BLOOMINGTON- The 2022 Illinois State of Homelessness Report, states that in 2020, 10,431 individuals experienced street and shelter homelessness on any given day.
With the conversation of affordable housing being an important topic this election season, what is the city of Bloomington doing to ensure that every eligible voter can vote by November 8th?
The American Community Survey conducted by the US Census showed that in 2020 the median home property value in Bloomington was $166,400, which is smaller than the national average of $229,800. With 64.9% owning the housing unit they reside in.
According to the Housing Authority of the City of Bloomington Illinois, section 8 of the Housing Choice Voucher Program states it, “is a federally funded program that provides rental assistance to very low-income families, the elderly and disabled to obtain decent, safe, affordable housing on the private market.”
The Administrative Plan for the Housing Choice Voucher Program states, “The United States Housing Act of 1937 (the ‘Act’) is responsible for the birth of federal housing program initiatives. The Act was intended to provide financial assistance to states and cities for public works projects, slum clearance and the development of affordable housing developments for low-income residents” (1-5).
In Illinois, the percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native population is 1.12%. One issue that can create difficulties for the Indigenous population to vote is geography. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “On reservations or in other rural areas, “nontraditional” addresses, or homes with no address at all, are common. Registering to vote is based on the geographic location of a home, and if that’s hard to identify, it’s hard to get registered.”
Another issue is house insecurity. In 2018 the Homelessness Research Institute found that 3% of the U.S homeless population was indigenous. Now in 2020, that percent has risen to seven.
The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report found that, “for the fourth consecutive year, homelessness increased nationwide…African Americans and indigenous people (including Native Americans and Pacific Islanders) remained considerably overrepresented among the homeless population compared to the U.S. population.”
When focusing on the indigenous population solely, “together, American Indian, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian populations account for one percent of the U.S. population, but five percent of the homeless population and seven percent of the unsheltered population” (AHAR).
McLean County Salvation Army Services Director, Sarah Idleman, spoke about various programs managed by the McLean County Salvation Army, from a food pantry, to the Pathway to Hope program to a comprehensive emergency assistance program to help pay for mortgage and utilities under special circumstances.
For the homeless population in McLean Country, Idleman stated, “we do quite a few homeless services here from the shelter and we do operate a 58 bed below barrier shelter, the only of its kind in the area and we take adults, so people 18 and over. We take people with any kind of criminal history, except we do not allow sex offenders to stay here. We provide overnight services laundry, showers, meals to our residents and a warm place to stay.”
With her work at the McLean County Salvation Army, caseworker, Gabby Bontea shared some of the obstacles the homeless individuals she has worked with face, “when people are transient or moving from shelter to shelter just without stable housing they may not know where to vote. They may not have the resources to vote and with our population suffering from mental illness also we have an education component that many of our clients may not be in a higher education.” Hence making it difficult to start the process of researching candidates and getting informed on the ballot candidates.
In the last five years the shelter has received and aided individuals with felonies. Due to those felony charges, they are not able to vote.
One of the services provided at the McLean Country Salvation Army is assistance in establishing identity within the homeless community. If the individual has lost their ID or they don’t have a social security card or birth certificate, then Salvation Army works with every individual to ensure they have all required documentation so they can then apply to housing.
Other obstacles mentioned go into depth regarding the inability of the homeless individuals to read. Within the 1st quarter of the 2023 Fiscal Year, the most served demographic groups is self-reported struggle with mental illness, hence some of the individuals in the homeless community would not be in a clear state of mind when voting.
With all the obstacles the homeless community faces when voting, Idleman shared, “I would say a majority of our individuals are operating in crisis mode. They’re worried about where they’re going to sleep, if they’re sleeping outside or inside, so they’re not really in a place where they could have enough forward thinking to be able to vote and that’s just the nature of homelessness, unfortunately.”
With Black and Indigenous individuals being identified as two of the more likely communities prone to homelessness it is important to ensure minorities have a voice during election season.
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