[Peace-discuss] Re: [CUCPJ Announce] Town Hall Discussion - The Face of Poverty

[Nora Whipple]

And to change the area, you might have to call in your area's HUD office if politics are still playing a role in who gets into public housing when.  IE:  More people of one ethnic background than another, people who commit crimes like stalking gaining residency over abused family members who need domicile from their known abuser and if Edward Bland is still the Director of the Champaign Housing Authority as well as Kerri Forthsyth still being employed by the City of Champaign and Kathy Sims is still the Director of the Center for Women In Transition.  I guarantee if you replace these people with non-racial people who uphold the integrity of the homeless, you'll also solve a lot of the city's problems.  I'll go more in depth later.  
   
  Keep the Faith and the Ball Rolling,
   
  Nora E. Whipple 

Marti <tvchick at insightbb.com> wrote: 
        st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }                Report on City of Champaign Township “The Face of Poverty” Town Hall
   
  By Marti Wilkinson
   
  On Thursday April 5, 2007 the City of Champaign Township held a town hall meeting where the theme dealt with “The Face of Poverty” in Illinois and the impact that extreme poverty has on the Champaign community. Linda Abernathy, township supervisor chaired the event which brought together panel speakers from Heartland Alliance and the Champaign community. 
   
  Representing Heartland Alliance that evening were Amy Rynell, Director, and Doug Schenkelberg, Associate Director of Policy.  Kimberly Muhammad, Head Caseworker for the City of Champaign Township;  Charlene Stevens, RN, BSN CU Public Health District; and Paulette Colemon, Supervisor Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) all shared experiences of what it is like trying to help the individuals who live in extreme poverty in the Champaign area. 
   
  A documentary called “The Face of Poverty” produced by students at the University of Illinois poignantly showed the very real human impact that extreme poverty has on the community.  Beginning the panel Abernathy said the students “caught the vision, they caught the idea that we were talking about poverty.”  Additionally Abernathy explained that what it means to be poor is “to be excluded, to be discriminated against, [and] to have even your basic needs denied.” She pointed out that there are not many people who are capable of thinking about poverty in a tangible way unless it comes from experience. 
   
  For a community that enjoys great wealth Champaign is also a place where the poorest of the poor fall through the cracks and it is these individuals who Abernathy and her office tries to help.  In February of 2007 Abernathy’s office was forced to cut over 50 percent of people who live in extreme poverty from their rolls due to a lack of funding a situation she calls “an unspeakable tragedy
we are not talking about data or statistics
we are talking about human beings who have fallen into dire straits”
   
  Schenkelberg explained that a person who is living in extreme poverty is someone who has an income of 50 percent or less than the poverty level established by the federal government. For one person the poverty level is an annual income of $9,800 with the extreme poverty level being $4,900. In the course of his presentation Schenkelberg showed a map of Illinois where counties in black have an extreme poverty level above 5 percent. The southern part of Illinois has the highest concentration of counties that live in extreme poverty, while Cook County (Chicago) has a rate of 1.5 percent. 
   
  This dispels the myth that poverty is an urban issue. Of the counties that have an extreme poverty level in black one of them is Champaign County. Schenkelberg places the rate of extreme poverty in Champaign County to be 9.1 percent and “that translates to just over 15,000 people living in extreme poverty.”  Housing, childcare, and food represent the three biggest expenses and basic needs for individuals and families and extreme poverty makes it impossible to meet these needs that are fundamental to survival.  Of all the Midwestern states Illinois has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of extreme poverty. Other statistics shared by Schenkelberg, for every housing unit that is available there are two families in need. In the state of Illinois many housing authorities have had to close their waiting lists for Section 8 vouchers. In simple terms this means that eligible people and families are not able to even get on a waiting list.  Also many of the
 people who are living in poverty are working. 
   
  The documentary shown at the meeting featured individuals who have been impacted by the cutbacks on assistance from the township. In the case of Virginia Welker she is unable to work for medical reasons and has been forced to move in with friends. She tearfully describes having to be hospitalized and being subjected to having an employee describe her as a “charity case”. “It broke my heart
I’m not a charity case I’m a human being” says Welker. Former cab driver William Rife talked about waking up one day and not being able to get out of bad.  His inability to even sit up eventually resulted in the loss of his job. Other individuals who spoke on the documentary include individuals who work with people who are dealing with poverty. Claudia Lenhoff talked about how she felt seeing millions of dollars are being poured into Downtown Champaign and development while the township is asking for peanuts by comparison just to help the poorest of the poor. Later during at the meeting
 Ms. Lenhoff pointed out that the upcoming election for city council presents an opportunity to put people in office that will support the township and their efforts to provide assistance.  There are currently three at large city council positions that will be filled during the election on April 17, 2007 and the candidates who support the township are Giraldo Rosales, Patricia Avery, and Annette Williams. 
   
  During the panel discussion Kimberly Muhammad said, “You never know why someone is there, everyone has a story. I had one client who was a professor at the U of I and went through a horrible divorce [and] lost everything.” The former professor eventually suffered from a mental breakdown and ended up in township while waiting to receive SSI disability. The professor represents just one of several very well educated individuals who she saw. The downward spiral that resulted in people going to township is a process that can take many years. “What I saw happen to them is just called life,” says Muhammad,” Life happens and none of us, at some point, can always determine or always work out exactly how we want our lives to go.”  
   
  Charlene Stevens described trying to help a family that had just relocated from Chicago and their son who had asthma. The boy missed 40 days of school because he did not have the medication he needed to keep his illness under control. Stevens said that every day presents challenges be it a 5 year old boy in need of an inhaler or a 90 year old senior citizen needing other resources. The cutting of funding away from the City of Champaign Township has had an impact on her being able to find resources for the people she works with on a daily basis. 
   
  “We need to look at eliminating poverty from a different vision . . . living outside of poverty is not a privilege it’s a basic human right”, said Schenkelberg. Heartland Alliance is currently offering a “From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois” which sets the goal of cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015. Information is available at http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/aboutthecampaign.html.
   
   

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