AGENDA and MINUTES - Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination Meeting, December 18, 2023

Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Meeting Agenda

Monday, December 18, 2023

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Recording

Statutory Members:

Name Title Organization
Dulce Quintero Chairperson, Secretary Illinois Department of Human Services
Paula A. Basta Director Illinois Department on Aging
Kristi Jones Deputy Director Illinois Department of Agriculture
Jason Horwitz Deputy Director, Office of Policy Development, Planning, and Research Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
Jane Flanagan Acting Director Illinois Department of Labor
Marc Staley Deputy Director Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget
Dr. Janice Phillips Assistant Director Illinois Department of Public Health
Krish Mohip Chief Education Officer - Operations Illinois State Board of Education
TBD Illinois Department of Corrections

Invited Members:

Name Title Organization
Emily Mueller AD of Policy and Research Illinois Housing Development Authority
Carrie Thomas Deputy Director, Business Services Illinois Department of Employment Security
Jenny Aguirre Assistant Director Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services

Administrator: Dana Kelly, IDHS-Associate Secretary for Disability Services and Education and Facility Operations/Administrator of Poverty Commission

AGENDA

  1. Welcome - Dulce Quintero, IDHS-Secretary/IWG Chair (5 min)
  2. Introductions/Roll Call - Associate Secretary Kelly (5 min)
  3. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance (2 min)
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: October 26, 2023 (3 min)
  5. IWGP Housekeeping (10 min)
    • Accomplishments Update - Associate Secretary Kelly
  6. Working Group Statutory Compliance Updates (15min)
    1. IWGP Report requirement (posting of report on member agencies' websites)
    2. GOMB Compliance report requirement
  7. Subcommittee updates -Matthew Rodriguez (15 min)
  8. Next Steps (5 min)
    • Next IWG meeting - Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite already sent)
  9. Adjournment

MINUTES

Statutory Members in Attendance:

  1. Glenda Corbett - Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA), Special Assistant to the Director on Community Engagement and Equity
  2. Elizabeth Vogt - IDoA, Senior Policy Advisor
  3. Tyler Bohannon - Illinois Department of Agriculture, Bureau Chief of Legislative Affairs
  4. Jason Horwitz - Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Deputy Director, Office of Policy Development, Planning, and Research
  5. Anna Koeppel - Illinois Department of Labor, Legislative and Policy Director
  6. Marc Staley - Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget (GOMB), Deputy Director
  7. Dorothy Patton - Illinois GOMB, DHS Analyst
  8. Carol Knowles - Illinois GOMB
  9. Janice Phillips - Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Assistant Director

IWGP Invited Members in attendance:

  1. Erik Turner - Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), Policy and Research Specialist
  2. Carrie Thomas - Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), Deputy Director of Business Services
  3. Jenny Aguirre - Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (IDHFS), Assistant Director

Administrator: Dana Kelly, IDHS-Associate Secretary for Disability Services and Education and Facility Operations/Administrator of Poverty Commission

Guests:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Facilitator, Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)
  2. Ni'Shele Jackson - Facilitator/Researcher, IRRPP
  3. Priya Khatkhate - IDHS-Chief Policy Officer

