The Huffington Post

 

February 21, 2014

 

 

From The Huffington Post:

 

This winter has been one for the record books. Wind chills have closed in on -30 and below, and with the exception of the recent warm snap we’ve rarely seen temperatures above freezing, not to mention the record-breaking snowfall. It’s really been an inconvenience, assuming you have somewhere to warm up. But for thousands this winter, warmth is a luxury they don’t have.

Last year 6,276 people were found to be homeless in Chicago, a number that is tallied by way of a one-night count. On one cold night in January, volunteers comb the streets in an attempt to count every individual who is homeless on that night. This count is extremely important — the federal government relies on the numbers gathered through this effort to determine the amount of funding it will provide to programs and agencies serving those who are homeless.

The count is an enormous undertaking and the system is not perfect. It offers a snapshot of one night rather than a holistic picture of trends in homelessness, and it doesn’t capture those who have lost their homes but are living doubled-up with friends and relatives. Nevertheless, it’s the best tool we have and it’s built on a sound strategy. During the winter, shelter usage is high and people can be most easily counted in that environment. To find the remaining individuals, volunteers are sent out.

This year this invaluable count fell on a below-zero night — a now all too familiar occurrence – and when I leave my office at Heartland Alliance, the Midwest’s leading anti-poverty organization, where I work, and am met with bitter cold, I think back to it. I couldn’t be there, but Heartland Alliance’s dedicated staff was out in force and the next morning I was excited to hear their stories. One that sticks with me to this day is the story of John, who our volunteers met in a train station.

When our staff surveyed him about his experience in homelessness, John told them that he came from a home where he always had enough to eat and didn’t worry about having a bed at night. In that home however, he had experienced violence and struck out on his own at an early age to escape it, enduring homelessness on and off and struggling with addiction. But today life was looking up — he was two months sober and had a job interview the next day.

What sticks with me most however is something John told our team just before they left. The team had given him a blanket and warm gloves, but what he was most thankful for was that they’d taken the time to listen to him. “It’s so hard to keep hope alive,” he said. “I have no one to talk to. You guys helped me get my hope back because you didn’t judge me, you helped me get back to a positive place.”

It’s this blend of service and connection that we take such great pride in here at Heartland Alliance. We know that the way out of poverty is through housing, healthcare, jobs and justice — the building blocks of a safe, stable, healthy life — combined with personalized support. It’s an approach that works for hundreds of thousands throughout the Midwest each year, but so many more are still left out in the cold.

These vital services are key to ending poverty and homelessness, but as crucial as they are, they are equally underfunded. So far there have been 21 cold-related deaths in the Chicagoland area and those who are homeless are especially at risk. As we all muddle through this winter, it’s time we redouble our resolve to eliminate homelessness and to say that each and every person deserves a roof over their head, a safe, warm place to sleep at night — and a path out of poverty. We need a robust safety net that not only provides emergency support to those in poverty, but that prevents homelessness, illness, joblessness and injustice.

 

 

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The Southern Illinoisian

 

February 3, 2014

 

 

From The Southern Illinoisian:

 

Fifty years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty, the percentage of Illinoisans living in poverty is about the same as it was then, according to a study released last week.

The percentage of Illinoisans living in poverty was

14.7, or 1.4 million, in 1960, four years before LBJ announced the federal strategy to eradicate poverty; the same percentage of the state’s residents, now about

1.9 million, lived below the federal poverty line in 2012, the report from Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance revealed.

“That is not to say there haven’t been gains,” the center’s associate director Amy Terpstra said. “On the surface, the poverty rate is about the same as it was

50 years ago but there have been some pretty significant changes.”

Among them, she said, is a lessening of “incredibly deep poverty.”

“In 1960, 68 of Illinois’ 102 counties had poverty rates of over 20 percent; today there are 10,” she said. “Poverty does exist in every part of the state. I think we often forget Chicago and the suburbs are dealing with increases in poverty whereas the rural areas have remained relatively flat.”

Other findings in the report include a reduction in poverty for the elderly, thanks to Medicare and Social Security; and a slight decrease in poverty because of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as “food stamps”) and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

However, more children are living in poverty, about

21 percent in 2012, as compared to 16.5 percent in 1960; and the poverty rate for blacks, while down 3 percentage points since 1960, remained high in 2012 at about

32 percent.

