AGENDA and Minutes - Pillar 3: Ensure Just and Equitable Access to Economic Security Programs

Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Subcommittee: Ensure Just and Equitable Access to Economic Security Programs

First Quarter Meeting

February 9, 2023

10:00 - 11:00 am

Recording

Members

Appointment	Name	Affiliation
Chair	Kate Maehr	Executive Director and CEO, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Commission Member	Dr. Charles A. Montorio-Archer	President and CEO, One Hope United
Commission Member	Senator Dale Fowler	Illinois State Senator
Commission Member	Senator Kimberly Lightford	Illinois State Senator
IWGP Member	Jenny Aguirre	Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
IWGP Member	Marc Staley	Deputy Director, Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget
Public Member	Meredith Byers	Uniserve Director, Illinois Education Association
Public Member	Erion Malasi	Director of Policy and Advocacy, Economic Security for Illinois
Public Member	Misuzu Schexnider	Program Director, Inclusive Economy Lab
Public Member	Niya Kelly	Director of State Legislative Policy, Equity and Transformation, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Public Member	Meegan Durgan Adell	Fellow, New America Chicago
Public Member	Elizabeth Ojeda-Jimenez	NEA Director, Illinois Education Association
Public Member	Jeremy Rosen	Director of Economic Justice, Shriver Center on Poverty Law

Desired Outcomes: 

• Introduce subcommittee members and structure
• Review Pillar 3 strategies
• Discuss intent to develop action plan goals
• Review Urban Institute Report - Highlights
• Review Pillar Detail and Progress
• Generate Initial Concepts for FY2024 Pillar 3 Action Items
• Communicate Next Steps to Guide Work Ahead

Agenda:

1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call (5 mins)
2. Public Comment - Open (2 mins)
   • Subject to written comment in advance
3. Overview of Subcommittee Purpose and Activities (5 mins)
4. Overview of Urban Institute Reports/Benefit Uptake Data (10 mins)
5. Overview of Pillar Details/Progress (10 mins)
6. Generate FY2024 Pillar 2 Action Items (25 mins)
   1. Who is the person on the committee who has the appropriate insight for each benefit program? Or can connect? What are the gaps in our knowledge? Who can fill those gaps?
   2. What are the challenges and what strategies? What strategies are underway?
7. Next Steps and Adjournment (3 mins)
   • Define work between meetings.

MEETING MINUTES

Subcommittee members in attendance:

1. Kate Maehr - chairperson of Pillar 3 subcommittee
2. Dr. Charles Montorio-Archer - Poverty Commission member
3. Dana Hooven - representative from the Office of Senator Dale Fowler of the 59th district of Southern Illinois (Poverty Commission member)
4. Erion Malasi - subcommittee public member
5. Misuzu Schexnider - subcommittee public member
6. Niya Kelly - subcommittee public member
7. Meegan Dugan Adell - subcommittee public member
8. Jeremy Rosen - subcommittee public member

