- [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- Rebuilding America, how planned construction this year will change the face of the Mississippi River, and prioritizing housing in all its forms in The Cities.

(upbeat music) Millions of dollars are earmarked for a super highway through the Quad Cities that you've never driven on.

More than a billion dollars is being poured into the US Army Corps of Engineers' budget to deal with issues like renovations of the Mississippi River lock and dam system.

Many of the projects facing the Corps of Engineers have actually been on the drawing board for months, if not years, so what will come first now?

We talk with the Commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, Colonel Jesse Curry.

You were saying that 1.2 billion vastly outnumbers figures the district has ever seen before.

In other words, this is a really big deal.

- Yes, it's really true, it really is.

The investment in this infrastructure in the Mississippi Valley region, and specifically, through the Rock Island District is significant.

Just for a little bit of scale, I mean, typically in the district, we handle somewhere between 200 to $400 million worth of program on an annual basis, so when you talk $1.2 billion, that is a huge investment, and a really historic investment for us.

- But it's also, I mean, it's kinda like the dams on the Mississippi River.

you've been held back for a number of years.

You've got a number of plans, you've been waiting.

You've just needed, you know, the money to come.

- That's true, and I think as we look at how these programs and projects develop, and move forward through all of our supporters and members of Congress, you know, this particular investment that we've seen most recently, and specifically, with the Navigation Ecosystem Sustainability Program, part of being able to get this across the finish line, and really, truly get it started, is a recognition of the benefits on the ecosystem side.

So previously, we always focused on the navigation, benefits of navigation and industry, but being able to bring alongside that the benefit to the ecosystem really was a game-changer that enabled us to really make new progress in this effort.

- Well, and talk to me about that over the last 15 minutes, because we learned so much also from the flood of 2019, that building dams, building flood walls will just push the problem down further, and cause other problems down river.

We've learned that now so much, but we've also learned, if you look at Nahant Marsh, the billion, I think even almost a trillion gallons of water that was filtered through these watershed areas, I mean, we've really learned a lot about the Mississippi River over the last two decades.

- Yeah, we absolutely have, and I would tell you that kinda as we look back in order to inform what we're gonna do in the future, just a recognition that the benefits that the changes we made to this river system in the '30s and '40s by putting in this lock and dam system have been incredible.

The benefits that they brought to our economy, to our competitiveness on global markets, I mean, those are still things that are incredibly important today.

The reality though, in order to achieve those benefits though, are we did alter the ecosystem.

We changed the river.

And now, as science continues to move forward, and we learn a lot of things about these ecosystems, and how to best safeguard them for future generations, now is the opportunity to go back, and do what we can to mitigate some of those changes.

- You're looking at the lock and Dam system throughout the Mississippi River, especially, of course, for you, the Rock Island District.

We're talking about almost 100-year-old facilities.

I mean, most of 'em were built during the Depression years of the 1930s.

And as you know, it takes a long time for these barges, and these tows to get through the lock and dam system as they are right now.

Major moves to expand 'em, to make 'em larger, to make it easier to get commerce to flow in and out, is that something part of the Corps' long-range plan for the Mississippi?

- Yeah, it absolutely is, and the benefits of programs like the one I mentioned earlier, the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program, and its effort on the navigation side, to take our current 600-foot locks, and increase them in length to 1,200 feet, and at a second chamber, it's really a game changer for the Mississippi River.

So as you mentioned, these tows, as they come through, typically are 1,200-foot long, and our 600-foot locks require those tow crews to decouple their vessels in order to navigate through the lock and in the lock.

So as they're doing that, that can take a process that if they have to do that, could take 20 to 30 minutes, and depending, even in the best weather, could take two to three hours, let alone what it does during, you know, during ice, and other inclement weather periods.

So that effort, and those programs we just got that recent funding to get started on is really, really historic and game-changing.

I mean, the economic benefits, benefits to safety, benefits to efficiency really, are gonna be really something to see over the next several years.

- With this 1.2 billion that is being infused immediately, what are the shovel-ready projects that will get the first attention?

- Yeah, so that's a great question.

There's two that are specifically highlighted, and we, this didn't just start today.

So we've been working over the last several years, and actually, I mean, NESP was originally authorized in 2007, so since then, with incremental funding, we've been able to further the design of various projects to get 'em closer to being shovel-ready.

