“Not in our town” redefined
by Mike Kroll
A committee
of the Galesburg Chamber of Commerce chaired by Rick Sundberg recently composed
a report entitled “A Call to Action: Poverty in Knox County, Illinois.” This
35-page report (including the 20-page appendix of charts and data) essentially
summarized mostly anecdotal data regarding local poverty and its impact on
specific areas of the community including education, social services, health
care, law enforcement and public housing. To the credit of the report's
volunteer authors, it is well written and presented and compares favorably in
these regards to many consultants’ reports which have cost taxpayers hundreds
of thousands of dollars only to be ignored by local officials. Unfortunately,
the report’s concluding recommendations fail to reflect the principal content
of the document and seem to have been arrived at independently and frequently
at variance with the facts.
To its
credit, the authors concede that poverty exists in the Galesburg area. But
rather than seeking solutions to mitigate the plight or conditions of those in
distress, it approaches the impoverished as a blight on the community to be
eradicated rather than assisted. “The intent of this study was only in
addressing the impact to the community and to develop recommendations. ...This
committee is dedicated to further educating the community on the issue of
poverty and has an ongoing mission in trying to minimize the impact of poverty
in the future.” The “enlightened” authors of this report don't even make a
pretense of concern for those less fortunate than themselves in Knox County,
just minimizing the impact of the unwashed upon the other residents of the
community.
The study
recommendations essentially focus solely on a small segment of those in poverty
as it scapegoats the poor who migrated to live in Knox County public housing
from outside. A better example of undisguised economic bigotry would be hard to
find than in four of the study's six recommendations that directly aim to
discouraging poor families or individuals from seeking housing in Galesburg.
The other two recommendations focus on gaining more funding to offset the cost
of providing education and health services to the poor.
The
broadest study recommendation is also the one that would have the most
unintended negative consequences for the local community were it to be adopted:
“establish a moratorium on zoning for new multi-family housing within the city
of Galesburg.” If this recommendation were enacted it would impact far more
than just the poor seeking apartments in Galesburg. For many young adults
starting their first job as a teacher or nurse there already exists an unmet
need for quality affordable apartments that could never then be met —
discouraging some of the very people Galesburg most needs to move here to help
rebuild our population and economy. It would also make it more difficult for
those existing residents whose economic circumstances have been devastated by
plant closings or the economic downturn to remain.
The study
authors lament what they perceive to be a growing number of low income
individuals and families that obtain subsidized housing through the Federal
Section 8 voucher program. This Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program
operates nationwide and provides a need-based rent subsidy to enable the poor
to obtain safe and affordable shelter. The intent of this recommendation is to
eliminate the availability of additional apartments that might be populated by
a subsidized renter.
Many
multi-family developers have historically obtained lower-interest financing for
some portion of their new apartment complex by committing to make a some of
those apartments available to participants in the Section 8 program. “One of
the HUD efforts begun a few years ago was to de-concentrate low income housing
and spread it across a community in an effort to develop income-diverse
neighborhoods rather than concentrating all low-income housing in a small
dedicated area,” said Marge Hulick, executive director of the Knox County
Housing Authority (KCHA).
The
nationwide experience of such low-income housing concentrations, especially in
urban high-rise housing, has been almost universally negative. In cities across
the country (notably including Chicago) HUD has sought to eliminate such concentrated
low-income housing in favor of a combination of Section 8 vouchers and
low-density public housing spread across a city. In Chicago, one of the most
segregated cities in this country, many of the high-rise public housing
projects were demolished in favor of dispersed clusters of low-density housing
but the rate of new construction failed to keep pace with the sudden demand
created by the demolitions. And, in a development that surprised HUD officials,
many public housing residents offered the opportunity to live in new low
density housing outside of their former neighborhoods passed on the opportunity
in favor of wanting to remain in their current neighborhood despite the absence
of available public housing.
Meanwhile
many housing authorities in downstate Illinois, including Knox County, were
facing high vacancy rates and desperately sought qualified tenants as a
financial necessity. Just as Galesburg as a whole has lost population in recent
years, there was a time not too long ago when the KCHA had so many unoccupied
units that they remodeled to eliminate some of the largest apartments and
contemplated demolishing a number of their buildings. One of the key metrics
for maintain Federal housing money is meeting occupancy targets and this has
not always been easy.
While it is
not widely known, gaining admittance into public housing is much more
complicated than simply filling out a form and signing a lease. “All public
housing tenants are thoroughly screened prior to acceptance and many applicants
are turned down for a variety of reasons,” explained Hulick. “In the case of
Knox County we operate on a one-strike rule with regards to tenants who have
run afoul of the law. If you have been convicted of any felony or drug offense
we will not accept you into public housing or the Section 8 program in Knox
County. And there are many other qualification a prospective tenant must meet
as well, most of them actually originate at the Federal HUD level and are
imposed upon all Federally-funded public housing programs.”
The general
misperception that seems to be held by many (including the authors of this
report) is that there has been a huge influx of Chicago poor into the Galesburg
area to take advantage of available public housing. While the poverty report
revels in questionable anecdotal evidence that exaggerates the number of people
originating from outside of Knox County obtaining public housing here, the
KCHA's actual tenant statistics are illuminating. During 2007 to-date KCHA had
283 total applicants and 245 individual or family move-ins across their entire
realm of public housing and Section 8 subsidized apartments but only 91
originated from outside of Knox County and a good number of those did not come
from Chicago, according to Hulick. KCHA statistics show 37 percent of all 2008
applicants were white and 59 percent African-American.
