Williamson County Daily Republican
April 9, 2010
Testimony for the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, which hosted its final hearing to collect ideas for a plan to cut the state’s extreme poverty rate in half by 2015.
From Williamson County Daily Republican:
The wisdom of Madison County resident Christy Pace caught the attention of a state poverty elimination panel Thursday night.
“Those who start in poverty stay in poverty when they don’t have some kind of success to pull them out,” Pace told members of the Heartland Alliance’s Commission on the Elimination of Poverty.
Pace told her story of growing up poor and still living in poverty while fighting mental illness and caring for her children and mother.
“I’ve always worked hard, but it’s not enough,” Pace said of trying to survive on less than $12,000 annually. “For people in poverty, empowerment needs to be stressed. Get them to say, ‘hey, I can do this.'”
Pace and others shared testimony for the CEP, which hosted its final hearing to collect ideas for a plan to cut the state’s extreme poverty rate in half by 2015. According to CEP data from 2007, 667,500 live below 50 percent of the federal poverty threshold. An additional 858,600 Illinoisans live 50-100 percent of the poverty mark.
All told, 1.5 million residents—11.9 percent—live in poverty as of 2007. Estimates for 2009 added another 405,000 to the poverty line and 257,000 to extreme poverty.
Commission member Eithne McMenamin, a senior policy analyst for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, noted poverty stretched past common conceptions of the poor population.
“It’s not necessarily a bootstraps issue—a change in work ethic,” she said. “How can we address the people who are in the shadows of society?”
Terry Solomon, executive director of the Illinois African-American Family Commission, said a combination of lost jobs and wages endangered family life. She cited Centralia as one example of lost industry hurting families and the community.
“As businesses leave, it creates a void and there are no resources,” Solomon said. “A family who doesn’t have the income to take care of basic needs is more likely to abuse children, have mental issues or self-medicate with alcohol and other drugs.”
