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Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 09:52:37 -0600

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From: Loomis Mayfield <loomis@uic.edu

Subject: LoomisNews: PI...DI

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Hello, I'm the coordinator of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute (UIC).

Doug Dobmeyer sent this over one of my listservs, and I thought people might be interested in it. I've subscribed to PI...DI for some time and find it quite informative. Doug has worked with various groups in the past, including the Illinois Public Welfare Coalition, Common Cause (Illinois), and Lakefront SRO (Chicago), to name a few. He's published various op-eds in the local newspapers and _Illinois Issues_.

************************************************************

Loomis Mayfield, Coordinator Direct: 312-996-7194

UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Fax: 312-996-8933

Great Cities Institute (M/C 107) Gen'l: 312-996-8700

University of Illinois at Chicago

322 S. Green St., ste. 108

Chicago, IL 60607 E-mail: loomis@uic.edu

UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Web Page Address:

http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/uicninit/uicninit/uni.html.

Loomis Mayfield's Web Page Address (under construction):

http://www.uic.edu/~loomis

************************************************************

Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 18:24:23 -0600

Sender: UIC Neighborhood Initiatives Community Partnership

<UICOMPAR@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU

From: Doug Dobmeyer <ddobmey#@ORION.IT.LUC.EDU

You may be interested in subscribing to Poverty Issues...Dateline Illinois.

Below are two sample copies of PI...DI and an order form follows at the end.

Thanks,

Doug

POVERTY ISSUES...DATELINE ILLINOIS

October 9, 1997 A SPECIAL REPORT by Doug Dobmeyer Volume 2, Number 22

Poverty Issues...Dateline Illinois reports on developing poverty issues in Illinois. News editors: Please circulate to editors, reporters, and columnists. You may quote with attribution to Poverty Issues...Dateline Illinois.

In this edition: City Moves Secretly to Control Homeless Programs

CITY MOVES SECRETLY TO CONTROL HOMELESS PROGRAMS

The City of Chicago has held meetings with the top providers of homeless services in the city to inform them funding for independent programs will end. In meetings with Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner Daniel Alvarez, Sr. groups were told the city was moving all of their funded homeless programs into 24 hour centers. This will leave groups providing emergency shelter, drop-in, and other services out in the cold.

The proposed 1998 City budget contains a $5 million request to do capital improvements to existing shelters. Some of the sites to be rehabilitated may be defunded later. According to sources the city intends to begin implementing a plan developed in secret without the input of service providers.

The plan provided verbally to homeless service directors in meetings starting in mid-September outlined the city's thinking. A written plan available to a select few has not been distributed to others despite their being asked to submit written comments. The plan was promised by this week but has not yet been provided.

According to sources Commissioner Alvarez has offered a homeless plan that will:

- Move all city funded homeless services will be conducted in 24 hour centers;

- The city will end funding of part time programs because they aren't able to transition people out of homelessness;

- Groups, such as drop-in centers and overnight shelters will be forced to seek private funding if they want to stay in business;

- 1998 is the implementation year for this phase-out of the current system of emergency overnight shelters, warming centers (city funded emergency overflow shelters) and drop-in centers, or other non-24 hour based homeless programs;

- The city will end the warming center program

The plan was developed in secret by DHS and provided verbally to city funded homeless service providers at several meetings. The invitation letter from Jackie Edens, Assistant DHS Commissioner said, "Your attendance at this meeting is critical to your understanding of the future direction in homeless services being proposed by the Department and will assist your agency in long term planning." Groups were not consulted in the process of developing the plan.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) representing many homeless programs and the interests of homeless persons was excluded from the process. Les Brown the Coalition's Policy Director said, "We had no input into this plan. It was sprung on us rather quickly." In fact CCH only learned about the plan through members and has had no direct contact with DHS on the issue.

Brown added, "People who work on the front lines of the homeless issue and those homeless should be part of any planning. The process needs to slow down the implementation of this flawed plan."

The chances of the Coalition or others being involved in any planning is unlikely though. DHS has a pet Homeless Task Force they can rely on for public support. The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless a long-time member of the task force was personally removed from the Task Force by Alvarez in 1992.

During the past two years the city has made major changes to homeless programs that have moved populations around, but not reduced the overall homeless population. The nightly homeless population is estimated to be 15,000 by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

DHS has also developed about 1,300 emergency overflow shelter beds at warming centers around the city. DHS is now proposing to end that program as severe welfare changes start to set in Chicago. Community organizations are fearful of massive homelessness resulting from people being cutoff of welfare programs. Also the city/county task force on welfare raised concerns of the need for additional emergency shelter resources.

