SIU panel discusses health and housing challenges of rural Illinois

Posted on December 20, 2021
Meredith Montgomery, from the Supportive Housing Providers Association, shares some numbers for a Southern Illinois University webinar on rural health and housing. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The problems of being needy – to the point of homelessness – expand the farther you are from a medium-sized or big city.

Getting things done, says Meredith Montgomery, takes money.

“We’re looking at the opportunity to ask the state to appropriate money from the emergency relief funding to improve the homeless response system and to expand supportive housing. Right now we are looking at creating a very strong ask.”

Montgomery, from the Supportive Housing Providers Association, shares some numbers for a Southern Illinois University webinar on rural health and housing.

“On a normal night in the whole state of Illinois, 1,431 people are recorded as homeless,” she said. “That is a two percent increase from the year before.

Montgomery said the advice someone gave her to pass along was blunt – don’t be homeless in a rural area.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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