Capitol Briefs: State unveils report on racial disparities among
homeless populations
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[April 26, 2024]
By ANDREW ADAMS
Capitol News Illinois
aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com
 Tackling homelessness requires addressing racial injustice, according to
a new report commissioned by the state’s Office to Prevent and End
Homelessness.
The report found that Black people are eight times more likely to
experience homelessness than white people. Remedying this disparity,
according to the report, would require “long-term strategies that
dismantle systemic barriers contributing to racial inequities in
homelessness such as ending the mass incarceration of Black people.”
“When we think about the harms of racial segregation and red lining, we
can draw a line to the realities of homelessness,” Christine Haley, the
state’s chief homelessness officer, said in a news release.
The report, produced by the Institute for Research on Race and Public
Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago, forms the basis of a new
“action plan” from the governor, whose “Home Illinois” plan aimed at
ending homelessness launched in 2022.
In his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year 2025, Pritzker
proposed $250 million for the state’s homelessness prevention
initiatives, a $50 million increase over the current fiscal year.
The additional money would be used to provide housing assistance, legal
aid and to initiate pilot programs aimed at addressing racial
disparities within the homeless population.
The “unified, whole of government approach” is set to embed state
officials responsible for helping homeless individuals in at least five
state departments, including the Department of Corrections and the
Department of Children and Family Services.
“Homelessness is not an issue of personal failing, but of historical
discrimination and structural barriers that have driven inequality for
Black families across the nation and of course right here in Illinois,”
Pritzker said.
Illinois had about 9,000 people experiencing homelessness on a given
night in 2022, according to the latest data from the National Alliance
to End Homelessness. Rates of homelessness are highest in the Chicago
area and around Springfield.
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Homelessness in the state has fallen by 41 percent since 2007, according
to NAEH data. Most homeless people in Illinois, about 79 percent, were
in shelters or other temporary accommodations in 2022.
Air quality report
Illinois’ air quality received mixed grades from the American Lung
Association’s annual “State of the Air” report released this week.
While some counties in central and southern Illinois had low levels of
pollution, areas in Chicagoland are some of the most polluted in the
nation. The Chicago metropolitan area, according to the report, has the
17th highest level of ozone pollution of all cities in the nation.
Ozone is a product of vehicle exhaust and industrial pollution, and the
pollutant can aggravate lung disease, increase the frequency of asthma
attacks and make breathing difficult, according to the federal
Environmental Protection Agency.
The Chicago area was also ranked the 22nd most polluted city for
year-round particle pollution, which results from construction,
industrial waste, car exhaust and other sources.
“In the 25 years that the American Lung Association has been doing our
‘State of the Air’ report, we have seen incredible improvement in our
nation’s air quality.” Kristina Hamilton, advocacy director at the ALA,
said in a news release. “Unfortunately, more than 131 million people
still live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and Chicago
is listed as one of the worst places for ozone and particle pollution,
which disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities
of color.”
Downstate communities had generally cleaner air. While data on ozone
pollution is only available for 23 Illinois counties, Adams, Effingham
and Jo Daviess counties all received an “A” grade from the lung group
for having zero days last year with high ozone pollution levels. For the
17 counties with data on particle pollution, seven received an “A”
grade, including DuPage and McHenry counties in Chicagoland.
The Springfield area’s air quality worsened this year compared to last
year, when Sangamon County was ranked among the cleanest in the nation.
It fell to a “C” grade for ozone and “B” grade for particle pollution,
based on the number of days with high levels of each pollutant in the
air.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is
distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide.
It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert
R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the
Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial
Association.
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