A huge gap in homelessness prevention funding was finally closed last month when the Emergency Fund received the first installment of $23 million in federal stimulus funds.

The funds are available to Chicago residents facing a temporary financial crisis for help with rent, utilities, moving costs and storage fees.

It’s the first public funding for homelessness prevention available here in  six months.  After the federal funding was announced last year, the state reduced its $11 million homelessness prevention program by 78 percent, said Karen Molnar of the Emergency Fund.

“It was just shortsighted,” said Julie Dworkin of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which has pushed for increased funding for the state program, established in 1999.  “It’s such a critical program and the need for it is really growing.”

With budgetary delays, the state’s reduced funding wasn’t available until early last month – about the time the federal funds started arriving, Molnar said.

Families and individuals facing temporary shortfalls can see if they qualify for assistance by calling 311 and asking for short-term help.

The federal funding stream is available for the next three years, but Molnar thinks it may be used up before then.  “There’s a growing demand for housing assistance, and job creation isn’t really picking up,” she said.

The public funds are available in grants up to $1,500 but are restricted to direct housing  and moving costs.  The Emergency Fund also distributes flexible funds, which come from donations from individuals and support from foundations and corporations.

Those are available in smaller amounts but for a much wider range of basic needs –a bus pass, an eye exam, a work uniform, a bed, a refrigerator – anything needed to help someone become or remain self-sufficient.

Last year the Emergency Fund assisted some 5,500 people, Molnar said. She said calls for assistance dropped after word got out that funding wasn’t available – but since January, the number of calls is up significantly.

According to CCH, Governor Quinn’s budget proposal maintains state homeless prevention funding at its reduced level and cuts funding for homeless youth services.

Gospel choirs from Joliet area churches will sing at the International Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place on Sunday (March 14, 3 p.m., 2301 S. King) – joining clergy and workers protesting the presence of vacuum cleaner manufacturer Bissell Corporation.

As previously reported here, area clergy called for a boycott of Bissell after 70 employees were fired en masse at its warehouse in Elwood, Illinois, when they complained of minimum wage violations and demanded union recognition. Warehouse workers are being backed by Warehouse Workers for Justice, a new workers center active in the national distribution hub in Will County.

“Over 90 percent of homeware products are purchased by women, yet at the Bissell warehouse, women were discriminated against, making as much as $2.50 less than men, and pregnant women were targeted for abusive working conditions,” said Monica Morales,a former employee at Bissell’s warehouse.

With Politico reporting that U.S. Rep Dan Lipinski will oppose health care reform unless it restricts women’s access to abortion coverage, the Campaign for Better Health Care is planning a rally tomorrow afternoon at his LaGrange office (19 W. Hillgrove, Thursday, March 11 at 4 p.m.)

Meanwhile, Huffington Post reports that two more Senators are backing  a public option, putting the total publicly committed at 38, and likely votes up into the 40s (51 votes are needed under budget reconciliation).  “With a push from the White House, the public option is now within striking distance.”

But President Obama has been backing off support for a public option ever since he won the 2008 election by campaigning for one.

He also campaigned on reducing lobbyist influence.  But it was shortly after that election that the basic parameters of the ultimate deal – coverage for preexisting conditions in exchange for a heavily-subsidized individual mandate; and, of course, no public option – were spelled out by an insurance industry lobbyist.  (Indeed, this has been the insurance industry’s program for many years.)

And somehow — though the House bill with a public option would do lots more to control costs, and be more popular to boot — that’s what’s on the table.

The Civic Federation and the editorial writers are calling for a “balanced approach” to the state’s budget crisis that includes cuts along with revenue increases.

With Governor Quinn issuing his budget address today – heavy on cuts and borrowing, as Progress Illinois notes — the Responsible Budget Coalition points out that the state has been cutting spending and borrowing money for years now.

“As a result, even before the current crisis, Illinois ranked 49th of 50 states in education funding, slashed its state workforce to the smallest in the nation per capita, and underfunded human services by $4.4 billion since 2002″ – not to mention $5 billion in unpaid bills to local service providers.  (For more see CTBA’s recent study.)

