McHenry County townships defend general assistance, including those with few clients

The day that changed Dennis Brown’s life came in 2010, when he tried to get up from the floor he’d been sitting on.

Then 50 and living in Crystal Lake, Brown’s leg “scooted on the tile and went in a backwards motion. I went down,” Brown said. For six weeks, with torn ligaments and a blown ACL, Brown, now 63, said he couldn’t get out of bed, quickly exhausted his savings and needed help.

The help Brown found was from the Algonquin Township general assistance program, and later McHenry Township’s. At different times, the two assistance programs helped cover rent as Brown applied for disability and hoped for a surgery to repair the damage to this leg. Township general assistance managers also helped him find doctors who would treat his leg at a lower cost, Brown said.

With poor circulation, Brown ended up having part of his foot amputated and now gets around with a walker.

“I still utilize the township services” including McHenry Township’s senior and disabled bus service for grocery shopping and, at times, emergency assistance to pay the electric bill, Brown said.

General assistance is one of three mandates enshrined in the Illinois Township Code, along with maintaining township roads and assessing property. Each township, including those in McHenry County, has funds set aside for a general assistance program. Residents must apply, show their need and not be eligible for other governmental assistance. In general, the program will pay a set amount to a service provider to help clients for a year or more.

Although not mandated by law, townships also have adopted emergency assistance, where once or twice a year, residents can get monetary help – again paid directly to a provider.

Bob Anderson, a former McHenry Township trustee, used the Freedom of Information Act last fall to request, among other things, the amount townships in McHenry County spent on general assistance, the number of residents who qualified for assistance, the amount levied for the program and the program’s fund balance. He shared the results of that FOIA request with the Northwest Herald

Anderson argues that general assistance has passed its useful life as other state and federal programs can give aid to residents now. General assistance may have made sense in 1850, he said, because “there were no food stamps, you didn’t have all of the other agencies here. It was a good program then, when people qualified for it.”

Anderson sought information on the fiscal year, that began April 1, 2020, and ended March 31, 2021.

That was one of the smallest assistance years in recent memory as the world entered COVID-19 lockdowns, said Woodstock-based Dorr Township Supervisor Susan Brokaw. Townships in McHenry County and around Illinois saw their requests for general assistance aid drop as federal programs kicked in. Federal assistance included direct stimulus checks, extended unemployment benefits, anti-eviction protections and expanded food assistance and Medicaid programs, among others.

“There was all of that opportunity. They didn’t need to come to us for the help, and the federal money trickled down to McHenry County,” Brokaw said. “All of the townships, their general assistance caseload was way down because everyone was getting all of the money from the government.”

Even with the additional federal monies helping Americans, Dorr Township had 41 assistance cases in 2020-21, she said.

Not every township gets resident requests for aid. Burton, Coral, Greenwood, Marengo, Riley and Seneca townships reported no general or emergency assistance allocations in 2020-21.

“We almost never get a general assistance case. In our particular township, we have a lot of subdivisions, fairly well-do-to people who are upper class and upper middle class. The rest are farmers and country folks,” Coral Township Supervisor Bill Damisch said. Coral Township is near Union.

In comparison, McHenry Township helped 48 people with either general or emergency assistance that year, spending $61,371.

Alden Township – between Harvard and Hebron on the Illinois-Wisconsin line – had three emergency assistance cases that year, township Supervisor Preston Rea said.

“It is still a rural township. It has very few rental properties. The more rental properties, the more general assistance you have. We have noticed that,” Rea said.

Richmond Township had 12 cases that year, township Superintendent Paul Hain said.

All of the township officials interviewed for this story said money for general and emergency assistance are commingled, and said the names of those who receive aid is considered private information.

Seneca Township, between Woodstock and Marengo, has had only one applicant and one disbursement – $304 – since the 2019-20 budget cycle. As of the fiscal year that ended March 31, it also had a general assistance fund balance of $100,233 and an annual levy of $1,000.

“We try to help as many people as we can without doing wrong by the taxpayers. It is their money we are giving out.”

—  Algonquin Township office Manager Pam Givers

Still, the state’s township code requires them to offer general assistance and must be able to provide that if a resident asks and is qualified for it, Rea said. That is why, as of that 2020-21 budget year, there was $29,348 in the general assistance fund.

“A township has to be prepared to meet the needs, whether you have one or 40 [requests] in any year,” TownshIp Officials of Illinois Executive Director Jerry Crabtree said.

His advocacy organization advises all townships to have a percentage of its budget on hand to meet general and emergency assistance needs. “Just because [they] didn’t have a case in a current fiscal year doesn’t mean they won’t in the next,” Crabtree said.

Most often, those seeking emergency assistance have an immediate need, said Algonquin Township Supervisor Randy Funk. “It has been sad. It is people who can’t pay their utility bills” who come to them for help.

In Algonquin Township, residents can receive general aid of up to $350 a month for up to 12 months.

The limit for its emergency assistance is one instance of aid in a 12-month timespan, and a $650 limit, said Algonquin Township office manager Pam Givers. Those receiving emergency funds cannot bring in more than $2,495 a month. General assistance clients cannot earn more than $340 a month.

“You have to be pretty destitute” before general assistance kicks in, Givers said. The 2022-23 fiscal year, which ended March 31, saw 34 Algonquin Township residents receive funds from one of the two programs. She said she expects larger numbers this fiscal year as more federal programs expanded during COVID-19 expire.

“We try to help as many people as we can without doing wrong by the taxpayers. It is their money we are giving out.”

There are times residents come seeking help but do not qualify for either program, Funk said. The township works with several charitable organizations to help fill needs for residents, he said.

While McHenry Township Supervisor Gary Barla said he didn’t have exact numbers yet, he believed fiscal year, 2022-23, had twice the number of clients receiving aid from two programs as there were in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Townships also work with other nonprofit groups to help find programs to aid residents, including the Crystal Lake/McHenry County Salvation Army.

“We do work with townships, and they have resources. We are one of them,” Salvation Army Lt. Nancy Rivera said. Townships “will look for the best resource, the best way to try to solve [a] situation” for residents.

Often, the need is greater than one agency can afford to help, Salvation Army Caseworker Mercent Smith said. “If they need $1,000, we might refer them to five or six other agencies. All of us together will get that.”

Some of those other agencies include churches with charitable programs, but also included are referrals to the Illinois Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, McHenry County Housing Authority and homeless shelters, among others, Smith said.

“We are all working together to help our clients. We have our funding and they have theirs. We all come to work together.”