So specifically, what was just, this came out in the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act was the construction starts, to start work on two specific places, the first one being the Lock and Dam 25, which starts on the Mississippi River from the Rock Island District, and that is adding that second 100-foot chamber to increase that efficiency, redundancy, and safety features of that particular location.

The second is at Lock and Dam 22, and that is a fish passage, so the, as mentioned earlier, NESP is a unique program, and that is dual purpose.

It has navigation elements, but also ecosystem and environmental elements.

So this fish passage is designed to increase the ability of the local fish population to be able to move from pool to pool, and to return that location more to what it was prior to these locks and dams being constructed, is the second part, and both of those are part of this initial funding that we've been appropriated for to start construction.

- And Lock and Dam 25, which I believe is in the St Louis area, correct me if I'm wrong, you would think, "Oh, that's St. Louis.

That's not gonna have any impact here," but that is a huge bottleneck on the Mississippi River, is it not?

- Well, it is, and I mean, if you think about between the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and Illinois River, Missouri River, all those, all the things that come in, and have, that flow into the Mississippi River, the further south you get, obviously the more traffic that is gonna be coming through there.

Additionally, you know, we're in the Midwest, and you know.

it's a pretty chilly day up here in Rock Island, so as you get further north on the Mississippi, the traffic does slow down in the winter as ice conditions kind of take over the ability to navigate.

So as we look at the existing lock and dams, Lock and Dam 25 is at the top of the list because of its location for all that industry that comes through the majority of the year, and again, contributes to all of those different watersheds.

- We were talking about the environment, and I think we always talk about like, making sure that there are wetlands, and then a protection of the bank system, and the lock and dam's purpose in that.

But not only do you want commerce going through, you want other things out, and there's such a huge program to stop invasive species and their spread, because the Mississippi River, you know, it feeds into other areas.

We know about the Asian carp, the fear of it getting into the Great Lakes.

You've got other invasive species all throughout the Mississippi River.

Part of this funding is also targeting that as well, is it not?

- It absolutely is, so included in the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act was, similar to NESP, with that construction new start, a construction new start for a project called the Brandon Road Inner Basin Project.

And what that does is that's located at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Juliet, Illinois, up towards Chicago, and what that essentially is, is our best effort, it's a partnered effort with federal government, and the state of Illinois, and other Great Lake states to put in a layered defense against invasive species.

So that new start that is picking up after some design has already been put into place is gonna allow us to start putting that in place over the next few years, and building sort of a gauntlet for these invasive species to be able to deny them access to the Great Lakes, which the fishing industry, and the other elements of that natural resource, I mean, they're, it's a globally important national resource, not only just to our nation.

So the investment, and the importance, and the urgency to do that is certainly something that we are paying very close and certain attention to, moving as fast as we can to deliver that project.

- Are you winning the war against the Asian carp?

'Cause I know that it's up to Lacrosse.

I don't know how much further north in Lacrosse it's been spotted, but it's a nasty critter.

- It really is, and I would tell you that, you know, we are certainly, holding our, holding them back as of right now, but you know, the risk of the Asian carp getting to the Great Lakes, and seeing what they've done to other portions of the ecosystem, they are a, they're a dominating species.

I mean, they will take over, you know, up to 90% of the biodiversity in any given pool that the get into.

So the risk of that happening into the Great Lakes is so great that we just need to take every precaution that we have that is available to us in order to keep that from happening, and that's what this project is focused on.

- I know a lot of the funding, at least nationwide, for the Army Corps of Engineers also was targeted towards infrastructure that was damaged in various natural events, mostly the hurricanes that hit throughout parts of the Southern United States.

Was there major impact from the floods of 2019, or any natural disasters in our area, where there're still issues that need to be repaired?

- Well, I wouldn't say that there's major impacts that we're still working, that, you know, on the level of things that the Corps of Engineers is helping to solve down in New Orleans as a result of the hurricane.

That said, the floods of 2019, and our work with local levy districts, regional levy districts in order to protect valuable farmland, protect people's homes, protect people's communities continues to be a very important partnership for the Rock Island District, and the US Army Corps of Engineers as we take the lessons learned from 2019, and previous floods, in order to adjust how we manage these levy systems, and help keep them as safe as they can be for the population that depends on them.

