I thought Henry Hyde and Peter Roskam had licked those problems years ago by pretending they don’t exist.
But here I read that Ben Lowe, our new Democratic Candidate for the House of Representatives in the 6th District went to a forum on “Homelessness in DuPage County” yesterday at the Wheaton Public Library and Ben reports that poverty and homelessness are still with us after all:
According to DuPage County Continuum, there are approximately 41,000 residents who are living below the poverty level and a solid quarter of these are children. A One Night survey conducted on January 22 2009 found 659 homeless people in the county that night (which, thanks to the increased efforts of groups like the ones above, is actually down from 766 in 2007!). Even so, in a district with as many financial resources as ours, this is 659 too many people without a roof over their heads.
And of course the poverty statistic understates the problem because the Federal poverty level is set so low: for a family of 4, $22,050. Can you imagine the difficulty of trying to feed clothe, and house a family of 4 here in DuPage County on just $22,050.
So, Ben, I’m wondering whether you happened to run into Peter Roskam at the meeting. You would have recognized him: an angry man with a receding hairline carrying handcuffs and a large stack of paper. I feel certain he must have been there -in his hometown, with a problem this serious affecting his district. But then the Bears were playing…
I have to say, I think I’m developing a serious crush on our new candidate. Not only has he acknowledged the existence of poverty and homelessness here in our district but he thinks that government (which really just us banding together to manage things that we can’t manage as individuals) might actually be able to contribute to a solution:
Based on further suggestions from our panelists, here is what I agree the government can do to help more, especially during these tough economic times:
- We must make Housing Choice Vouchers more accessible and dramatically reduce the waiting list (the wait can be up to 5 years for those that qualify)
- We need to reform Medicaid We must invest in more affordable housing
- We need to offer programs that help retrofit and upgrade old low-income housing units so that they save energy (and thus money) and make for healthier homes
- For our veterans: we have great camps training civilians to be soldiers; we need to invest just as seriously into programs that help transition soldiers back into civilians.
I am anxious to hear Representative Roskam’s plan but I have a sneaking suspicion it will involve a repeal of the estate tax.
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