“Squatting–that is, people who are living in vacant units or hallways illegally–is a significant problem in Wells,” writes Susan Popkin of the Urban Institute in a report on the Chicago Housing Authority’s Ida B. Wells housing development. “During a period of two weeks in early spring 2003, our interviewers counted 388 squatters (294 adults and 94 children) living in Wells….Unlike many homeless people who tend to move around from night to night, squatters at Wells have lived in the development for a long time. More than a quarter (28 percent) have lived in Wells for more than a year, and more than half (57 percent) of the squatters we interviewed sleep in Wells seven nights a week….When we asked what they will do when Wells is demolished, about a third (32 percent) reported they ‘didn’t know,’ and 28 percent said they planned to move to another CHA building…. Currently, the housing market and the emergency shelter system are ill equipped to handle the needs of these at-risk residents. If the problems are ignored, the city risks enormous increases in the homeless population as Wells and CHA’s other developments are demolished.”
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Lest we forget downstate. According to the Illinois Poverty Summit’s 2004 “Report on Illinois Poverty: An Analysis of Rural Poverty,” 13.49 percent of Cook County residents live below the poverty line, compared to 14.45 percent in southern Illinois (including 25 percent in Pulaski County and 26 percent in Alexander County). Similarly, 63.45 percent of Cook County residents are in the labor force, compared to 59.08 percent in southern Illinois.