“It is critical that lawmakers act now to balance their past pattern of cuts, borrowing and payment delays with adequate revenue. They should enact HB 174.”

That bill would raise the rate on the income tax and expand the sales tax to consumer goods, while increasing the personal exemption and property tax credit. It would raise $5.2 billion a year.  It passed the state Senate last year with Governor Quinn’s backing, but House Speaker Mike Madigan refuses to bring it to a vote.

In a statement this morning, the Responsible Budget Coalition points out that the economic crisis is creating much greater demand for public services – and that job losses from budget cuts in the middle of a recession would hurt the state economy far more than a tax increase would.

Raising a ruckus in Washington D.C. this week is National People’s Action, the annual convocation of community activists. Organized by NPA, the national network of community groups that’s headquartered in Chicago, they come to the nation’s capital each spring to confront policy makers and demand action.

Today a group of community leaders is meeting with Ben Bernanke, chair of the Federal Reserve, at 2 p.m. eastern time.  Among other things, they’re calling on him to stop banks that received bailout funds from financing payday lending.

According to NPA, Wells Fargo provides financing for about a third of the nation’s payday operations.  Wells Fargo received $25 billion in TARP funds.  Other bailout recipients also finance payday lending.

“Payday lending is stripping wealth from already wealth-starved communities,” said Rev. Robert Bushey of the Central Illinois Organizing Project in Decatur.  “This is bad for families, communities, and the entire economy.”  Bushey is representing Illinois People’s Action and chairing today’s meeting.

Payday lenders charge interest rates as high as 400 percent, and a typical $300 payday loan costs the borrower $500 in interest payments, according to the Center for Reponsible Lending.

NPA is also calling on Bernanke to force big banks to do more to prevent foreclosures, and to strengthen community reinvestment regulations to ensure that bailout funds get to underserved communities.

In a statement, Bushey said that the Fed’s lack of action on payday lending by bailed-out banks shows “why we need an independent consumer protection agency” that covers payday loans and other financial products.

Wednesday is National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and the Chicago Female Condom Campaign is holding trainings for service providers and for high school students on how to use the new, improved female condom, which the FDA approved last year.

About 40 HIV and family planning service providers are expected for a training session at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, 200 W. Jackson, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10.

From 2 to 5 p.m., a training will be held at the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School, 2641 S. Calumet.

All trainings are open to the media (for more see the group’s press release).  A third training takes place Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Mujeres Latinas en Accion, 1823 W. 17th; it includes a condom hunt.

The trainings are part of a new public awareness campaign by a coalition of health groups, in a city with high rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphillis and where 1,500 new HIV cases were reported in 2008.

The female condom is “the only barrier method available for receptive partners for prevention of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies, and it’s an important option for both women and men,” said Jessica Terlinowski, policy manager for Chicago AIDS Foundation and coordinator of the campaign.

The original female condom, which was approved in 1993, failed to catch on, in part because users found it awkward and expensive.  The new version, tagged the “FC2,” is made of stronger, thinner material that’s quieter and feels more natural – and it’s signficantly less expensive, so that community health centers and public clinics can purchase them in the quantities they need, Terlinowski said.

The campaign is sponsoring a bulk purchasing drive  for health centers, and lists three dozen community organizations and six city clinics where the FC2 is available for free.

One goal of the campaign is to publicize the FC2 as an option for men as well as women, Trelinowski said.  “The name is misleading,” she said.

The trainings reflect the group’s finding that “it’s really important that it be presented in a positive and affirming way,” she said.  “We want to make sure service providers have the language and the familiarity so they can talk about it in an effective way.”

The campaign is also pushing local drug stores to begin stocking the FC2.