The rate among Latinos hasn’t changed much, about 21 percent in 1960 and 2012, according to the report.

The working poor, despite early gains made during the War on Poverty, were hit hard in the 2000s, especially after the Great Recession, Terpstra said.

Many Southern Illinois counties continue to struggle with high unemployment — Franklin County had the highest unemployment rate in the state at 12.4 percent in November.

“Unemployment is really a flawed measure that doesn’t account for people who are underemployed or so discouraged that they’ve given up. The true unemployment rate is higher than the statistics show,” she said. “When I see 10 percent or higher, I know there is a lot of economic distress.”

The quality of jobs has declined while the price of everything else has gone up, she said.

“In Southern Illinois conditions are exacerbated by an already weakened economic structure. Add in budget cuts and there are fewer resources for the safety nets needed when unemployment is so high. Add all these factors and the area is ripe for hardship.”

A poverty rate measure that is “grossly out of touch with reality,” for instance, defined as an annual income below $23,850 for a family of four, may mean many of the working poor are just beyond the eligibility threshold for assistance.

That’s something director Vicki Seagle witnesses every day at the Benton-West City Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry.

“Since the recession hit, we’ve seen more of the working poor. They can’t make ends meet but they don’t qualify for assistance. It’s devastating to these individuals and families,” she said.

 

 

 

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The Huffington Post

 

February 3, 2014

 

 

From The Huffington Post:

A few days ago, the Social IMPACT Research Center, a program of Heartland Alliance, released its yearly report on the state of poverty in Illinois, and it’s proven what we’ve known for a long time — our economy simply isn’t working for all too many hard-working Americans anymore. On the surface, it seems our recent economic downturn has wiped out the progress made through the War on Poverty — as it did in 1960, the poverty rate sits at about 15 percent today. That number doesn’t tell the whole story, though. The face of poverty is changing quickly, and it’s cause for alarm as women, workers and minority communities are increasingly falling behind. To echo President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, it’s time to give America a raise.

Fifty years ago, when then-President Johnson declared the War on Poverty, more often than not even lower-income jobs paid a living wage. In those days, if you were working, you could provide for your family. Today, however, workers don’t necessarily enjoy that benefit. Case in point: 388,000 Illinoisans who are in poverty live in households where someone is working full-time. This is the new face of poverty — workers who, despite playing by the rules and putting in long hours, can barely pay the rent.

Women too find themselves increasingly behind the eight ball, earning just 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. The ramifications of this discrepancy are not only unjust, they’re a recipe for disaster, especially among low-wage women, who are already struggling to stay afloat amidst rising child care and transportation costs. This is the new face of poverty — women struggling, often on their own, just to keep their children fed.

As in 1960, minority communities continue to be disproportionately affected. Today, more than 44 percent of African-American children and nearly 28 percent of Latino children in Illinois live in poverty. Rates of unemployment are a core issue contributing to this cycle — in African-American communities alone nearly half of men between 16 and 24 in Illinois are unemployed and looking for work, but unable to find a job. What can we expect people to do when they’re ready, willing and able to work, but the jobs simply aren’t there and, to make matters worse, the public programs they need to keep their families fed and housed in the interim are disintegrating under the weight of budget cuts?

The programs envisioned through the War on Poverty create a robust social safety net, which can provide the support that gives people a chance to pursue a safe, stable, healthy future. Social Security and Medicare alone prove it to be true. Created and expanded through the War on Poverty, they have reduced elderly poverty dramatically over these 50 years from nearly 33 percent to less than 10 percent. That’s real success that proves the value of public programs to those who are living on the edge of destitution.

Now the face of poverty has changed, but at Heartland Alliance, the leading anti-poverty organization in the Midwest, where I work, our 125 years of experience have shown us the importance of rebuilding what was once an integrated, invigorated safety net. By increasing the minimum wage, protecting state funding for benefit programs, and supporting job training programs, we can create an environment in which people thrive.

Today, let’s reenvision the War on Poverty to meet 2014 realities and reinvigorate the successful, vital programs it created. The fate of hundreds of thousands of Illinois families rests on it.