The KCHA
has a maximum allotment of Section 8 vouchers totaling 280 but subject to
availability of Federal funds. Hulick says that, in actuality, the actual
number of vouchers used at any one time fluctuates around about 250. “This is a
capped program without room or funding to achieve the constantly increasing
numbers postulated in the poverty report. It is what it is and there is no room
for growth and local demand is competitive.” Additionally, KCHA rules favor
qualified local persons before making vouchers available to those seeking them
from outside Knox County.
The
assertions credited to Sundberg that “it is time Galesburg stopped accepting
public housing candidates from Chicago” or of fellow committee member and
mayoral candidate Karen Lafferty that “it is unfair and we can't continue to
take the poverty from Chicago” in Monday's Register-Mail actually go beyond
what is included in the text of the report itself. If such measures were
actually enacted they would also violate Federal law that explicitly bars
public housing from instituting residency requirements. Non-discriminatory
residency preferences are permitted but expressly excluding candidates
based on residency or prior residency is expressly forbidden and could hazard
Federal funds for local public housing.
“At any one
time there are a total of maybe 1,100 residents in all of the KCHA housing
programs and all of them are low income by definition with the majority of them
in the lowest income levels,” noted Hulick. “Even if every one of these
residents were from outside of Knox County they amount to but a drop in the
bucket by comparison to the total number of Knox County residents at or below
the federally defined poverty level. This is a problem that simply does not
exist despite what the poverty task force report might state or what the
general perception of some citizens in the community may be.”
“To obtain
housing from the KCHA, tenants must meet strict conduct qualifications and the
standards for maintaining tenancy are stricter yet. If one of our tenants is
even arrested they can lose their apartment and most therefore behave
responsibly. Besides, people of all income levels should be and are able to
live wherever they choose in America. The goal of our agency is to make safe
and affordable housing available to all those who need it in Knox County and it
is wrong to characterize our residents as non-productive slackers. Many of our
tenants are disabled or elderly or otherwise ill-suited to seek employment and
they don't deserve public ridicule.”
Two other
study recommendations are “develop rules and regulations monitoring and
governing the status of multi-family housing units in the City of Galesburg”
and “revert current zoning status of multi-family housing to single family
housing: grandfathering in existing units/homes.” Again the aim is to reduce
available rental housing for the poor but the real effect is to reduce rental
unit availability for anyone in Galesburg. The report authors have all but
suggested that Galesburg's poor should be rounded up and forced out of town.
For all its
focus on poverty and its impact on public housing in Knox County, I was amazed
to learn that nearly the entire section purporting to represent a contribution
from the KCHA must be questioned. Hulick was named executive director of the
KCHA in June but her predecessor Don Tomlin continued to administer KCHA for
that month as Hulick looked on and learned. It was July before Hulick assumed control
of the housing authority herself. The poverty committee's report says that on
July 17, 2007 Tomlin and Hulick made their presentation to the committee where
“Margie Hulick led discussions regarding federal funding of voucher and Section
8 assistance which was stated as not always beneficial to local housing
authorities.” The problem is Hulick doesn't remember any such meeting.
“I don't
recall having a meeting with this committee or even with any single member of
the committee. I never led any such discussion as referenced in this report and
I certainly did not share any of the incorrect data attributed to Don or I as
referenced in the report. Much of what is presented in the section of the
report focused on public housing is not factual. I did have a brief telephone
call with one of the report's authors where he asked me a few questions but we
certainly didn't cover most of that credited to me in the report. During that
conversation I requested the opportunity to review a draft of the report prior
to it being made public so I could offer factual corrections and correct
committee misconceptions prior to the release of the public report. I also
asked them to provide me with a final copy of the report before it was released
so I could share it with my board.”
As you
probably guessed, Hulick was never afforded any opportunity to fact check a
draft of this poverty report before Sundburg provided copies to the
Register-Mail along with a personal commentary. According to Hulick there are
substantial factual errors and misunderstanding related to public housing in
Knox County and its tenants contained within this report. It wasn't until I
shared my copy of the report that Hulick first had the opportunity to see it
herself. While the Chamber of Commerce was forthcoming with an electronic copy
of this report upon request by The Zephyr. (The report is available for
download on The Zephyr’s website, <www.thezephyr.com>.
It is hard
to believe that all 12 members of the study committee really share the
viewpoint in this report or its recommendations. There are a number of
thoughtful and responsible people identified as members of this committee
including people with a strong track record supporting non-discrimination and
social conscience yet that is no where reflected in this arrogant and
ultimately counterproductive document. Not only do the data not support the
report's contentions, the tenor of the report is both elitist and totally
unsympathetic to the plight of a growing poverty community in our own midst.
There is plenty
of poverty generated within Galesburg and Knox County that needs our help and
assistance — not an invitation to get out of town. As Hulick noted, the
contribution to this number made by poor outsiders who have decided to move to
Galesburg is virtually insignificant in the greater scheme of the ongoing
plight of poverty in Galesburg and Knox County. Local residents would be well
served if this misdirected committee were disbanded and their report put in the
recycling bin. If we want to study poverty in the future let our focus be on
ameliorating its causes, helping our neighbors cope and overcome it and
compassionately seeking to mitigate the long-term impact of the experience.
Published 1/1/09