Administrator: Dana Kelly, IDHS Chief Policy Officer

1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call - Ms. Dana Kelly welcomed everyone and asked to introduce themselves
   1. Kate Maehr - Executive Director and CEO Greater Chicago Food Depository; chairperson of Pillar 3 subcommittee
   2. Misuzu Schexnider - Program Director, Inclusive Economy Lab; subcommittee public member
   3. Jeremy Rosen - Director of Economic Justice, Shriver Center on Poverty Law; subcommittee public member
   4. Erion Malasi - Director of Policy & Advocacy, Economic Security for Illinois; subcommittee public member
   5. Niya Kelly - Director of State Legislative Policy, Equity and Transformation, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless; subcommittee public member
   6. Dr. Charles Montorio-Archer - President and CEO, One Hope United; Poverty Commission member
   7. Meegan Dugan Adell - Fellow, New America Chicago; subcommittee public member
   8. Dana Hooven - representative from the Office of Senator Dale Fowler of the 59th district of Southern Illinois (Poverty Commission member)
2. Public Comment - Subject to written comment in advance, none received.
   • Subcommittee member Meegan Dugan Adell shared that they are working on a bill to have more people get their State EIC (?) following the extension last year and make sure that low-income people who normally don't file taxes can get them in a simpler way. They are meeting with different agencies such as IDHS to share the language and get support.
3. Overview of Subcommittee Purpose and Activities - Chair Kate Maehr; Dana Kelly
   • The Poverty Commission was established in 2020 and a Strategic Plan was issued last spring which is a product of an inclusive process that involved focus groups and stakeholder conversations across the State and different people from all walks of life and all levels of expertise.
   • The Commission is tasked with the reduction of deep poverty in the State by 50% by the year 2026, the elimination of child poverty in the state by 2031 and the elimination of all poverty in the state by 2036.
   • The Commission ultimately committed to a framework of 5 pillars and the meeting today is for Pillar 3: Ensure Just and Equitable Access to Economic Security Programs.
   • Chair Maehr urged members to focus on benefit access and the critical opportunity to make it simpler, and just, and equitable for everyone who is eligible for all of those critical safety net programs to be able to have access it.
   • The subcommittee membership consists of Commission members Dr. Charles Montorio-Archer and Chair Maehr herself but may include more content experts in the future according to Chair Maehr.
   • The subcommittee also consists of members from the public as mentioned by Administrator Kelly. The subcommittee is where a lot of actions will materialize from
   • The goal of the subcommittee is to identify 1 to 3 actions that can be taken under pillar 3 that can contribute to the 5-year goal this year. The subcommittee will have to identify who will lead a particular subject matter, what is the process to achieve the goal, how to measure progress and what is the timeline of completion. Administrator Kelly encouraged members to think of what additional information or resources they might need to identify their action items and she might be able to provide them.
4. Overview of Urban Institute Reports/Benefit Uptake Data - Administrator Kelly
   • The article looked at how many people are eligible but are not receiving benefits vs how much money is left on the table from the benefits that are not absorbed by the people. It also lists recommendations on how to deal with the issue and Administrator Kelly encouraged members to think about the recommendations.
   • For TANF, the difference between those who are eligible and those who are receiving is 13%.
   • When looking at the seven benefits, the highest participation is on SNAP which is 57%. What's interesting with SNAP is that the number of people who could be eligible for SNAP is the highest compared with other benefits.
   • Illinois received 49% of the safety net dollars that they could receive if all programs were fully funded and eligible families and individuals participated.
   • There are $2 billion unclaimed benefits.
   • The report also talks about children in deep poverty saying that the poverty number could decline by almost half with full funding and participation in all the programs (not including the subsidized housing).
5. Overview of Pillar 3 details/progress - Administrator Kelly
   • One of the biggest strategies for Pillar 3 is to create a single accessible platform for individuals to enroll in all State benefits, improving the systems that are used to allow people to access benefits.
   • The next strategy is the increase in uptake, access and value of existing public benefits, looking at the barriers to eligible people who are not getting or taking the benefits, groups that don't have access who should have and are the benefits large enough to make a difference or should it be increased to make a greater difference in terms of poverty.
   • The last strategy is to deploy direct cash assistance programs to lift families out of deep poverty and this will be in the form of cash transfers, guaranteed income, and various emerging programs that are being experimented and rolling out.
   • As for the State's actions, IDHS has been engaging with Code for America as well as IDHS staff on the front door access and accessible platform.
   • The State is also doing application mapping across programs thanks to the work of Greater Food Depository.
   • A lot of outreach has been done as well on CTC and EITC ensuring that enough people took advantage of the pandemic childcare tax credit opportunities.
   • IDHS is partnering with Inclusive Economy Lab with regards to a guaranteed income pilots that specifically targets the homeless population. About $6 million is targeted to be funded for this program for FY23 and FY24.
   • Updates have also been made to the TANF rebase, efforts are being made on increasing the cash portion assistance and TANF.
   • Subcommittee member Meegan Adell asked why the uptake is very low on programs like TANF and WIC. Subcommittee member Misuzu Schexnider shared a related report https://heartlandalliancepolicyadvocacy.issuelab.org/resource/resigned-to-the-process-barriers-to-accessing-and-maintaining-tanf-among-low-income-families-with-young-children-in-illinois.html.
   • Member Misuzu said that the report highlights the barriers to accessing TANF especially because of the bureaucracy. It also highlights black families that are not taking TANF.
   • Administrator Kelly shared that one of the theories they follow is that the benefit itself is actually not that great in terms of amount and that the administrative burden of receiving it is a "juice that is not worth the squeeze" for the families. And so, increasing the value of the benefit is one the focuses of IDHS and directing TANF as a block grant to individuals in need.
   • Chair Maehr shared that WIC and SNAP have very low participation in Illinois. There are a lot of conflicting information and in relation to this, the Food Depository is in the process of interviewing stakeholders of WIC and SNAP. The recertification process and the way that happens is a huge barrier according to Chair Maehr and so moms with children have to go so many times to get recertified which is not worth the time. She that the question on the table would be "have we created a structure that is complicated for mothers?".
