A new report conducted by Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew-Policy Action Council (POWER-PAC Illinois) focuses on the kinds of debt crippling parents face in very low-income communities in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois. The report, called “Stopping the Debt Spiral,” is based on surveys conducted by POWER-PAC members—themselves mostly low-income women of color—throughout 2016, and includes policy recommendations and information on campaigns already in the works to resolve some of the inequities discovered in the surveys.
Three-quarters of the respondents making below $15,000 said they felt like they couldn’t stay ahead of their debt. The report notes that “for many families, the consequences of debt are even more overwhelming than the debt itself. Indebtedness thwarts employment, education, finding decent housing, business creation and other economic advancement opportunities.”
Since concluding the surveys, POWER-PAC has been pushing for legislative reforms that can alleviate predatory business practices and the collateral costs of being in debt. Policy recommendations are outlined throughout the report, and include expanding charity medical care in Illinois hospitals, limiting driver’s license suspensions for nonmoving violations, prohibiting the use of credit reports in hiring, and creating subsidies that would would adjust households’ utility costs according to income.
