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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: 1 in 5 IL Families Unsure About Next Rent Payment

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Thursday, December 17, 2020   

CHICAGO -- At least 20% of Illinois families with children said they had only "slight or no confidence" they'd make their next rent or mortgage payment on time, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Bill Byrnes, Kids Count project manager at Voices for Illinois Children, said along with triggering unprecedented levels of housing insecurity, the pandemic has pushed the most vulnerable Illinois residents over the edge when it comes to meeting basic needs.

"Poverty, food insecurity, unemployment; Illinois had those problems before the pandemic started," Byrnes observed. "And now that we're nine months into it, the pandemic has only exacerbated and accelerated the problems that were already here in the state."

He said housing insecurity is closely tied to hunger. The report found 14% of Illinois households with children said they "sometimes or often" did not have enough to eat.

Broken down by race, the report shows how current and historic policies continue to drive deep inequities in families' access to resources.

Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Casey Foundation, said food insecurity is nearly twice as high among Black households with children compared with white households nationwide.

"We have to get back to the basics," Boissiere urged. "We have to make sure that the poorest and most fragile families in our economy are taken care of and that we're funding those programs that can have an impact and can ensure that everybody's basic needs are met in this country."

Byrnes added the state's Black and Brown families in particular are working on the front lines in industries hardest-hit by the pandemic.

"Things like food service, food preparation, public transportation, and in many cases these are jobs that don't have access to paid sick leave, health insurance," Byrnes outlined.

He pointed to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which allows states to provide short-term cash assistance to low-income families with children, as a stopgap solution.

According to the report, the program is long overdue for improvement. In 2019, only 23% of families with kids in poverty received TANF assistance, down from nearly 70% at the program's inception in 1996.

Disclosure: Annie E Casey Foundation contributes to our fund for reporting on Children's Issues, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education, Education, Juvenile Justice, and Welfare Reform. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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