| The Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI) is helping to build the organizational capacity of nonprofit community-based organizations and establishing community technology centers in East St. Louis, Illinois and the surrounding cities of Alorton, Brooklyn, Centreville, and Washington Park. Together these cities are a designated Enterprise Community, with rapid population loss, extreme poverty, unemployment, and large-scale property abandonment.
Recently released 2000 Census data show that the area's population has decreased from 59,941 in 1990 to 46,263 in 2000, down by 22.8% over the last decade and by 56% since 1960. This is in contrast to the adjacent, more affluent communities that have had significant population growth, and St. Clair County as a whole, which lost only 2.6% of its population during the last decade. The greatest decline in population occurred in married couple families. Nearly half of the families in the area are single-parent-headed households. Over 75% of the area's very low-income households experience housing problems.
The area-over 95% African American-has Illinois's highest concentrations of low income and minority residents. The median income for the five cities averaged $11,996 in 1990 when 70% of households received some form of government transfer payment as their primary source of income. In 1997, 44% of households had incomes below poverty level. The median household income is 41% below the Federal poverty level and the average unemployment rate is about 10%. Incomes are only 43% that of the St. Clair County median household income. St. Clair County is home to 37% of all Illinois families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families outside of Chicago, although the County contains only 4% of the State's population. In 1995, St. Clair County had the highest absolute number of children living in poverty outside of the Chicago area and the highest concentration per capita. In St. Clair County, 27.2% of all children live in poverty, compared to 18.5% statewide. Most children in the five cities are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. The high school graduation rate averages about 50% in these communities, compared with 83% statewide. The unemployment rate among young adults, ages 16 to 24 years, is 35-50%.
Between 1980 and 1990, the area lost 15% of its dwelling units. St. Clair County, on the other hand, saw its housing stock increase by 6% while the surrounding more affluent suburbs experienced a 12% increase in dwelling units. In 1995, only 6% of the total number of housing units built in the County was built in the five cities. The collapse of the local housing market led many long-time homeowners to refrain from investing in their existing homes out of fear that declining housing prices may prevent them from recapturing the value in the future. An estimated 4,000 housing units are in need of repairs to meet local building codes-about 20% of the total market. The East St. Louis Community Development Block Grant office administers an annual program that provides grants up to $10,000 per home to low-income homeowners on a first come first serve basis. The program received 900 applications for only 50 grants in 2000. UI's COPC has worked with several nonprofits to rehabilitate about 60 single-family homes and three multi-family structures.
Until recently, potential new investors have been discouraged from purchasing land or homes within the area due to skyrocketing building and property abandonment and a high property tax rate of 12.5%, the highest in the state. Local lenders have been hesitant to provide home mortgages or improvement loans given these trends. With the lack of conventional financing, many homeowners have sought and received credit from sub prime lenders, who often charge extremely high interest rates and attach unnecssary costs to each transaction.
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