   • Administrator Kelly shared that one of the research papers shared in the group mentioned that families with the youngest children will disproportionally benefit from strategies including overall access because more benefits are available to them. She added that strategies affecting SNAP have the greatest potential reach because of the numbers of potentially eligible families that aren't receiving it. In contrast, TANF has the smallest reach- and so when thinking about strategies for deep poverty and the people likely eligible, it can be balanced. Further, the other thing is people of color clearly will disproportionately benefit from strategies improving overall access based on disparities with people of color experiencing poverty in a greater rate compared with white people.
6. Generate FY2024 Pillar 2 Action Items - Administrator Kelly
   • Administrator Kelly did not go into detail about the several high-level recommendations about investing in navigation resources but she is really thinking for creating a single benefit access, accessible platform, investing in usability, testing of benefit applications and cross promoting program. A SNAP recipients should know if they are eligible to other benefits, enhancing benefits education to the public.
   • In terms of uptake, access and value, it was discussed that uptake will be increased by identifying eligible applicants and helping understand their barriers, access will be increased by looking at what populations are currently ineligible and making the State open up eligibility within the rules and bounds of these being federal programs, and value will be increased by exploring ways the State can increase the value of the benefits that current and future recipients receive from programs.
   • Finally, for deploying direct cash assistance programs, there are models out there but how does the State support them and become involved and who are they targeted at. The subcommittee can take a closer look at the populations that would experience an extreme benefit from these models.
   • Administrator Kelly opened the discussion on generating action items for the subcommittee. Chair Maehr asked if everyone is familiar with the conversation around Code of America.
   • Administrator Kelly shared that what she advocates for in the Poverty Commission in relation to Code is to have the ABE system improved and modernized. There are many issues with the platform such as it is not mobile accessible, it's clunky, difficult to administer and IDHS wants to modernize the platform and include other benefits and work with other agencies outside of IDHS. Illinois was selected as the 2nd cohort and the project is still being worked on. However, there is a challenge with the contract that is affecting both IDHS and HFS especially that there was a new vendor that was received for the contract. IDHS is figuring out how to balance both the incredible demands that the FCS group and HFS are dealing with a vendor transition and the type of user experience that Code can bring. Administrator Kelly added that other contractors don't go into the same depth that Code does in terms of user experience testing, they base their design on the experience of somebody experiencing poverty and that is something that IDHS wants and thus, IDHS is really committed to the project.
   • Member Misuzu asked if Administrator Kelly has a sense of any timeline such as the dependencies, for example all data should be secured first with the new contractor and make sure everything is all going smoothly before working with Code. Administrator Kelly said Code has their window which they are trying to work in the 2nd cohort but targets to start in the summer up to a 1 1/2 year period with some sustainability after that.
   • Chair Maehr shared that for the 2nd tactic, the Illinois Commission to End Hunger is putting intensive effort on interviewing both current SNAP recipients as well as individuals who are not enrolled in SNAP but are eligible to understand barriers and address these barriers through good communication. One example is the work by the Illinois Commission to End Hunger, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and IDHS to get the word out on the upcoming expiration of the SNAP emergency allotment at the end of February through channels people use a lot such as social media and using language and tactics that resonate with the people. She commented that there are things that can be done without using Code or IT people such as awareness building and stigma decreasing that can increase uptake.
   • Administrator Kelly agreed and mentioned that even using plain language would make a difference. She shared that one of the top priorities of the new Chief of Staff of IDHS is increasing language accessibility. She said that language is one of the main issues raised during the listening sessions.
   • Member Meegan asked regarding the user testing that Code for America is doing, if IDHS has looked at what specific stage/s of the process do people drop out of their application for benefits.
   • Chair Maehr shared that Food Depository is doing such work, following the user journey and using an AI tool that help them see where people are stopping their applications or stopping their inquiries. She suggested to mark the question for follow up in the next meeting.
   • Administrator Kelly agreed but said that it is something that Code definitely does but she will flag it with Code. She thinks that IDHS has done such work but she is not sure if something has been done about it.
   • Chair Maehr added that mobile access matters and if there are systems that do not come forward on mobile technology in a robust way, it hugely impacts participation.
   • Commission member Dr. Charles Montorio-Archer agreed but said that he doesn't want the Commission or the subcommittee to lean too much into technology because not everybody has readily available access to it and because of limited resources, time runs out on phones, WiFi is hard, etc.
   • Chair Maehr said not just mobile but minute friendly and so making sure that the design that will be used is not using heavy data. She added that it one of the things that she expects Code will do.
   • Administrator Kelly said Code is talking about such barriers such as requiring to have an email to be able to register at ABE. She shared that Code has showed how ABE is not mobile friendly.
   • Chair Maehr challenged everyone to access ABE on their phones. Member Jeremy shared he has tried it.
7. Next Steps and Adjournment
   • Administrator Kelly will meet with members to come up with ideas across the 3 tactics or members can send actionable steps that can be targeted in a year, not necessarily realize the whole goal but at least make some significant progress. The action items will be categorized under each tactic and members will discuss and vote in the next meeting. She said members can tell her if there's anything they need or more information to help them in thinking of action items.
   • Chair Maehr made some closing statements and adjourned the meeting.