- And I know this isn't because of the newest funding that you've received on the infrastructure bill, but the continual maintenance of the lock and dam system, and the fact that the pond at Locke 15 is drained right now, you have crews down there, I think, well into March is the plan.

That is a natural, it's part of your regular system of keeping an eye on these locks and dams, and the entire system on the Mississippi River.

Have you found any surprises since you've drained that pool, or is everything going pretty much as you expected it to?

- Well, I would say that things are going pretty much as we expected them to, and I would say the workers over there, I mean, they've got all the experience, you know, that sometimes goes back decades of the folks that we have that do this type of work up and down the river.

So I would say there's very little nowadays that surprises them, but it does mean, it does also, you know, mean that some of the work is still pretty challenging.

So they're in there, they're doing that work here on Lock and Dam 15 right now.

But what I do wanna highlight is, you know, as we talked about earlier, I mean, this infrastructure's almost 100 years old.

You know, it was a marvel when it was initially put in, but just like anything that's 100 years old, made of concrete, and put underwater 24/7, and you know, 355 days a year, you know, it takes some upkeep, and it takes some attention.

So the investments that have come over the last several years, and even in the Infrastructure Jobs Act investment, I mean, we got a significant chunk out of that for operations and maintenance funding that's gonna go to continue to improve our ability to maintain this critical infrastructure.

The team out here is amazing.

You know, they do really tremendous things every single day, but they do need that continued funding in order to stay on top of it.

- Colonel Jesse Curry, Commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District.

In a moment, is it a solvable problem?

The woman tasked with coordinating the Illinois effort to reduce homelessness.

But first, the snow is disappearing in some areas.

Laura Adams has some great ideas if you plan to head outdoors, or even enjoy indoor venues in the cities.

Here's Laura, Out and About.

(upbeat music) - [Laura] This is Out and About for February 17th through 25th.

The Martini Shake Off is back at the River Center on the 17th beginning at 5:30, while the Quad City Blues Charity Ice Hockey Game benefiting Genesis Heart Health takes place the 19th at 11 at the Tax Slayer Center.

The Quad City Environmental Film Series continues February 20th at 2 with Reflections, A Walk with Water at the Figge Art Museum, and Quad City Arts present composer and pianist Barron Ryan, who performs at CityView Celebrations at Trimble Point the 23rd at 6:30 PM, and at Butterworth Center the 24th at 7.

The hysterical comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, where everything that can go wrong does, continues on the Circa '21 stage.

Crooked Cactus performs the 18th at Rhythm City Casino.

Bucktown Review celebrates Valentine's Day on February 18th at the Davenport Junior Theater, and the 20th Annual Great River Show Choir Competition takes place the 18th and 19th at the River Center.

The drama Proof is presented at Galvin Fine Arts on the 17th and 18th.

The Lightning Thief, The Percy Jackson Musical performs at the Spotlight Theater the 18th through the 27th, plus Neil Simon's classic comedy The Odd Couple takes the stage at Playcrafters Barn Theater the 18th through the 27th, and Quad City Music Guild holds auditions for their summer productions beginning on the 18th.

For more information, visit wqpt.org.

(upbeat music) - Thank you, Laura.

It is estimated that on any given day in Illinois, more than 10,000 people face homelessness.

It could be a military veteran.

It could be a family with young children.

It could be young adults, 18 to 24.

It could be anyone, but could the problem be solved?

Illinois now has a new State Homelessness Director, Christine Haley, who is tasked with coordinating state efforts to reduce home insecurity in the state.

We've talked with her about the challenges she now faces.

Christine Haley, thanks for joining us.

What do you think is your main role right now?

- Well, thank you so much for inviting me to talk with you all today.

So we really see that homelessness is a solvable problem, and it's a problem in which that no member of our community should be living in the street, or in their car, or in their tent, especially as cold weather is approaching for us.

So our main issue, and our desire, and goal right now is to understand that every man, woman, and child who lives in the state of Illinois is stable in their home, that they're safe in their home, and that no one will be homeless, fall into homelessness again in our state.

- Now, as you know, there are so many agencies, I mean, you think of Humility of Mary in the Quad Cities, or you think of the Salvation Army.

You think of all of the resources that are already being done on the private sector, and then, of course, the states are all having their agencies as well.

Is this a duplication of services, or how does this help mainstream, or streamline, I should say, the services that are already here?