DHS Commissioner Alvarez was unavailable for comment at press time.

While the budget will have few detractors overall, expect this line item with its hidden agenda of major changes for homeless programs in Chicago to be a major battleground. Forces are lining up and they are not happy and barely speak to each other. The question is, do the homeless fare better while this battle rages?

Doug Dobmeyer, P.O. Box 268617, Chicago, IL 60626

Voice: 773/338-9825, FAX: 773/338-9859

Statewide Pager: 800/802-5757

E-Mail: ddobmey#@orion.it.luc.edu

POVERTY ISSUES...DATELINE ILLINOIS

November 3, 1997 by Doug Dobmeyer Volume 2, Number 24

In this edition: Chicago's Homelessness Plan Tussle Escalates, Lawsuit Threatened; Stop a Minute and Think and An Interview with Kathryn Edin: Conspiracy of Silence Hurts the Poor

Chicago's Homeless Plan Tussle Escalates, Lawsuit Threatened: City's Refusal to Talk About Radical New Homeless Plan

Poverty Issues...Dateline Illinois revealed on 10/9/97 that Chicago's Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner, Daniel Alvarez, Sr., is advancing a secret plan to revamp homeless services. The plan moves city support from small community shelters to large 24 hour facilities. These changes would reverse a long-established city policy of supporting smaller community-based shelters for homeless people.

Chicago's estimated nightly population of 15,000 homeless is still waiting to see what the city will decide to do with its small size community-based shelter system. The homeless wait, as does the provider community, because the city has excluded the homeless' emissaries and providers from discussions over development of a new plan. The plan, described by sources as two pages, has been shared with a few insiders seen as supporters, while consistently denied to others.

Alvarez is Mayor Richard M. Daley's primary link to the poor in the city. He is expected to administer programs and establish good relations with the provider community that often carries out the city's programs as contractors.

Documents obtained by PI...DI from the Partnership to End Homelessness, a consortium of providers, states, "The Commissioner (Alvarez) has confirmed that he very much wants to meet with us. However, he does not want to hold this meeting until after the City's budget hearing." Alvarez in refusing to meet with homeless providers until November 20th, would avoid the political pressure on the budget process for Daley. A DHS spokesperson would not comment on a proposed meeting date.

Alderman Joe Moore (49) indicated the budget is expected to be adopted by the City Council by November 20th. Moore said, "I would like to see the plan. I don't see why it is being made such a secret." Many political observers believe any ability to influence the city about this plan will disappear after the budget is adopted.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH), fresh from a court win with DHS in June 1997 over the refusal to provide information about poorly run 90-bed assessment centers for the homeless is threatening to sue again.

CCH is first bringing together provider groups to pressure DHS to release the plan and discuss the details.

Rene Heybach, CCH's attorney, is preparing to sue the city over the proposed use of assessment centers if talks fail. CCH successfully sued the city over terrible living conditions in a previous 90-bed assessment centers for the homeless. After highly publicized complaints of filthy conditions in the centers, the city ended that experiment. The city has told Crain's Chicago Business they would open three 225-bed assessment centers. Heybach referred to that part of the plan as "a loser."

The two-page "plan" pales in comparison to previous plans for homeless services in Chicago produced in a more comprehensive nature. Those plans of several hundred pages were produced with the help of providers, the homeless, and others. Mayor Giuliani of New York City produced a detailed plan in 1994, while New York State had an exhaustive 1992 plan based on research.

Analysis: The number of homeless people continues to grow in Chicago and elsewhere and are expected to grow as people are cut off from welfare. As the uncertainty over welfare cuts grows, the city would be better served by DHS working with providers, homeless people and groups like the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless instead of meaningless bravado that excludes those with legitimate experience and views. The homeless and taxpayers are better served by the city spending money on services instead of arguing lawsuits.

Stop a Moment and Think

The social changes taking place in the U.S. demand we stop a moment and think. Not only are we stepping into the unknown of the new information age, but at the same time rationalizing our social policy to ignore obvious people in need who are unable to compete in an increasing high tech society. The poor are left to fend for themselves in a world where they are objects of politics.

In another time, not long ago, of war and hatred, Anne Frank wrote, "I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while my dearest friends have been knocked down or have fallen into the gutter somewhere out in the cold night."

Anne Frank spoke of a concerted effort to eliminate Jews, but we can be equally cruel today. By ignoring and rationalizing our treatment of people in poverty, we scorn people's value and deny the basic supports of income, housing, food and medical treatment to people in need. The lesson: Be ever vigilant to not repeat past mistakes.