Minutes

  1. Welcome - Administrator Kelly informed the group that the meeting will be recorded in compliance with the Open Meetings Act and gave an overview of the agenda.
  2. Introductions/Roll Call - present members and guests placed their names on the chat that served as the roll call. Administrator Kelly made some announcements.
    • Six statutory members out of nine were present and all three invited members were present. Quorum was reached.
    • Audra Wilson of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law has stepped up to the role of Poverty Commission chair replacing Evelyn Diaz formerly of Hartland Alliance.
    • Administrator Kelly will be transferring from IDHS to HFS and will be stepping away from the Poverty Commission work.
    • IDHS-Chief Policy Officer, Priya Khatkhate will be taking over all Poverty Commission-related work replacing Administrator Kelly.
  3. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance, none received.
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: October 26, 2023 - Deputy Dir. Staley moved to approve the October 26, 2023 meeting minutes, seconded by Dr. Phillips. The group unanimously approved the October 26, 2023 meeting minutes.
  5. Subcommittee updates - Matthew Rodriguez
    1. Summary of subcommittees' FY24 goals as presented by Mr. Rodriguez
      1. Pillar 1: Illinois is best in nation for raising families
        1. Advocate for WIC resources
        2. Increase uptake of WIC
      2. Pillar 2: Stabilize homes and communities
        1. Support funding for housing units
        2. Research rent control models
        3. Address credit check impact
        4. Map of housing affordability/availability
      3. Pillar 3: Ensure just and equitable access to economic security programs
        1. Address barriers within ABE
        2. Advocate for guaranteed income
        3. Awareness campaign for benefits
      4. Pillar 4: Address barriers to paid work, education, and advancement
        1. Advocate to address gaps in childcare availability and demand
        2. Expand barrier reduction programming funding
      5. Pillar 5: Support trusted community-based providers to serve the needs of those in deep poverty
        1. Create integrated network of providers
        2. Advocate for COLA increase for frontline human service workers
        3. Support IDHS to assess state contracts and identify gaps
    2. Discussion
      • Pillar 1 subcommittee has constructed a letter addressed to legislators signed by both the Poverty Commission and the Commission to End Hunger highlighting work related to WIC and the needed support from the federal level to ensure continued budget. The letter was in response to the proposed budget cut to WIC and was sent to the state congressional delegation for them to continue supporting the program.
      • Pillar 3 members Jeremy Rosen and Erion Malasi are working with organizations who are already advocating guaranteed income.
      • Pillar 5 chair Lauren Wright works at the Illinois Partners for Human Services who already has an integrated network of providers. From there, Pillar 5 will try to identify gaps across the state if there are service deserts and potentially target capacity building.
      • Mr. Rodriguez also shared some concepts from the book "Poverty, by America" written by Matthew Desmond and mentioned that the author will be speaking in the first annual Shriver Center Poverty Summit in January. Administrator Kelly shared the link 2024 Poverty Summit - Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
      • Members were asked if there are any other areas of focus that need to be addressed as the work to eradicate poverty continues beyond 2024.
      • Dr. Phillips mentioned financial literacy, how to manage money starting with the younger people. If people in poverty get to a point where they get the right wages, if they know how to manage their money and understand how it works, they will not find their selves going back to poverty.
      • Administrator Kelly shared that financial literacy came up a lot during the previous listening sessions on poverty a few years back. She added that access to capital or the consequences of debt might be another gap. Most of the Poverty Commission strategies focus on lifting up people from deep poverty but debt itself contributes much to deep poverty and could be another area that the group can think about.
      • The group is encouraged to think of other gaps that there may be and that subcommittee members can bring the ideas to their groups. Goals have been set but the table is open to working on other things. Further, another goal setting process will be done next year in late spring going into fiscal year 2025 and new goals can be added.
  6. Working Group Statutory Compliance Updates
    1. IWGP Report requirement (posting of report on member agencies' websites)
      • Administrator Kelly will be following up with the group to make sure they get the report and get it posted at their respective agency websites.
      • Also moving forward, future reports will have to include some level of historical data of poverty rates in the past 20 years with a focus on reduction that has happened recently since the inception of IWGP.
      • IWGP report is due every July 1st of the year.
    2. GOMB Compliance report requirement - UIC was requested to research on items 1-3 from the previous meeting.
      • An accounting of the savings to the State from any increased efficiencies in the delivery of services;
      • Any savings realized from reducing the number of individuals living in poverty and reducing the demand for need-based services and benefits;
      • A projection of any increase in revenue collections due to any increase in the number of individuals who become employed and pay taxes into the State treasury; and
