Housing
According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, Johns Hopkins University’s center for gun violence solutions, underfunded public housing is a root cause of gun violence and an inequality that leads to gun violence in communities. To assess how the lack of access to housing has affected the Champaign-Urbana community and how this lack of access could correlate to a rise in gun violence, a couple of aspects must be analyzed. First, the resources made available to the members of the community should be laid out. Once the availability of resources is established, data from the community and the county can be used to show where the federal, state and local governments are falling short in their duty to serve the residents of the area.
The Housing Authority of Champaign County, also known as the HACC is looked to as the main provider of housing in the state of Illinois’ tenth largest county. According to the HACC website, “The current HACC portfolio consists of five Rental Assistance Demonstration properties with 254 units; seven Mixed Finance Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) communities consisting of a total of 593 units; and, two Mixed Finance communities using no LIHTC with a total of 42 units. In addition to these multi-family rental communities, HACC administers over 1,200 tenant-based vouchers; a homeownership program; and a rental assistance program for homeless veterans. HACC also administers a multitude of resident support and service programs under various HUD and non-HUD grants.” As of 2021, the HACC is also working to develop 383 more units of affordable housing for the community. These developments will use around $72,000,000 to complete. The HACC programs work to accommodate different families in various low and moderate-income situations.
The number of units available to families and vouchers awarded to individuals is overshadowed by the number of Champaign-Urbana community members that are on the waiting list for all types of housing assistance provided by the HACC. The HACC’s 2021 Fact Sheet states that there are “approximately 5,210 individuals” on the waitlist. The numbers are never set in stone and are subject to fluctuations on a day-by-day basis. However, the 2021 figure of 5,210 people is up from 2,234 in 2018-2019. In a 2020 article written by Luis Velazquez for CU-CitizenAccess, David A. Northern, Chief Executive Officer of the HACC, and Esther Patt, director of the Champaign-Urbana Tenant-Union cite heavily insufficient funding from the federal government as a key reason for the lack of available housing. Mr. Northern thinks that the long waiting list can highlight the need for more funding, but that still doesn’t solve the immediate problem of those in desperate need. Ms. Patt also cited unemployment and low wages in the county as barriers to affordable housing. There are certain wage requirements in Illinois for individuals to be able to access proper housing.
There is very clearly an insufficient supply of affordable housing going up against an increasing level of demand for it. To look at just how dire the need for more support is in the community, it is important to look at data regarding the people of the community as well. Using data from the United Way of Champaign County and countyhealthrankings.org, I have compiled some important information regarding median household income, homeownership, broadband access, and severe housing cost burdens in Champaign County, IL. The median household income in Champaign county is $53,500, with Asian households earning $27,300 a year, Hispanic households earning $42,600, African American households earning $31,400 a year, and lastly, white households earning an average income of $60,900 a year. The most promising statistic I have collected is that 83% of households in the county have access to some type of internet to be able to reach resources for housing. When looking at homeownership statistics for the county, around 53% of those living in households also own their place of residence. According to countyhealthrankings.org, this is an important statistic because homeownership is historically a “springboard” into the middle class for families and allows them to build savings for future generations and endeavors. According to the 53% statistic, 47% of households in Champaign County still have not been able to reach this level of stability. Lastly, I think it is important to look at severe housing cost burdens or the Percentage of households that spend 50% of their income or more on housing. In Champaign County, around 16% of households fall under this category. This is third in the state behind only Jackson and Cook counties. Those that fall under this category are too often faced with financial trade-offs between housing costs and other essential needs.
