Chicago
.
Census figures show that the state, despite having the fifth-largest economy in the nation, Illinois has the highest poverty rate in the Midwest.
Tribune--Under a moonlit sky, Judy Sirko drives slowly past the expansive brick homes and fountains of a Bloomingdale subdivision in search of treasure.The single mother of three expertly eyes the trash on the curb, stopping her rusty Cavalier to examine a promising plastic bag. It's soft, a good sign.
She rips it open, she finds a towel, then admires a cream velour blanket.A man walks out the front door and yells, "What are you doing?""Oh, I'm just taking your nice blanket and towel that you threw out, sir," Sirko says.
What the 52-year-old Itasca woman doesn't tell the glaring resident in Founder's Pointe is that she is poor, extraordinarily poor. Selling his old blanket may put gas in her car, buy a box of laundry detergent or perhaps cover a medical co-payment.
Judy Sirko's regular trash runs--she calls them "treasure hunts"--help sustain a precarious existence shared by thousands of people in Illinois. Census figures show that the state, despite having the fifth-largest economy in the nation, has the highest poverty rate in the Midwest.
Illinois also leads the region in a grim subset of that category: the group of nearly 724,000 residents, including Sirko and her children, trapped in what experts call "deep poverty." More...
.
Census figures show that the state, despite having the fifth-largest economy in the nation, Illinois has the highest poverty rate in the Midwest.
Tribune--Under a moonlit sky, Judy Sirko drives slowly past the expansive brick homes and fountains of a Bloomingdale subdivision in search of treasure.The single mother of three expertly eyes the trash on the curb, stopping her rusty Cavalier to examine a promising plastic bag. It's soft, a good sign.
She rips it open, she finds a towel, then admires a cream velour blanket.A man walks out the front door and yells, "What are you doing?""Oh, I'm just taking your nice blanket and towel that you threw out, sir," Sirko says.
What the 52-year-old Itasca woman doesn't tell the glaring resident in Founder's Pointe is that she is poor, extraordinarily poor. Selling his old blanket may put gas in her car, buy a box of laundry detergent or perhaps cover a medical co-payment.
Judy Sirko's regular trash runs--she calls them "treasure hunts"--help sustain a precarious existence shared by thousands of people in Illinois. Census figures show that the state, despite having the fifth-largest economy in the nation, has the highest poverty rate in the Midwest.
Illinois also leads the region in a grim subset of that category: the group of nearly 724,000 residents, including Sirko and her children, trapped in what experts call "deep poverty." More...
.
posted by gf at 4:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home