***

Also marking National Women’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the Red Pump Project (cofounded by CMW’s own Lovette Ajayi) is on its second year of mobilizing bloggers to spread awareness of the day and the issue.  The group is holding a fashion show fundraiser on March 25 (6 p.m. at the Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake), where it will honor pioneering AIDS activist Rae Lewis Thorton with the group’s first Living Legacy Award.

Rosie Carrasco of the Latino Organization of the Southwest, Leticia Marquez of UE, Graciela Guel from Mexicanos Unidos, Marilu Vargas of Our Lady of Guadelupe, Jatziry Garcia from Radio Arte, and Ana Guajardo from the Immigrant Workers Center of South Chicago, will be among women leaders from the Mexican community calling on President Obama to renew his commitment to immigration reform and stop raids and deportations currently breaking apart thousands of families.

The International Women’s Day event takes place Monday, March 8, at 11:30 a.m. at Casa Michoacan, 1638 S. Blue Island, and is building for the national march for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C. on March 21.  The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights plans to take 200 buses with 10,000 Chicagoans to the protest.

Earlier on Monday morning, ICIRR will release a report on the state of immigrant women in Illinois (8:30 a.m. at the Chicago Foundation for Women, 1 E. Wacker, 20th floor).   Flavia Jimenez of ICIRR, Betty Gao of the Chinese American Service League, Nadiya Arshi from Muslim Women Resource Center, and Neusa Gaytan from Mujeres Latinas en Accion, and others will provide personal testimonies of overcoming obstacles to develop as community leaders.

Wage theft is growing dramatically (as recent Newstips have indicated) — some advocates describe it as an emerging business model in an economy increasingly dependent on contingent labor — but weaknesses in Illinois law allow many employers to get away with it.

On Monday, state legislators and labor and community groups will announce legislation to increase penalties for employers who steal wages and remove obstacles to enforcement of wage law in Illinois.

State Sen. William Delgado (D-2) and State Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-24) will be joined by workers who have experienced and fought wage theft and their supporters in the Just Pay For All Campaign at a press conference (Monday, March 8, 1:30 p.m., outside the Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph) to announce the introduction of SB 3568.

The bill would amend the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act to establish an administrative hearing procedure under the Illinois Department of Labor for wage theft claims below $3,000, and would allow employees to recover legal costs if they file successfully for unpaid wages in civil court.

Smaller wage claims often fall through the cracks of the existing system, said Chris Williams of the Working Hands Legal Clinic, which handles many such cases.   He said that of 10,000 wage claims filed with the Illinois Department of Labor last year, 75 percent were for amounts under $3,000, and half were under $1,500.

Currently the labor department can investigate wage theft claims and make determinations but has no enforcement power; that requires a separate, potentially costly court action by the attorney general’s office.  And private attorneys must rely on contingency fees, which don’t cover costs in smaller cases.

(Working Hands takes wage theft cases as part of its mission as a nonprofit legal clinic supporting workers centers which organize low-wage and contingent workers, Williams said.)

The bill would also bring the state’s wage payment law into line with other labor law which allows workers to sue individual owners, in addition to companies, in order to recover wages.  In part this removes barriers to enforcement established by the Illinois Supreme Court in a 2005 decision (Andrews v. Kowa Printing), which required employees to prove “knowing violations” by owners.

“This would be a big advantage when a company goes into bankruptcy,” said Williams, citing the Duraco case (recently reported here) in which “two brothers who are robbing the people who worked for the company are hiding behind [bankruptcy] reorganization.”  Working Hands recently filed suit on behalf of former Duraco workers, claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid wages.

The bill would also increase penalties and fines, including criminal penalties for repeat offenders, and establish a Wage Theft Enforcement Fund paid for by fines and fees.  It would add a penalty of 2 percent a month when back wages are paid, to “eliminate forced interest-free loans” from workers to employers, Williams said.

The bill was initiated by the Working Hands Legal Clinic along with others in the Just Pay For All Campaign, including the Chicago Workers Collaborative, Immigrant Workers Project of South Chicago, and the Latino Union of Chicago.  Several labor and immigrant groups are endorsing the bill.