When looking at the statistics, there is a substantial amount of households in the Champaign-Urbana area that lack ownership stability and a smaller yet still considerable amount of households that spend over 50% of their income on housing. According to Housing Matters, an initiative of Urban Institute, substandard housing conditions contribute to disorder that encourages crime. The lack of public housing for many families also means that many households are kept away from easy access to social services near the housing. The increasing number of families and individuals on the waitlist for housing, the 47% of households that rent, and the 16% of households that endure a severe housing burden could likely be contributing factors to the gun violence in the Champaign-Urbana area. Hopefully, more federal and state investments can be delegated to the HACC. Also, the 83% of households with broadband internet access is promising with hopes that those in need are able to utilize it to get help for housing. One additional factor that could be contributing to the lack of available housing is the increasing number of large investors from Wall Street firms buying up large amounts of property. While there is no evidence that this is happening in the local community, it is happening enough around the country that it should be something to think about. These property buy-ups will raise housing prices and make it difficult for first time home buyers to afford any reasonable property.
Education
According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (2020), one of the root causes of gun violence is underperforming schools. To be able to understand the gun violence within the Champaign-Urbana area, we must look at the current landscape of the schools in this area. The two districts that we have are the Urbana School District #116 and the Champaign Unit 4 school district.
In the Urbana School District 116, there are a total of nine schools, with six being elementary schools, one high school, one middle school and one Pre-K. According to the Illinois State Board of Education district snapshot (2021) there is an average about 21 students in class. When
looking at the total population of the students in the district 29.6% of students are White, 30.4% of students are Black, and 16.5% of students are Hispanic. In further looking at the learning standards, for English, 36.6% of White, 64.3% of Black students, and 66.1% of Hispanic students did not meet English 2021 learning standards. In math, 36.3% White students, 64.3% of Black students, and 66.1% of Hispanic students are not meeting 2021 learning standards. Through these statistics, one can see how although Black and White students make up about a similar percentage of the total student population, there is still a large gap that is present within the math and English learning standards. This brings to question how school policies are failing Black students within their system. Some of the programs that are present within the Urbana District are the before and after school childcare program, where the cost is covered by the participants. There is also the 21st century where students can participate in enrichment classes, academic support, and career exploration. There is also the Students Playing and Learning After School (SPLASH) at Urbana Middle School, Dr. Williams Elementary and Leal who can participate in morning jump start, homework lab and different activities. Without proper funding or staffing, it’s hard to be able to maintain these
types of programs in schools. Without these programs, and with widening academic gaps, students spend more time outside of school, which can increase their chances for gun access. In addition, according to Burdick-Will (2013), areas with higher rates of violent crimes, have
lower test scores which can be due to stress and changes to school environment. This then alludes to the various effects that crime and gun violence can have a student’s schooling experience, especially when thinking about how specific student populations are affected.
In comparison to the Urbana School District, the Champaign Unit 4 School District has a total of eighteen schools, with twelve being elementary, three middle school, two high schools, and one Pre-k. When looking at the total population of within the Champaign unit 4 was 32.2% of students are White, 37% of students are Black, and 13.5% of students are Hispanic. The average class size is 22 students. In looking at the English learning standards we see that 14.6% of White students did not meet standards, 55.9% of Black students did not meet standards, and 46.3% of Hispanic students did not met standards. Regarding math learning standards, 15.8% of White students, 59.9% of Black students, and 43.6% of Hispanic students did not meet math learning standards. Here, one can see how although the Black student population is the majority within the district, they still account for having the largest percentages of not meeting English and math learning standards. More recently within the Unit 4 schools, in mid-March there was a 10-day strike notice by the Champaign Unit 4 school district union to the Champaign Federation of Teachers. Tentative agreement was reached on the plan to lengthen the school day. Additionally, the district board of education wants to reinstate resource officers at schools, though in 2020 the board voted to only involve the police in situations that escalated into violence. This just continues to put into question the priorities of school districts like the Unit 4 districts in creating equity for students, especially when Black students are falling behind. Also, brings into play the role of the School-to-Prison Pipeline within our local schools. The American Civil Liberties Union of Champaign County and the NAACP Champaign County both have called out Superintendent Boozer and members of the School Board on the wide gap between the White and Black students’ achievement, and how this was a concern as well in 2019 and issues regards of re-segregation.
