Children living below poverty line, new report says

Feb 13, 2010 — Belleville News-Democrat

Jennifer A. Bowen

Feb. 11, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- EAST ST. LOUIS -- One in four children in St. Clair County are living below the poverty line, with about half those in East St. Louis in the same desperate situation, according to a new statewide report.

The Illinois Kids Count 2010, a report released Thursday by Voices for Illinois Children, looks at how the recession is affecting children living in poverty.

Families who were barely living from paycheck to paycheck in 2008 have been hard hit by the recession, especially as programs funded by the state are cut in an effort to balance state budget shortfalls.

"Enough is enough," said Bill Kreeb, executive director of The Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House in East St. Louis. "We have to have the resources available to meet the needs of the children in our community and in the state of Illinois. We cannot balance the budget on the backs of the children and the poorest people in the community."

Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House is a United Methodist multi-purpose community center whose mission is to provide quality social and human services, social action and advocacy programs and housing and economic development programs to people in East St. Louis and surrounding communities.

According to the report, children are one-fourth of Illinois residents but they are more than one-third of the state's poverty population. Illinois' child poverty rate hit 17 percent in 2008, and a sharp increase is expected in data for 2009.

From 2007-08, child poverty rates were 25 percent in St. Clair County and 51 percent in East St. Louis. In Madison County, the child poverty rate was 16.6 percent.

Between September 2008 and September 2009, the number of Illinois families depending on food stamps increased 17 percent to 1.5 million. In June 2009, 1.5 million Illinois residents -- about half of them children -- participated in the federal Food Stamp program, up 22 percent from two years earlier.

In June 2009, 31 percent of children in St. Clair County received food stamps, compared with 22 percent statewide. In Madison County, 23 percent of children were receiving food stamps in June, compared with 16 percent between 2007 and 2009.

In Illinois, 38.5 percent of African-American children live in poverty -- a rate that is even higher than the nationwide average of 34.1 percent. In Illinois, 8.6 percent of white children live in poverty while nationwide 10.8 percent are living in poverty.

"A whole set of children are living in poverty and they are missing out on education, health care and childcare," said former East St. Louis Mayor Carl Officer, who earlier this month lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for state representative. "The state needs to pick it up and work on meeting the needs of those children."

The fiscal crisis in Illinois has resulted in budget cuts in many critical programs and delays in payments to service providers.

"We need to continue our investments in programs that can have long-term benefits for children, their families, and the state as a whole," said Kathy Ryg, president of Voices for Illinois Children. "Now is not the time to pull back on ensuring that our children have the basic education and health care they need to develop their full potential."

The poverty rate as measured by the federal government in 2008 was $21,834 for a family of four. Children were the largest group of Illinoisans living in poverty in Illinois in 2008. Of the entire population, 18.2 percent of children from infants to 17 years old lived in poverty, with African-American children were at the most risk of living in poverty.

"The effects of economic crisis can be devastating to children in the short-term and long-term," Ryg said "We must act now to help children and families in need. We know that children who grow up in poverty fare worse than their peers, even well into adulthood, in education, work and health."

Illinois Kids Count is a project of Voices for Illinois Children and is part of a nationwide network of state-level projects supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It monitors the educational, social and emotional, economic and physical well-being of Illinois children.

Since September 2008, the unemployment rate in Illinois has been consistently higher than the unemployment rate nationwide. Median family income, adjusted for inflation, declined by 5 percent in St. Clair County, 3 percent in Madison County and 14 percent in East St. Louis, compared with 4 percent statewide.

In Madison County, the unemployment rate in 2008 was 5.1 percent and rose to 9.3 percent in 2009. In St. Clair County, the unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in 2008 and rose to a high of 10.6 percent in 2009.

"We know these are tough economic times and we know they aren't going to get better, they are going to get worse and the outlook is bleak," said Theresa Saunders, superintendent of East St. Louis District 189. "If you don't plan to be successful, you plan to fail, and we can't afford to fail.

"There are generations of children standing behind us, depending on us. It is us coming together individually and collectively and sharing ideas and resources and impacting the lives of others to help them make it and help them be successful. It's not a matter of can we do it -- it's a matter of will we do it."

The full report is available online at www.voices4kids.org.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0023-42047365