Chicago's week was marked by bitter coldness, many inches of snow, wind in excess of 25 miles per hour, frozen pipes, not enough shelters and at least one homeless man reported dead from the cold. This seems like as good a time as any to introduce my Friday series.

I've been reading studies trying to get my head around the realities of my community. There's a lot of information out there and I don't want to overwhelm everyone, so we'll bite off a little bit at a time. I think education should lead to action, just as Bible study should lead to application and not just knowledge. Therefore, I hope to also feature ways we can help.

Today, let's just look at some numbers. I'd love to hear your reactions and any ways you know of helping make Chicago more like Heaven in the comments.

2005 Census Data (Poverty)
link: Heartland Alliance

• Living in poverty: 573, 486
• Rate of Chicago households receiving food assistance: 12.9%
• Extreme poverty (annual income less than $8,045 for a family of three): 261,780 - 9.7%

2006 Chicago Coalition for the Homeless Study (Homelessness)
link: 2006 Study

• 73,656 homeless in Chicago
• 19,477 were served in shelter
• 54,179 living on the streets, doubled-up, in cars, in abandoned buildings or in some other location that was not a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence

• 21,078 homeless on a typical night in Chicago
• 4,654 were served in shelters and 16,424 did not access shelters

2005 Chicago Coalition for the Homeless - Lack of Affordable Housing
link: 2005 Report

National:

• In the U.S., nearly a third of all households spend 30% or more of their income on housing, and 13% spend 50% or more
• About 6.1 households live in overcrowded conditions
• There is not a single jurisdiction in the country where a person working full time earning the prevailing minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment

Chicago:

• In most Chicago communities in the 1990s, rents rose faster than incomes despite the fact that, on the whole, Chicago’s median income rose faster than rent.
• Nearly one-third of Chicago renters were paying more than 35 percent of their income for housing in 2000; another 20 percent were paying more than half.
• Compared to 10 other major U.S. cities, Chicago had the lowest percentage increase (8 percent) in rental units between 1970 and 2000, which is less than half of the next lowest ranking city, New York (19 percent).
• The wait for Section 8 vouchers in Chicago is 84 months. The waiting list for housing choice vouchers has been closed in Chicago since 1997 and is not expected to open again until 2005 at the earliest.
• In Chicago, only 10 percent of affordable-housing need is met.
• Nearly half of Illinois residents earn $25,000 a year or less.
• According to the 2001 Illinois self-sufficiency standard, a family of one adult and two children would need to earn $38,281 a year to pay for all their living expenses without any government assistance. (Living expenses include housing, childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, etc.)
• According to a recent study conducted by local universities, 75 percent of the city’s working-poor families earned less than $13,001, the income required to support a one-person family above 150 percent of the poverty line.

We'll look at more next week.

Labels: Jesus