It’s important as we talk about gun violence to think about the ways that students are affected within their day-to-day communities. These events, especially those of violence can be carried within students, impact their learning and school environment.
Income Inequality
The connection between poverty and crime is well documented at this point. However, poverty on its own is not indicative of crime; according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, crime is much better predicted by the wealth inequality or general inequality present in a given community. Champaign is experiencing an increase in violent crime and crime overall, in part because of the city’s particular economic conditions.
Champaign is a particularly disparate city compared to the rest of the United States. In 2020, the Census Bureau reported that Champaign County’s median household income was $53,936. The same year, the Census Bureau reported that the national median household income was $67,521. This means that the majority of Champaign residents have lower salaries than fifty percent of the country. In 2020, the national poverty rate was determined to be 11.4%. In Champaign, the 2020 poverty rate was 15%. This is all to say that in general, the economic conditions of Champaign tend to be slightly worse than average. Meanwhile, estimates for the mean or average income for Champaign county reach up to $73,085. Not only does this exceed the median income for the country at large, a higher mean income than median income generally indicates greater wealth inequality. It essentially means that the income generated in the region could be divided evenly between everyone with all employed individuals receiving about $73,000 each. This number is often skewed higher than the median when individuals at higher levels make significantly higher salaries. Regardless, this data demonstrates that Champaign is generally valued as lower than the average U.S. city, but given economic activity in the area, it does not have to be this way.
A crime map of Champaign reveals that the most violent crimes per capita occur near Downtown Champaign and the North End. The North End is one of the historically segregated parts of the city that still faces segregation today. These are parts of the city that are firstly distant from the city’s largest employer: the University. The median salary for full time employees at the University is estimated to be about $62,000. This seems to highlight at least some of where the income disparity comes from. Beyond this, the North End has also been excluded from city development programs. This includes being designated an opportunity zone by the city when identifying areas of low economic activity in the city. This also includes contemporary projects to develop infrastructure or housing. Visualizations of pending and completed development and infrastructure projects essentially reveal the outline of the city’s neglected North End.
There exist a variety of factors that contribute to Champaign’s gun violence issue, but the link between economic realities of the area and gun violence seems undeniable. Income and resource inequality in Champaign are easily observable trends that have an effect on violent crime. Unique and disparate economic conditions in Champaign have likely only been exacerbated by a pandemic.
Firearms
According to Champaign’s Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint, one of the root causes of community gun violence is easy access to firearms by high-risk people. This section of our presentation is set to find out where these guns are coming from, and why they are so easily accessed by high-risk people. All my sources have cited the same set of issues causing this ease of access: theft of insecure guns, straw purchases, and illegal gun deals.
Currently, Champaign has few solutions for preventing easy access to firearms, including a set of basic safety / security tips on the CPD website and engagement with Project Childsafe, a project of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (a gun industry lobby group which spent $5 million combatting popular gun control legislation last year alone) which donates cable locks to police departments to hand out to members of the public. These locks are notoriously weak, with numerous videos online demonstrating how insecure the locks are (videos of people picking the locks with bobby pins and other everyday items are especially prevalent). Another tactic is gun buybacks, which have been characterized by police experts as “more of a distraction than anything” and have commonly been taken advantage of by gun owners looking to offload old or worthless guns.
The theft of insecure guns may be the easiest problem to solve in terms of gun accessibility. Despite this, the theft of guns from private homes is the source for the vast majority of illegal guns according to the ATF. Between 300,000 and 600,000 guns were stolen in the US in 2020 alone, with no comprehensive way to track exactly how many were stolen or where they could have gone. Champaign County has a much higher general theft rate than the surrounding area, indicative of gun thefts being more common here. Guns that are secured with weak locks, or not secured at all, are easy pickings for someone who may set out to commit a violent crime with that gun afterwards.
Straw purchases are another means of illegal firearms access. A straw purchase is what occurs when someone buys a gun with the explicit intention of buying it for someone else to use, especially when that someone else cannot legally purchase that gun. Straw purchasers are often women who are put up to making the purchase by their boyfriends or family members, and when this happens, the gun purchased is twice as likely to be involved in a crime.