To read more of the report or see sources for our data, please visit ilpovertyreport.org

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Progress Illinois

 

January 30, 2014

 

 

From Progress Illinois:

 

A new report from the Heartland Alliance’s Social IMPACT Research Center  finds that the poverty rate in Illinois, at about 15 percent in 2012, is the same as it was in 1960.

The report, which comes on the heels of the War on Poverty’s 50th anniversary, also shows that 388,000 Illinoisans still live in poverty despite having someone in their household who works full-time.  

“Today, the jobs that are available at the low-skilled end of the economy simply don’t provide wages and benefits that create economic security,” Social IMPACT Research Center Director Amy Terpstra said in a statement. “What this means is that, in Illinois, you can work full time and still be living in poverty.”

 

Since 1960, the number of working age Illinois men and women in poverty has increased, poverty rates have barely changed for African Americans and Latinos, and women are still more likely to be poor than men, the report showed.

 

For men ages 18 to 64 in the state, the poverty rate jumped from 8.9 percent in 1960 to 12.1 percent in 2012. For women ages 18 to 64, poverty grew from 12 percent to 15.3 percent during the same time period. 

As of 2012, 32 percent of African Americans and 21.4 percent of Latinos in Illinois lived in poverty. That hasn’t changed much since 1960, when the poverty rate was 35.8 percent among African Americans and 20.7 percent among Latinos. Moreover, 44.6 percent of African American children and 27.8 percent of Latino children in the state were living in poverty in 2012, compared to 10.8 percent of white children. Unemployment influences poverty rates, and the report noted that nearly 1 in 2 black males ages 16 to 24 are jobless and cannot find work.

“As a nation and as a state, we have made important investments in safety net programs that help lift many people out of poverty and ease the hardship of being poor. But poverty is still a reality for 1.9 million Illinoisans,” Terpstra added. “Significant economic, demographic, and legislative shifts occurred in the last 50 years and many War on Poverty programs were not large enough or designed to offset these significant changes. As a result workers are struggling to support their families, more women are poor, and racial inequality persists.”

Over the past 50 years, however, there has been some progress in fighting poverty in Illinois.

Poverty among senior citizens in the state went down significantly from 29.8 percent in 1960 to 8.8 percent in 2012 thanks to the expansion of Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. Although poverty has dropped among this population, it is also important to note that nearly half of the country’s senior citizens are economically vulnerable and have incomes that are less than two times the supplemental poverty line.

 

 

 

 

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Medscape

 

January 29, 2014

 

 

From Medscape:

For 28 years, Heartland Alliance Health, Inc. (HAH), the healthcare arm of Heartland Alliance, the leading antipoverty organization in the Midwest, has delivered high-quality healthcare to Chicago’s most vulnerable people — those living in poverty, the homeless, people living with HIV/AIDS, the mentally ill, substance abusers, and immigrants and refugees. Nearly all participants are under the 100% poverty level; in 2012, 80% were uninsured. Without HAH’s services, these individuals would struggle to meet their basic healthcare needs.

 

HAH’s comprehensive services — including primary, oral, and behavioral healthcare, complemented by nutrition, housing, and case management programming — create a holistic, multidisciplinary response to participants’ complex needs. Each year, HAH assists more than 10,000 people to improve their health and manage their chronic diseases through participant-centered, data-driven care.

 

Yet, like most Federally Qualified Health Centers, HAH struggled to ensure that participants undergo colon cancer screening according to accepted guidelines.

 

In 2012, the local hospital to which HAH was referring participants for colonoscopy sent a letter to HAH suggesting that they would stop offering participants appointments because of a high no-show rate, even among insured participants. HAH started a quality improvement (QI) project to increase screening rates and decrease no-shows, with a goal of better understanding why screening rates were so low among both insured and uninsured participants.

As a first step, an advance practice nurse (APN) at HAH researched patient records and followed up with participants and the local hospital gastrointestinal (GI) service to understand what had happened with each referral. The evaluation revealed:

 

• 33% completion rate;

 

• 7% cancellation rate;

 

• 38% no-shows; and

 

• 22% unknown.

