DeKALB – The number of DeKalb County children living in poverty nearly tripled from 1999 to 2012, child advocates said in a report released Thursday.
Nearly 24 percent of DeKalb County children lived in poverty in 2012, the 2015 Illinois Kids Count Survey released by Voices for Illinois Children showed. The county is part of a growing trend in Illinois that is pushing poverty rates higher outside of the city of Chicago, said Director of Research Larry Joseph.
“I see similar numbers in other counties,” Joseph said. “It confirms the trend of what’s called the suburbanization of poverty.”
Child advocates such as Joseph say the increase in impoverished children shows that increased funding and services for the impoverished are needed.
DeKalb County’s child poverty rate jumped from 7.4 percent in 1999 to 23.7 percent in 2012, with the majority of that increase coming between 2006 and 2012, the data shows. The total number of children in DeKalb County living in poverty – defined as annual income of $18,750 or less for a family of three – grew from 1,500 in 1999 to 5,300 in 2012.
In total, the number of impoverished children grew by 256 percent during that 13-year period, the second-highest rate of increase among Illinois’ 40 most populous counties, according to the report. Only Kendall Count saw a bigger increase, at 281 percent.
DeKalb County’s child poverty rate is slightly higher than the statewide rate. About one in five Illinois children – 600,000 – live in poverty, Thursday’s report uncovered.
In 1999, about half of impoverished children lived in the city of Chicago, compared with less than one-third now.
Minority children in DeKalb County are far more likely to live in poverty. In 2012, Latino children accounted for 35 percent of all children living in poverty, although they accounted for only 17 percent of the population. And while black children accounted for 7.5 percent of the population in 2012, they made up 20.8 percent of impoverished children, the report shows
White children made up 71 percent of the population, but only 35 percent of impoverished children in 2012, according to the report.
The fact that the number of children in poverty has risen doesn’t surprise Family Service Agency Executive Director Dave Miller, but the astronomical increase does. He said he’s seen need increase at his agency, which runs the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and offers counseling to children and adults.
He sees the increase as a combination of the economic downturn and the number of residents moving to the county between 1999 and 2012.
“We went through some pretty severe economic times,” Miller said.
Figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show the county’s unemployment rate peaked at 11.8 percent in January 2010. The unemployment rate for the county sat at 4.9 percent in December 2014, the most recent data available.
Voices for Illinois Children officials proposed a number of solutions for supporting low-income families. Those solutions included enhancing tax credits for low-income working families, strengthening food assistance, promoting healthy families and renewing early childhood education investments.
Joseph stressed the need for the state to provide funding to child care and after-school programs, which are facing steep cuts under Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget. The funding cuts that state universities such as Northern Illinois University face could be troublesome, too, he said.
He also said the growing number of impoverished children in areas outside of Chicago puts stress on the infrastructure in place for human service agencies and others.
Miller agreed. He said DeKalb County agencies should work on coordinating services to make sure people are getting the right ones and services aren’t duplicated.
“We should be able to say, ‘If you’re low income and you’re in poverty, here’s where you need to go to get services,’” Miller said.
Number of DeKalb County children living in poverty:
1999 2006 2012 Pct. Increase '99-'12
1,508 2,280 5,371 256.2
Percentage of DeKalb County children living in poverty:
1999 2006 2012
7.4 10.4 23.7
Source: 2015 Illinois Kids Count Survey