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State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, is calling on lawmakers to
do more to aid struggling state residents after the number of
individuals relying on food assistance sharply jumped over the
past five years.
Data composed by the Illinois Department of Public Health shows
more than one million households across Illinois were reliant on
food assistance as recently as last October, representing a 12%
increase since 2019.
In addition, almost 2 million Illinois residents, or one out of
every seven, made use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program benefits over that time, with roughly half of them being
residents of Cook County. All told, the number of Illinoisans
now using SNAP roughly stands at about 212,000 above
pre-pandemic levels.
Ford argued he’s long seen the handwriting on the wall, given
the state is now home to the third-highest unemployment rate in
the country and, since the pandemic, its overall recovery rates
as the fifth worst among all 50 states.
“I think we definitely need to look at the struggling working
class,” Ford told The Center Square. “People are still receiving
SNAP at the rate that they were receiving before inflation.
Senior citizens and people on fixed incomes should automatically
get some extra support from the federal government.”
Ford said all the persistent struggling has left many of the
state’s most vulnerable residents feeling as if they’ve
practically been cast in an impossible situation.
“I would say it all stems from the price of goods and services
increasing while wages remain stagnant,” he said. “People have
utility bills that’s going up. They have food prices going up,
rent prices going up, insurance going up, property taxes going
up. These are demands that they have to pay in order to live in
their homes and sometimes food becomes secondary.”
Researchers also found that although Cook County residents
composed just 41% of the state’s population, they accounted for
46% of SNAP residents with Chicago at nearly 67% of that total
and 31% of all individuals receiving such benefits.
In the end, Ford said changing some of what we see coming out of
Springfield could go a long way toward alleviating at least some
of the suffering.
“I think that we as a state, as a government should look at more
business-friendly policies to support small businesses so that
they can hire more people, pay higher wages,” he said. “That
money will automatically come right back to the state in revenue
because people are going to spend it.” |
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