 

The APN and the HAH medical director met for a brainstorming session to identify the problems and to determine what data were needed to better understand why the screening rates were so low. They looked at 3 key components for their QI project: which processes needed to be reviewed, who needed to be involved, and what was missing within the existing structure that was creating barriers and preventing participants from undergoing effective colon cancer screening.

 

In looking at the GI referral service, the QI team noted that reports were not consistently added to the participant’s HAH chart. In fact, reports were in the charts of only 7% of participants who completed screening.

 

Next, they looked at HAH providers. They found that follow-up was inadequate and that the notes after the scheduled test date did not indicate whether the test was done.

 

Finally, they looked at what might be leading patients to miss their appointments. It was clear that patients were notified before the test, and although the HAH case managers were involved, the patients still did not show.

 

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San Francisco Gate

 

January 29, 2014

 

 

From San Francisco Gate:

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois’ overall poverty rate is the same as it was a half-century ago despite scores of state and federal aid programs and a dramatic drop in the number of older people struggling to get by, according to a new report that examines how the state has fared since President Lyndon Johnson declared a national War on Poverty.

Almost 15 percent of Illinois residents, about 1.9 million, lived below the federal poverty line in 2012, about the same as in 1960 before Johnson’s call to action, according to the report released Thursday by the Chicago-based Social IMPACT Research Center. It comes a day after Gov. Pat Quinn called on lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour and double a tax credit that helps low-income workers keep more of their earnings.

The stubbornly high poverty rate — defined as an annual income below $23,850 for a family of four — reflects, in part, a loss of manufacturing jobs and an increase in part-time-only and service jobs, as well as a high number of people still unemployed since the recession, said Amy Terpstra, the center’s associate director.

“It’s not 100 percent one thing or the other,” Terpstra said. “But you used to be able to come out of or not finish high school, learn skills on the job and get a family-supporting wage plus benefits, pension and vacation. Those jobs have been diminishing (and are being) replaced with jobs that are lower-paying and less secure.”

Among the report’s findings:

— Poverty has increased about 3 percentage points for working-age men and women. About 9 percent of men lived in poverty in 1960, compared to 12 percent in 2012; for women, poverty increased from 12 percent to more than 15 percent in that same period.

— Almost 21 percent of children, or 1 in 5 under the age of 18, lived in poverty in 2012, compared to 16.5 percent in 1960.

— The poverty rate among blacks and Latinos remains highest among ethnic and racial groups. Poverty among blacks was 32 percent in 2012, down about 3 percentage points from 1960; it was more than 21 percent among Latinos in 2012, and about 21 percent in 1960.

— Poverty among senior citizens has dropped the most, with the rate for those 65 and older down from 30 percent in 1960 to just below 9 percent in 2012, because of programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Even so, Terpstra said, the number of seniors looking for work has increased 40 percent since 2000.

— The number of Illinois counties with a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher fell from 68 in 1960 to 10 in 2012, while suburban poverty has increased.

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The Huffington Post

 

January 8, 2014

 

 

From The Huffington Post:

Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty. It was one of the greatest social undertakings of our time, spawning and expanding some of our most successful social programs – Medicare, Medicaid, increased Social Security benefits, a permanent food stamp program, housing programs, and job training.

Using these tools, America won many battles in this ongoing war. Social Security alone decreased elderly poverty by nearly 10 percent. Medicaid and food stamps now lift millions out of poverty.

Fifty years later, however, the face of poverty has changed dramatically, yet our tools to combat it have not.

In 1964, even a minimum wage job was enough to keep a family of two adults and one child above the poverty line, ensuring they would have the basic necessities of life. All in all, in 1964, if you had a job, you could provide for your family. Not so in 2014. Today, nearly 60 percent of families (often minorities) who receive food stamps are working. Many of them work for minimum wage – just $7.29 an hour, or $279 a week before taxes for a full-time worker.

Since the War on Poverty began, we’ve also seen the number of single earner households triple. Children within such families are about five times as likely to be poor as children in dual earner households. Welfare once closed the gap but today it is largely unavailable, as federal mandates to “end welfare as we know it” in the 1990s have evolved into an end to welfare as we most need it in 2014. That’s not because of significant economic gains among those in poverty- it’s because the financial backing for safety net programs, and the political support needed to create it, simply isn’t there.

