Charise Scott croaks in mid-Novemb...

Charise Scott croaks in mid-November as she fills without an online application for a security guard piece of work with the Hyatt Regency inn chain.

She wins increasingly frustrated. Not accustomed to using a computer she pauses each time she wants to capitalize a word. Twice she pushes the evil button and is forced to start over

She swallows and says, to no individual in particular, "They will teach you humility, won't they?"

compressing to get a job and independently support their families has weighed upon Scott and other poor women from top to toe the last decade. The value of work and the pride of not depending upon the government for assistance were core principles promot in welfare reform.

And Scott believes in these ideas, saying she wants to be able to take care of herself and her family. In the roar times of the last decade, Scott got a $9-an-hour work at jobs washing toilets and making beds in a state mental health hospital.

athwart the last two years, however, it all came crashing down. A bad back forced her to quit the hospital piece of work and Scott spent five weeks searching for other work. She originate one at Replogle Globes, a factory that makes globes in southwest suburban Broadview. on the other hand the $5.15 an hour she's making isn't nearly enough to support herself and the three of her six children who still live at home

"My kids are going crazy," she says.

That's for what purpose after working the evening shift and getting place of abode late, she dragged herself on the outside of bed and walked down the shut up to the employment office stream by Bethel New Life, a private agency. She is tired as she fills abroad the application.

Within a week, she would be laid opposite from the globe factory.

of the present day information suggests that Scott's predicament is not unusual. Illinois' median income, which grew during the 1990 knock down 3.1 percent from 1999 to 2001 according to a 2002 census report.

And the number of families living at or below the want threshold is increasing for the first time in a decade, according to the Illinois scantiness Summit, which monitors issues that affect the state's poor.

At the same time, the Chicago area's unemployment rate climbed to 63 percent in October, according to the Illinois Department of application Security. Five years earlier, it was 45 percent

It stands to reason that the last hired will be the first fired, says Dan Schwick, director of the Lutheran Advocacy Network, which works in succession poverty issues.

And it is not clear where these out-of-work mothers, many of whom were fresh to the labor force, can now turn round for help.

Advocates say that it is difficult for the bulk of mankind to get welfare, even if they qualify. Caseworkers, beneath pressure to keep caseloads down, many times turn new clients away without processing their applications for assistance.

above the last year, while in the greatest degree states saw increases in their caseloads, Illinois' continued to drop

moreover of the new case openings statewide in 2001 about 95 percent were dress up County residents and 80 percent were minorities.

In September, federal welfare reform legislation expired and members of Congres began discussing of the present day legislation, but put it opposite to until next session.

At the same time, the State of Illinois is in the midst of a parcel crisis, and many of the wounds made this year have made it more difficult for poor families to gain needed services. The Illinois Department of Human Services' store dropped $122 million last spring, forcing the department to stop offices that link families to services like child care. Officials predict an smooth larger budget hole next year.

Meanwhile, unemployment insurance offices in the city have been inundated.

Advocates are worried because unemployment insurance is partly based onward earnings and employment history, and many former welfare recipients have short or inconsistent work backgrounds. Unemployment benefits and nothing else last about six months.

Still, Carmen Herrera, the manager at the Illinois calling and Training Center at 3500 W Grand Ave. in Humboldt Park, says lines of persons are waiting every morning when she unfastens the doors.

"They want their check today and a piece of work yesterday," she says. "You can't blame them."

Inside the large, fluorescent-lighted apartment on a mid-November afternoon, many of the folks sitting on the hard plastic chairs await grim. Seemingly every race, ethnicity and age is give an account ofed Some people have brought their children.

Dwaylene Buford, 21 says the Kraft commonss factory on Chicago's South Side where she works is scheduled to terminate in May. In the meantime, her hours have been carve back, making it hard to come by a paycheck that covers her bills. She makes copies of her take back in the center's resource area.

Nearby, Herminia Maldonado, a single mother of sum of two units college students, looks at do job-work ads on the computer. She lives in northwest suburban River wood but was driving down the highway when she saw the trade center. Desperate, she stopped.

She says she worked for the past nine years as a child welfare caseworker, first for the state and then for a private social service agency. moreover the child welfare caseload has shrivelled and the state isn't providing as often money to private agencies.