STEP FORWARD - Shriver Center

By John Bouman, President

The astounding election of the nation’s first African American President, who is also the first President of any ancestry that many of us here in Illinois personally know, is an occasion for all kinds of reflection and almost countless ramifications.  Here are some initial thoughts on what it means. 

It means that we have taken a giant step in the struggle against racism.  It is immensely moving, and it will play out powerfully in aspirations, lives, attitudes, national self-image, moral positioning in the world, and many other ways.     

It means we can lay to rest, perhaps forever, the incredibly unfair and damaging “joke” that the most feared words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  A generation ago, this wry bromide was the signal sent by a newly elected President that the national government would be smaller and would retreat from forthright grappling with difficult domestic problems, like poverty and inequality of opportunity.  We had entered an era characterized by the notion that all of us are and ought to be “on our own”, to sink or swim according to our merits, our luck, and our hereditary advantages and disadvantages.  As a nation we had forsaken the ethos that, while personal enterprise is important, we are also all in this together.  That ethos is back. 

It means there is a new commitment that there is an important role for government in addressing difficult problems.  There is a new desire for and insistence on competence.  If there is an effort by the government that fails or falls short, the first option will be to figure out how to do it better, not to shrug and call it evidence that government cannot do the job. 

It means that one of those difficult problems that the national government will resume efforts to address is the problem of poverty and the improvement of justice and opportunity for low income people.  It is clear from the track record we know here in Illinois and from the Obama campaign’s many policy positions on these issues that the president-elect understands the complexity of this problem and will act on it in many different ways.  At least two of the top announced priorities for the immediate crisis are directly on point:  jobs and health care.

It means that to make the needed investments, the new administration will need to find the money.  Those who support the effort to address poverty, justice and opportunity will need to support the needed tax policies and budget changes.  One clear change is that the new president will call for shared effort and sacrifice in order to accomplish important goals.

It means that it will be possible to think of many strategies and outcomes that have been unthinkable at the crucial and difference-making levels of government not in the daily public consciousness:  the courts, the executive orders, the regulatory processes, the day-to-day decisions of implementers of programs and budgets, the discretion of regional and local federal officials.  

It means we have to understand the incredible pent-up wishes and demands now laid at the door of the new administration.  They cannot possibly all be met.  Some will have to wait, and some may not happen at all.  There will be compromises and disappointments in addition to real and significant progress.  The high symbolic idealism of the campaign and the election result must be tempered by the practical demands of governing.  This cannot be regarded as a disappointment - but as the real world asserting itself.  If we get an effective, pragmatic and result-oriented national government, guided by values that conclude that “we are in this together”, and motivated by a genuine desire to improve justice and opportunity, then we will have a profound sea-change in this country and much will be accomplished. 

By Karen Harris, Supervising Attorney

In recent years several states have enacted annual percentage interest rate (APR) limits that eliminate the triple-digit interest rates charged by payday lenders. The payday lending industry is now fighting back by sponsoring ballot initiatives that threaten these sensible payday lending regulations in two states: Arizona and Ohio.

A “no” vote on Proposition 200 in Arizona will ensure that payday lenders’ current predatory practices will no longer be permitted when the exemption for such lenders from the state’s 36 percent APR cap expires in 2010. In Ohio, by contrast, a “yes” vote on Ballot Issue 5 will create a 28 percent APR cap on payday loans, while a “no” vote will allow payday lenders to continue charging up to 391 percent interest rates. Thus Arizona voters should vote “no,” and Ohio voters should vote “yes,” on these critical ballot measures to protect their communities from the debt traps caused by abusive payday loans. Read the rest of this entry »

By Marcia Henry,  Senior Attorney-Senior Editor

The inaugural issue of Civil Right to Counsel Update  is now available. To be published quarterly, the Update will report on all aspects of advocacy to achieve recognition of a right to counsel for low-income people in civil cases that affect basic human needs. In criminal cases, a right to counsel has long been recognized any time a defendant faces even a brief period of incarceration. But no parallel right exists in civil cases, despite consequences-like permanent loss of custody of a child, or loss of safe and subsidized housing, or denial of health care-that can be at least as devastating. Read the rest of this entry »

John Bouman, President

Poverty is a complex, daunting issue that requires action on a variety of different fronts, but we can’t disregard the necessary job of keeping it in the public eye and on the political radar. That’s why, today, bloggers across the world participate in the UN’s 2^nd Annual Blog Action Day.  This event aims to provide a platform for bloggers to discuss poverty from a variety of perspectives and hopefully mobilize audiences to increase awareness of the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

By Margaret Stapleton, Senior Attorney

Lots of things about health insurance are ironic. Example: Getting health care (which prevents more serious trouble or restores health) can trigger difficulties staying insured due to premium adjustments upward and preexisting-condition exclusions if the patient needs to change insurance plans. 

But the biggest irony is that, in some states, it’s okay for insurers to look at information of questionable relevance (past medical treatment), but now nowhere in the United States is it okay to look at information of quite certain relevance (genetic test results).  Read the rest of this entry »

By Bill Wilen,  Director of Housing Litigation

Prior to 1996, federal housing law provided that every public housing unit that was demolished had to be replaced on a one-for-one basis with another public housing or equivalent unit.   In this manner, the nation’s inventory of public housing units would remain constant, and housing would remain available to meet the housing needs of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, such as the very-poor, the elderly and the disabled.  However, in 1996, this requirement was suspended and later repealed by Congress.  Read the rest of this entry »

By John Bouman, President

On Tuesday, Aug. 26 the U.S. Census Bureau released data about income levels, poverty rates, and health insurance from 2007. At first glance, the data look like good news. The nation’s poverty rate held steady at 12.5 percent, not statistically different from the 12.3 percent in 2006. Median household income increased. The number of people without health insurance decreased. However, digging deeper into the data shows we have work to do. Read the rest of this entry »

By Wendy Pollack, Director, Women’s Law & Policy Project

The combination of a weak economy and the inflation of food prices has taken its toll on all households, but low-income households have been particularly hard-hit. As the national unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent in July, the number of people receiving food stamp benefits hit a record high of over 28 million. The Illinois unemployment rate in July stood at 7.3 percent. Recent flooding has only compounded the difficulties for residents of the affected Illinois counties. Illinois is experiencing record numbers of food stamp recipients as well. In April the number of people receiving food stamps was almost 1.3 million. Read the rest of this entry »

By Kate Walz, Senior Staff Attorney

On July 30 President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, H.R. 3221, passed by Congress in mid-July. But media coverage of the bill has largely focused on how it will help beleaguered homeowners facing foreclosure. As a low-income housing advocate, whose clients live almost exclusively in rental housing, I was pleasantly surprised to find items benefiting renters.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Richard P. Weishaupt, Guest Blogger 

What would a blog on ethics and legal aid discuss? While some might argue tongue in cheek that the terms are an oxymoron, most legal aid lawyers and other advocates are very concerned about being ethical in both the professional and the moral sense. This blog aims to be a practical guide to the Rules of Professional Responsibility and a forum for discussion of some of the more difficult problems that legal aid lawyers face. Too often the ethics training we experience as part of our continuing legal education requirements is geared to a practice that bears little resemblance to our day-to-day challenges. (This blog appears as a column in Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, published by the Shriver Center.) Read the rest of this entry »