The new face of poverty is that of the working poor, with heads of households who are employed full-time for minimum wage. They are single mothers living paycheck to paycheck. They are families destroyed by an illness that wiped out their savings, or by the mortgage crisis that put their home underwater and sunk their credit.

The new face may be hard to recognize but they are easy to see. They check your groceries at the Dominick’s (until their job is terminated) and change your oil at the 10 Minute Lube. They greet you at the door of the megastore and tell you to have a nice day at the drive-thru window.

Instead of being safely sequestered in urban areas we never visit, today’s poor live down the street. Their kids play with your kids. You shake hands with them in church.

As the president of Heartland Alliance, one of the Midwest’s largest anti-poverty organizations, these are the faces I see every day – the faces of the new poor – who line up at our doors in ever increasing numbers as they face homelessness, illness, and joblessness.

We need a new call to arms to face these new challenges and make prosperity an attainable goal again. A War on Poverty 2.0 requires a multi-prong strategy that includes action at the federal, state and local level. We need to raise the minimum wage and once again index it to the rate of inflation. We need to revitalize our now threadbare social safety net. Communities need to increase and improve affordable housing, and make homelessness and home insecurity a priority.

Perhaps most importantly, we need a new mindset that embraces the challenge of lifting people out of poverty rather than punishing them for being there in the first place.

Modern day poverty is more complex, more damaging, and more pervasive than it was 50 years ago. Much like modern warfare, our success in combating it lies in our ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome.

 

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The Chicago Tribune

 

January 2, 2014

Brothers, who in 2010 were living under a bridge, have made much progress. But there’s still a way to go.

 

From The Chicago Tribune:

On a recent morning, twin brothers Frank and Anthony Nowotnik sat in a Starbucks in Uptown, sipping coffee and talking about the past. Anthony was cleanshaven and dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket. Frank looked more casual, with stubble across his chin, wearing a brown cap and a puffer jacket. Both smelled of soap and mouthwash.

The little details about the men — from their recent haircuts, to their clean clothes — were not-so-small miracles for the now 45-year-old brothers, though you wouldn’t know it, if you didn’t know their story.

Three years ago, the men were homeless, living under a bridge at California Avenue and the Kennedy Expressway, and uncertain about almost everything in their lives.

Now, they are “still trying to get rid of the past,” said Anthony. But they have made great strides since they were profiled in articles that ran in the Tribune beginning in 2010. And they said they will be forever grateful to the social workers who helped them escape the streets.

“The ones who met us under the bridge,” Anthony said. “They’re the ones who saved us. They didn’t give up.”

At Pathways Safe Haven, a housing program for the formerly homeless where the brothers have now lived for more than two years, “people aren’t giving up either,” added Frank. “They really got some patience.”

The brothers lived on the streets for nearly 30 years, when they were first profiled by the Tribune in December 2010. That fall, Anthony had been hit by a car and, because of his injuries, had been offered a place to stay by a program for the most vulnerable homeless. Despite the offer, Anthony had refused to go inside without Frank, who couldn’t get housing for several more weeks.

That December, the brothers lived under the bridge, waiting for the day when Frank’s room would become available and they could move inside together.

When that day did arrive, however, it didn’t solve their problems. Both are alcoholics who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a host of other health problems. Within four months of moving into the Lake View YMCA, the brothers were kicked out for drunkenness and unruly behavior.

Social workers found them a second housing program, but the twins were soon kicked out of there too.

In fall 2011, they entered Pathways, a program run by the nonprofit Heartland Alliance Health and one that is unusual because it seeks to put the homeless into housing but does not require them to stop drinking or using drugs in order to stay.

The approach is called “housing first.” The idea is to put a roof over a person’s head, and then to address the problems that might have led to homelessness in the first place. Requirements in the Pathways program are few, on the theory that you can’t force someone to stop drinking or using drugs.

For the brothers, “just the fact that they’ve moved from outside to inside is a huge victory,” said Ed Stellon, a program officer at Heartland.

Over the past two years, the staff has been “elated” at the twins’ progress, Stellon said.

“Not only are they taking their medication every day, they’re also going to our primary care health center,” Stellon said. “It’s all about these small steps and little victories.”

