[Illinois] ...leads the Midwest in 'deep poverty,' report shows

from The Northeast Indiana Times

By The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Illinois has about 724,000 residents living in what experts call "deep poverty," the highest rate in the Midwest, according to a recent report.

Deep poverty is defined as a family of four living on $9,675 or less per year.

The number of people living in deep poverty has spiked in the six-county Chicagoland area since 2000, according to the U.S. Census, the 2004 Community Survey and the 2006 Report on Illinois Poverty by the bipartisan Heartland Alliance.

McHenry County has shown the sharpest increase, up 81.7 percent from 2000 to 2004, followed by Kane County at 77.8 percent.

Though Illinois has the fifth-largest economy in the country, it also has the highest poverty rate in the Midwest. Those living in deep poverty account for 5.8 percent of the state's population, figures show, followed by 5.5 percent in Michigan and 4.6 percent in Ohio.

The increase in poverty in recent years can be attributed to cuts in social services, the loss of 225,000 manufacturing jobs since 1990 and increasing housing costs, according to the Heartland Alliance report.

Judy Sirko, 52, of Itasca is raising three children ages 14, 12 and 11. Last year, she made about $3,000, which doesn't include $415 a month in food stamps and the $435 a month in welfare funds she recently started receiving.

Despite a recent stint living in the family car, Sirko tells one daughter not to call the family poor.

"I say, 'We're not poor,"' she said. "If you say you're poor, you will be poor. I say we're blessed."