Poverty in Illinois

http://www.suntimes.com/news/7713162-418/illinois-poverty-growing-as-state-help-shrinking.html
That is a link to a Sun Times article written on the 17th, and unfortunatly its about the problems facing a local homeless shelter and the sate at large. The Dep. for Human Services has had its budget cut by roughly seventeen percent, which adds up to about 669.3 million dollars and the Dep. of Child and Family Serivces has had its budget slashed by 24.5 million. Simply put, they cannot keep up. The shelter I mentioned is called the REST Shelter and since the budget cutback, they have had about one hundred thousand dollars cut from their budget and have been forced to layoff ten workers, also they can no longer operate between 8am and 4pm during the day which is when residents used to meet with case workers

“Our ability to help people to get off the street is definitely impaired,” she said. “If you can’t keep people healthy and safe and stable as far as they know they have a place to be, it’s very difficult for them to overcome their employment barriers. It’s nearly impossible.”

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This problem is spread far and wide. More than one shelter or one city, the entire state has been consumed by this issue. On the whole, the state's poverty level is floating at about 14.1 percent which is one point eight million of Illinois' twelve million residents, that is an average almost one sixth of the population below the poverty line; and call to the state's "hunger hotline" have more than tripled since 2007.

It would be bold to say that this problem is being ignored. Public programs have always been the first on the chopping block when a politician says there is a crisis and that they have to make the tough calls. Legislators know exactly who is going to pay every time they come to budget cutting season, and they know how it will play out when they take away the last refuge of people who have no place to go. Despite the fact that we as a society are well aware of it, I will say it cannot be ignored much longer because soon the numbers of those in poverty will grow too numerous and too loud, their neglect to serious for anything less than the services we had before.

“It’s the programs that serve people who are the most vulnerable that are being hit the hardest,” said Eithne McMenamin, associate director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “That’s only going to exacerbate the problem.”