An Interview with Kathryn Edin:

Conspiracy of Silence Hurts the Poor

The following is the first part of an exclusive interview by PI...DI with University of Pennsylvania professor, Kathryn Edin, on the plight of families on welfare in the U.S. Edin was trained in Chicago at North Park College and Northwestern University, She has interviewed over 500 mothers on public aid, written many articles and a book, "Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low Wages." She also lives part time in Camden, New Jersey, a poor enclave on the East Coast.

Edin was in Chicago last week to deliver a lecture and teach several seminars at DePaul University. Edin can be reached at her office, 215/898-9633.

PI/DI: Politics and support have changed radically for the poor, resulting in the welfare bill in 1996. Did people just get tired of the poor and their problems?

KE: It's my theory the poor are so unpopular because, in an economic crunch people are looking for a scapegoat. People want to pick on something manageable, unlike the economy which is seen as unmanageable. Even in this so called recovery, there are a lot of people who really lost. There's a lot of economic angst.

Also another factor is, as middle class white women started going to work, they decided everyone else ought to work too.

Finally, for a long time, there has been a conspiracy of silence about how much is enough. We don't have any realistic notion in this country of what a self-sufficiency wage is. We know the poverty income level is too low, but we don't have a public consensus of how to fix it.

We also know that people do what they have to do to survive. Politically the Democrats didn't want to look at what poor people were doing because they didn't want to make recipients look bad. Republicans were afraid of the backlash of images of people going hungry.

This process made welfare untenable for recipients. The very low benefits essentially criminalized the welfare population. It made the welfare system very difficult to defend politically. You also have a group of people very easy to stereotype and to scapegoat.

PI/DI: You're a mother and you know a lot of people on welfare. Are they doing anything wrong by doing what they have to do to survive?

KE: I can understand in 98 percent of cases I've interviewed, the choices the mother has made. In most cases, I say to myself, yeah I would do that if I were in your shoes. If it comes to a choice between providing the minimum to keep your kids fed and off the streets and doing something that technically breaks the law, you're going to break the law.

PI/DI: What has been your experience with poor mothers making choices about their limited resources?

KE: People are pretty good budgeteers. They are better than most Americans. In part because they have more experience of being poor and having to make limited resources stretch.

PI/DI: Does that wear people down after while--month after month knowing there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

KE: It definitely wears people down. The factor of depression is real. These are very depressed communities to live in. Its tough to feel good about life and take the step into the low-wage labor market.

PI/DI: Did the usual supporters of people in poverty-- liberals, intellectuals and other abandon the poor?

KE: I think they did. Part of the reason that happened is, talking to the poor went out of vogue. The signing of the welfare bill in August 1996 showed there were still some people willing to say 'enough is enough.'

PI/DI: As we get closer to a two-year cutoff for people on aid in 1998 and the five year life-time limit in 2002, what is going to happen?

KE: I have an apocalyptic view. I'm following families in four cities to document what's going to happen. My sense is people will have less income.

We're not going to see the full effect of the welfare cuts until the next generation (the children made worse off by the welfare changes becoming adults). There is research on the effect of less income on very young kids' cognitive development. The results are quite striking.

An example is: parents stressed through the lack of income are less likely to have books around and read to their children.

PI/DI: What will happen with the requirements in the 1996 welfare bill that people work with ?

KE: There will be a lot of people who don't find work. A downturn in the economy will make it harder. This recovery is not creating living wage jobs.

A second part of the interview will appear in the next issue of PI...DI.

Doug Dobmeyer, P.O. Box 268617, Chicago, IL 60626

Voice: 773/338-9825, FAX: 773/338-9859

Statewide Pager: 800/802-5757

E-Mail: ddobmey#@orion.it.luc.edu

Order Form:

Yes, please send me the next 12 months (25 issues) of POVERTY ISSUES...DATELINE ILLINOIS for $50. With your subscription, you can receive a copy of Competing Successfully for Media Coverage for the special price of $25 (includes shipping and handling).

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************************************************************

Loomis Mayfield, Coordinator Direct: 312-996-7194

UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Fax: 312-996-8933

Great Cities Institute (M/C 107) Gen'l: 312-996-8700

University of Illinois at Chicago

322 S. Green St., ste. 108

Chicago, IL 60607 E-mail: loomis@uic.edu

UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Web Page Address:

http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/uicninit/uicninit/uni.html.

Loomis Mayfield's Web Page Address (under construction):

http://www.uic.edu/~loomis

************************************************************