Illinois Budget Crisis Could Increase Homelessness, Study Says
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March 25, 2010
SPRINGFIELD, IL - A new report by four Illinois advocacy groups says homelessness in the state will increase if additional budget cuts are made. The Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness and its allies issued an online survey to state-funded social service providers for people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness and/or
who need affordable housing. The results indicate that budget cuts already have forced some state agencies to turn away people in need of housing. The study also asserts that state agencies are owed a significant amount of money by the state and are taking on debt to handle the shortfall.
Bob Palmer, executive director of Housing Action Illinois, one of the survey's sponsors, says the only way to avoid an increase in the state's homelessness rate is by a responsible tax hike.
"You need revenue increases, and we can do that in such a way that it won't affect people with low incomes and that it's a small additional burden to ask people to pay a bit more in taxes."
Palmer says the incessant budget problems in the state have led to an increasingly unstable support system for the people of Illinois.
"For the last several years, we've just been chipping away at the safety net system in Illinois for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and we can't stop ignoring this problem. We need to find a long-term solution."
Housing Action Illinois supports an income tax increase, along with an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and personal exemptions, proposing the approach would balance the needs of struggling taxpayers and the cash-strapped state. Gov. Pat Quinn agrees that a 33-percent tax increase will be necessary to balance the budget. Meanwhile, Bill Brady, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, opposes a tax increase, arguing a 10-percent across-the-board budget cut is part of his solution to the fiscal crisis.