The third major way firearms are illegally accessed is through illegal gun deals. This includes both licensed gun dealers selling to people who are not legally allowed to own firearms as well as unlicensed gun dealing, although unlicensed dealing dwarfs illegal sales from licensed dealers. This type of dealing consists of illegal sales where people who are not licensed to deal guns do so by selling stolen guns, or guns that have been sourced from elsewhere, particularly from neighboring states with fewer gun control restrictions (like Indiana, for example). Looser gun laws in these states allow for people to go out to these places and legally buy guns in bulk, then drive back to the state with stronger gun control laws and sell the guns on the street. As states like Illinois have strengthened these laws, this practice has become much more common, and will likely remain until neighboring states follow stricter gun laws or until conditions are improved within the communities where these guns are trafficked.
Healthcare
This brief report will focus on how racialized patterns of unequal access to public services and healthcare play out within the landscape of the Urbana-Champaign area. In a survey of over six hundred local residents conducted by the Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department (CUPHD), mental healthcare, affordable childcare, and drug treatment services were rated as the most inadequate in quality and availability. Unsurprisingly, residents also identified mental health and gun violence to be top health concerns in the area. This is just one example that demonstrates the linkage between scarcity of key resources and community safety. In the same survey, 50.44% of respondents stated that support for acquiring basic needs (food, clothing, etc.) needs improvement. An additional 13.14% felt that this support was very inadequate. 73.89% felt that mental health services were either severely inadequate or in need of improvement. The rate of satisfaction with disability services, affordable childcare, and services for low income individuals was comparable, indicating that the majority of the community faces some kind of hindrance in accessing the means necessary for a stable quality of life.
In 2021, the Champaign County Developmental Disabilities Board conducted a set of detailed surveys and interviews in conjunction with the Champaign County Mental Health Board and detailed their findings in the 2021 Community Needs Assessment Report. 70% of community respondents surveyed stated that mental health was one of the top needs among low-income households in the Urbana-Champaign area. This statistic illustrates how the circumstances created by poverty increase the demand for mental health services to cope with the instability and hardship of living without access to basic necessities. The demand for robust mental health services was also further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately hit Black/African American communities. Prior to the pandemic, Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latin populations already faced institutional barriers to accessing healthcare, which are reflected in lower rates of health care coverage, government insurance, food security, and financial stability amongst these community members. When the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn hit the nation, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic/Latin families faced significantly higher rates of death, job loss, mental illness, and more. However, without adequate health coverage and income these residents were largely unable to access mental health services, and other valuable resources needed to cope with the precarious situation created by the pandemic.
Another group that has been deeply impacted by the pandemic is disabled residents. 90% of the disabled population in Urbana-Champaign reported needing more support getting transportation, 91% struggled with accessing medical services, and 61% faced difficulties finding employment in the area. In an interview, one resident reported that she was on the waiting list to receive vital medical services and government resources for 12 years. Those who were able to access care, mentioned that facilities were “severely underfunded and chronically understaffed.”
Scarce access to medical services, employment opportunities, financial aid, and disability care exacerbate the hardships experienced by those in our communities who are struggling to make ends meet. Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latin, and disabled individuals are disproportionately impacted by the barriers in acquiring these necessities. Without the means to ensure every person and family in our neighborhoods has access to the means needed to live a life of dignity, it is difficult to build the stability and trust needed to eradicate gun violence from our cities. When Black Americans, who are most routinely exposed to gun violence, are least equipped to access lifesaving mental healthcare or disabled low income residents face significant barriers to employment and financial assistance, we create the grounds for perpetuating cycles of crime in the community as many are forced to turn to the streets in order to survive. Only when community leaders begin allocating resources to ensure that all Urbana-Champaign residents are able to access well-resourced public services and live comfortably can we begin to make meaningful progress towards ending gun violence.