Study finds rise in Ill. poverty

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The recession likely has pushed hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans into poverty, according to a study released Thursday, and two leading indicators – use of food stamps and emergency food assistance – appear to support that assertion.

More than 400,000 people have fallen into poverty statewide since 2007, an increase of about 27 percent, a study from the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty projects.

McHenry County residents have not been immune to the effects of the recession, the study shows.

The most recent Census data on poverty are from 2007, so the projections were based on the relationship between unemployment and poverty, established during the last three recessions, said Amy Rynell, the poverty institute’s executive director.

“The magnitude of our projection is very upsetting,” Rynell said. “We’ve never seen an increase in poverty over a two-year period that is anywhere near this large, and important mechanisms to address it are not strong enough.”

In McHenry County, the study shows that food pantry visits increased 52 percent between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008.

The Woodstock Food Pantry, for example, had 624 clients at the beginning of 2008, said Virginia Peschke, executive director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of McHenry County, a Woodstock-based nonprofit agency.

By the end of the year, 902 clients used the food pantry’s services, Peschke said. The FISH Food Pantry in McHenry served 465 families in March, up 262 from the previous year.

Dennis Smith, Northern Illinois Food Bank’s executive director, which serves food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in 13 counties, said he did not doubt the institute’s accuracy.

“My wife volunteers at one of the food pantries ... and just about every story she told me was about people who never went to a pantry before, never had help before,” but now they lost their jobs, Smith said. “The stories are unending.”

Food banks are seeing a big surge in individuals and families requesting assistance, and the Illinois Department of Human Services says the state’s emergency food program has distributed 36 percent more food in the first three quarters of the state’s 2009 fiscal year, which began last July, than it did in the entire previous year.

More than 672,000 households used food stamps last month, up 14 percent, or an additional 82,300 households, since December 2007, state Department of Human Services data show.

Despite the rise in food aid, Rynell said, an estimated 79 percent of residents eligible for welfare assistance are not receiving it, and the state budget crisis has hurt the government’s ability to help those in need.

The report also released figures on foreclosures, stating that the number filed in McHenry County increased more than 100 percent between 2006 and 2008.

Counselors at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of McHenry County have seen the result of that increase, said Peschke, executive director of the Woodstock nonprofit agency that helps clients become financially stable.

The number of clients going through foreclosure has doubled in recent years, Peschke said. And, instead of waiting five to 10 days for an appointment, clients have to wait up to a month.

“I just hired four new housing counselors, and we still can’t keep up with the demand,” she said.

Sue Rose of the McHenry County Housing Authority also has seen an increase in the number of families who have lost their homes to foreclosure in the past three years.

“When I started here almost 14 years ago, I used to see one foreclosure a year, and now I get calls every day of people in foreclosures,” Rose said. “People who have already lost their homes to foreclosures have gone on to rent homes that are not affordable to them, and we’re getting the people who are evicted from those homes. It’s pretty astounding.”

The state’s jobless rate was 9.1 percent in March, the highest in more than 23 years, and the number of unemployed was at a 25-year high of 596,000. And in McHenry County, unemployment reached 9.2 percent in February, according to the study.