Brenda Johnson, executive director of Helping Hands, says officials at the
Springfield homeless shelter are simply “trying to control what we have control of” to adjust to a 27 percent cut in funding from the state.
That’s meant relying more heavily on donations from the community, which have been
plentiful, making sure to turn off lights in rooms that aren’t being used, not running the washing machine and dryer as often and cutting
back on staff hours.
“Everybody is learning that multitasking is the way to keep things rolling,” Johnson says.
It’s also meant that the organization has had to cut back on some case management
services, which can include mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling
and life skills coaching, and is a critical element of helping people get out
of the cycle of homelessness, advocates say.
In the coming months and years, Springfield’s inventory of housing for the poor will increase dramatically thanks largely to
commitments by the federal government. In total, Springfield will receive just
over $1 million for re-housing and homelessness prevention.
While the federal government is busy injecting unprecedented amounts of money
into housing programs, Illinois is scaling back funding to combat homelessness.
This comes just as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent its
annual homeless assessment to Congress. The good news in the report was that
the overall number of homeless people during a point-in-time count taken in
January was down both across the U.S. and locally. In Illinois, homelessness
fell 4.9 percent from 2007 to 2008 while Springfield saw its point-in-time
homeless count fall 9.6 percent in the same time period, according to the
report.
However, the HUD study did reveal an alarming 9 percent increase in the number
of homeless families in 2008 over the previous year, mostly from suburban and
rural areas. Additionally, HUD reported that members of homeless families lived
in transitional housing 10 more nights in 2008 than in 2007, while homeless
individuals spent an extra 16 nights in transitional shelters.
“The economic crisis is forcing more families who had previously been well housed
into homelessness,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told reporters on a conference call last week.
The trends uncovered by HUD are mirrored in Springfield, says M.E.R.C.Y.
Communities executive director Mary Stone.
“Our referrals have tripled in the past few months. We have a lot of people
looking for services,” Stone says.
The organization, which provides transitional and long-term housing for at-risk
and homeless mothers, also saw its state funding to each of those two programs
slashed by about a third.
In the meantime, M.E.R.C.Y. Communities has been able to avoid cutting staff.
But the agency also provides the women dozens of support programs including
on-site daycare, counseling and mentoring, as well as self-improvement, budget
management, yoga and parenting classes.
The future of those services remain unclear as agreements with mental health
professionals with whom M.E.R.C.Y. contracts have already been terminated,
Stone says. Despite the cuts, the agency will still accept referrals even
though Stone concedes they will be able to help fewer women.
“We’re continuing to house people,” Stone says. “We’re trying to respond to their needs.”
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.