Four months ago, Anthony checked himself into a 28-day alcohol treatment program. After waking up one morning choking on blood, he decided it was time. He hasn’t had a drink since, Anthony said.

Getting sober was “the hardest thing in the world,” he said. “I feel much better. I can comprehend better. I can listen.”

 

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The New York Times

 

November 24, 2013

 

 

From The New York Times:

CHICAGO — In a back room at the Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph, one of the largest homeless shelters in Chicago, a social worker named Sheena Ward guided Terry Cannon through a Medicaid application.

 

A wet cough punctuated Mr. Cannon’s often wry answers to Ms. Ward’s questions about his disability status, military service and marital history. “I have glaucoma, I’m going blind. I have lung disease, I’m dying,” he said. “How can they deny me? If they do, give me a couple years and I’ll be gone.”

 

Today, most state Medicaid programs cover only disabled adults or those with dependents, so Mr. Cannon and millions of other deeply impoverished Americans are left without access to the program. But starting Jan. 1, President Obama’s health care law will expand Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty line, and enrollment is expected to increase by about nine million next year. Thousands of homeless people will be among the newly covered.

 

Housing advocates say they believe that the Medicaid expansion has the potential to reduce rates of homelessness significantly, both by preventing low-income Americans from becoming homeless as a result of illness or medical debt and by helping homeless people become eligible for and remain in housing.

 

“We really feel like this is the last piece of the puzzle that we need to end chronic homelessness,” said Steve Berg, the vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

 

But signing up homeless people for Medicaid is a huge logistical challenge, as housing advocates acknowledge. Homeless individuals often do not have an email address, phone number or permanent address. Many are unaware of the health care law or are skeptical of public programs.

 

Housing advocates and social workers across the country are now on a major push to inform impoverished and homeless people that they are eligible for Medicaid in the 25 states that are expanding the program and in the District of Columbia, and to enroll them.

 

For homeless people, experts said, the Medicaid expansion will mean more consistent treatment for medical conditions, including alcoholism, drug addiction, chronic pain and depression. For states and cities, they said, it will mean a more effective safety net, and perhaps even a cheaper one.

 

 

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Huffington Post Chicago

 

November 18, 2013

 

 

From Huffington Post Chicago:

If the Black Friday ads arriving in our mailboxes are any indication, the holidays are upon us and with them the opportunity to relax with family and enjoy a good meal. Unless you’re a family in poverty that is. It’s hard to celebrate the season when you don’t know how you’ll put food on the table.

 

This month as stimulus funding provisions expired, those relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) were made to face a sobering reality – they may soon be going to bed hungry. A family of four saw their benefits decrease by $36 this month. Single individuals lost $11. Most of us have the good fortune to be able to accept a cut such as this in the food budget. But for those relying on these benefits, such cuts can be catastrophic. Before, the maximum benefit for a family of four was just $668 per month, giving them just $7.42 to spend per meal. That’s $1.85 per person. Imagine trying to put dinner on the table on this budget. Now imagine trying to do it with even less.

 

As if that wasn’t enough, further cuts are all but assured as the House and Senate debate SNAP funding for the upcoming year. Both chambers are proposing significant decreases, with cuts of nearly $40 billion and $4.1 billion over the next 10 years suggested by the House and Senate respectively. It’s enough to make you do a double take. With a family of four already living on $7.42 per meal, any cuts mean it will be all but impossible to make ends meet.

 

Among those facing this realization are some of the citizens who have sacrificed the most – veterans. The House bill would eliminate eligibility for non-elderly jobless adults who can’t find work (or an opening in a job training program), a profile many veterans fit. Should this provision pass, 170,000 veterans would suddenly find themselves unable to receive benefits. The guile it takes to propose taking food off of a veteran’s table in the same month we celebrate their service is simply unconscionable.

 

At Heartland Alliance, we look budget cuts like these in the eye every day. We see them in the eyes of the single mother of a sick child, desperately hoping she’s eligible for Medicaid insurance. We see them in the eyes of a man who’s trying to get off the streets, but finds that there is no public housing available. We see them in the eyes of a father searching for job training, only to find that the programs he needs have closed.

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