      • Any other information related to the proposed annual budget that the Director of the Governor's Office of Management and Budget believes furthers the goals and objectives of the strategic plan.
      • Things to consider:
        1. For number 4, Dir. Staley can include recommendations by the Governor in the introduced budget that are in line with the Commission's recommendations and other things that are currently happening such as the state minimum wage which is in statute in 2024 and will increase again in 2025.
        2. For number 1, the research partner at UIC believes that it's possible to get the information if the services are specifically defined; what are the actual state-administered services that are going to be targeted in terms of measurement e.g. SNAP, Medicaid, TANF or the likes. After services have been identified, GOMB will have to provide some access to related overarching financials for those services/programs to make projections. If the scope is limited to a certain number of programs, UIC can potentially do the study.
        3. The delivery of services is not defined anywhere else in the statute and so the group has the ability to define it. Dir. Staley reminded the group that statutes can be changed; moving forward, the group should consider what is more realistic, reasonable and achievable when defining the delivery of services.
        4. Deputy Dir. Thomas suggested another specification that could limit number 1 which is to define whether they are need-based services that require eligibility and other services that don't require eligibility. Additionally, if what is needed to determine is savings from the State budget, then services/programs that are fully federally funded like SNAP could be eliminated from the scope of study.
        5. Dir. Staley added, if there is a fixed amount of dollars, whether state or federal dollars, but the universe is fixed, a decrease in administrative costs should increase efficiency and saving more dollars that can be reinvested to other programs/services.
        6. For #2, and #3, according to Mr. Rodriguez, the information he received was that the information is attainable through the current research. However, they will need a point of contact that can answer the nuances of the query. For example, for #3, are we assuming that the person moves from deep poverty to becoming employed at a particular level, if so, what level?
        7. Administrator Kelly added that if same limitations would be applied to numbers 1-3, there could be existing literature that can be used to extrapolate from. For example, if there are already studies on SNAP that looked at the savings from increased enrolment nationally, how would that apply when looking at savings if there is an increased enrolment by 20,000 individuals. If the extrapolation was made clear in the report, it would potentially meet the need for the audit review.
        8. Dir. Staley, however said that the auditor wants a much deeper information other than extrapolations. It is still possible to use extrapolations but the main concern is the deadline of the report on February 21st which is the Governor's Address live date. The report would have to be finalized between February 14-16.
        9. Deputy Dir. Horwitz suggested that because the requirements have been in existence for over a year, it would be better to acknowledge that at this point in time, there are challenges and that the group is aware of these challenges as well as the process to address them and in the next year and so forth by the IWGP.
        10. Policy Director Anna Koeppel reminded the group that since there is proposing or pursuing a statutory change, the group should follow proper protocols.
        11. Dir. Staley also suggested that when the group meets in March, they could instead come up with real attainable, measurable things that would be meaningful and still be somewhat in the spirit of what the group is trying to achieve.
        12. Dir. Staley reminded the group that the GA is scheduled end of May and if the group will try to get the statutory adjustment done, it will have to be ready early May. The request will be coming directly from GOMB's Legislative Team.
      • Agreement:
      1. Due to the factors listed above, the group agreed that having a final report by February 21, 2024 with the needed information on numbers 1-4 is not feasible given the amount of research needed to satisfy the requirements.
      2. The group agreed to put out a motion that would read "…being that this is the first year in which we are required to execute this particular requirement (305 ILCS 70/95-303), the IWGP acknowledges and has studied the requirement. There are limitations in the ability to collect data in the outlined categories (can list down the limitations) and plan to study whether we would like to clarify the requirements in statute. The group will provide updates on these requirements in the IWGP report which is due on July 1st, 2024".
      3. Dir. Thomas moved to adopt the motion as outlined by Administrator Kelly, seconded by Dir. Staley. The group unanimously voted to adopt the motion.
  7. Next Steps
    • Administrator Kelly will follow up with the group with some items. She, Priya and Dir. Staley will work together to figure out a plan for assessing the statute.
    • Priya and Len will be the main contacts regarding the Poverty Commission moving forward.
    • Recruitment of members to the subcommittees is still encouraged.
    • Len will send the slides.
  8. Next IWG meeting - Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite already sent)
  9. VIII. Adjournment - Dir. Koeppel moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Dir. Horwitz. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn at 4:00 PM.