme poverty in developing nations, the real impact on people’s lives is strikingly similar. Poverty excludes people from society. It pushes them to the margins. It labels them as “other.” And that is the same regardless of where you are.
As I have already said, I sincerely believe we can end poverty in our state. It will take time, it will take effort, it will take resources, and it will take leadership, but it can happen. The key to its success is working together. Speaking in a loud, collective voice and saying that freedom from poverty is a human right and we must – we must – create and execute a comprehensive plan that will bring it to its end. The From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign is a vehicle for bringing vision into reality. There are many ways to get involved, from participating and encouraging others to participate in one of the remaining forums, to becoming part of or even starting a local working group for the campaign, to talking to your neighbors, your colleagues, your community about the importance of being involved, to reaching out to your elected officials and telling about the campaign and that you want them show leadership as legislation on creating a plan to end poverty in Illinois comes to them 2008 and on the execution of the plan that comes from that legislation.
One simple step you can do right now is endorse the campaign. The From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign’s endorsement form is in your materials. Fill it out and return it to the registration desk. By endorsing, you declare your support for the campaign and get hooked into a network that already consists of hundreds of organizations and individuals throughout Illinois.
Let me close by bringing you back to our Constitution.
in order to… eliminate poverty and inequality; assure legal, social and economic
justice.
We can make that more than just words on a page. Together we can make it reality. Thank you.
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