Adressing Today's Challenges

According to Dictionary.com Welfare is "a governmental agency that provides funds and aid to people in need, especially those unable to work." The denotation, in and of itself, is fine, this problem lies in society's connotation of the word. As a society, we attach a negative stigma to the word, conjuring up images of young, single, minority mothers struggling to make ends meet. One of the most fascinating tenets to the welfare system is its connection to the prisons. Some interesting statistics about the interrelatedness of welfare and prisons are: [Keep in mind some of these statistics may be guesstimates (Statistics taken from our wonderful speaker Ruben Miller.)]

-50% of prisoners live below 50% of the poverty line.
-25% of prisoners have a disability that prevent them from working.
-56% of prisoners leaving jail only go onto 7 of 77 communities.
-15% of prisoners were on welfare as children.
-38,000 prisoners leave jail every year, 38,000 prisoners return to jail every year.

These statistics show how interbred the prison and welfare systems are, with the welfare and prison rates being almost identical; rather than the prisons serving their initial purpose of rehabilitation, they are being used as a form of social control, in order to manage urban poverty. Unfortunately, this is leaving people unable to provide themselves with adequate living conditions. The welfare system is broken, the social safety net that was intended to help the urban poor, needs to be mended. People such as the prison population are falling through the holes.

Another population that has fallen through Welfare's cracks is the homeless population. Homelessness is a surprisingly recent phenomena, which has become a necessary outgrowth of the welfare system. In addition to the prison population, the homeless population is largely male. This is because the welfare system is more effective for women, who are able to get jobs through the workfare program. Many of Welfare's programs are unavailable for men. The increase in homelessness is also due to our flexible economy and the recent recession. In addition the influx of aging and new veterans has helped to expand the population. At the most recent count, some 20% of the homeless population are veterans.

Furthermore, the demographics of the homeless population is shifting. The average age of a homeless person is now 54, a dramatic age shift. Several factors play into this new older trend: health issues, the economic downturn, unemployment, a lack of proper benefits and adequate housing, mental health, violence, substance abuse, language and cultural differences, and war and criminal records. In addition, there is a substantial lack of programming for people between the ages of 47 and 62. The vast majority of programs are directed at the 60+ set, completely ignoring those who may be beyond their working years but still too young for government assistance.

Chicago has implemented a new plan to combat homelessness called the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. However, as time passed, it has become just The Plan to End Homelessness, and lost its ten year timeline. The basic premise of the plan is to close some of the costly emergency shelters in the city, and move the homeless population into interim and eventually permanent housing. This plan is extremely interesting and I look forward to seeing the hopefully positive results of this program.