- Absolutely, and that is our goal is to ensure that we are working effectively, that we are working efficiently.

So within the state, there are 19, what are called continuums of care.

In that, they are the policy and planning body around homelessness, and in the Quad Cities, we have projects now under the leadership of Reverend Ford, and Ron Lund, who are really looking at how do we coordinate across cities within the Quad Cities to ensure that we have a coordinated response around homelessness, ensuring that we are adequately pulling down federal funding, and that the goal of our work, and the executive order that Governor Pritzker signed in September of last year was to create an inter-agency council on homelessness.

And the goal of the council is really to understand how state agencies, like Human Services, like our Housing Finance Agency, like Public Health, and the Department of Aging, are all working together to streamline resources, to streamline strategy around ending homelessness, so that we're all moving collectively towards the same goal.

And so our goal is to work with local communities like the Quad Cities, and the continuum of care region, to be able to ensure that we have, are right sizing our homeless shelters, that we have enough resources to prevent people from entering homelessness when they have a housing crisis, and then we're building enough affordable housing, and permanent supportive housing, which is housing with wraparound services, to be able to house all members experiencing homelessness in your community.

- And I really do wanna talk about affordable housing in just a moment, but let's talk quickly about the impact COVID has had on homelessness.

We've gone through some of the worst of COVID.

Does that mean we've also gotten through some of the worst of the homeless problem?

- So homelessness was really, the plight of homelessness was really highlighted during the COVID pandemic.

As communities needed to shelter in place, that if someone does not have a home to shelter safely in, they can't meet those mandates.

At the same time, shelters were required to meet social distancing guidelines, and reduce their capacity.

So communities all across our state and in your community really worked hard to understand how can we help people experiencing homelessness.

That's either a hotel room, or some other safe space to be able to shelter in place.

So we really commend the work that your community has done in creating safe spaces for folks.

And when we think about our homes, and we think about COVID, there's so many ways in which our homes keep us healthy, right?

When I wake up in the morning, I have electricity.

I'm able to have an alarm clock that gets me ready for my day.

I know where my medications are, because I have safe storage for my medications.

I'm able to come down, and make breakfast for myself, and my family, and create, and make food that is appropriate for our diets, and our health conditions.

We can have have, when I get dressed, I have the right clothing for the day, because I have storage for my clothing, and a place to keep clothing for different temperatures throughout the year.

And then at night, when I come home from work of the day, I have a space where I can share with my family, and be with my family, and have the quiet time if I need that quiet time.

So when we think about staying healthy, and how our homes help ensure that we are healthy, that's for all of us, and the work of our plan is really to ensure that all of the members of our community have that same opportunity to be healthy in their home.

- As you know, the eviction moratorium ended.

I mean, we're seeing more cases of evictions going through the court system.

As you know, Rock Island County has kind of a diversion program that's very unique for the state of Illinois, but is that one of the biggest problems that you're seeing right now, is families facing evictions?

- So part of our work that we will undertake within our plan is to both address unnecessary evictions, and really supporting people so that they are able to have the crisis support that they need to prevent evictions.

We've also supported the legal supports that folks need in order to, within an eviction proceeding.

And that we're also looking at, you know, how are we supporting folks from preventing them from entering shelter?

So eviction diversion, homeless prevention is a key part of our strategy in addition to the building of additional affordable and supportive housing.

- And as you pointed out, affordable housing is so important, and there is such a lack of it in urban, as well as rural areas.

And that's one of the toughest things that are being addressed right now is that there's just not a enough affordable houses seemingly everywhere.

- Right, right.

I mean, I think nationally, right, we understand that there's a lack of affordable housing, but there's so much that we are hopeful for within this plan around the creation of more affordable housing.

We do see that through these, the investments of the American Rescue Plan, that there's additional investments in affordable housing.

And just this week, Governor Pritzker and our colleagues at the Illinois Housing Development Authority announced an additional $55 million to address affordable housing.

In that, there is a project that we are very excited about in the Quad Cities.

Apoyo Village will be developed, together with the Youth Services Bureau of the Rock Island County, and they're partners of the Rock Island County Housing Finance Corporation.

So we're very excited about this 24-unit building that will be created in your community, because every piece of affordable housing that we're able to build and develop supports ending homelessness.

In addition to, I'd like to say, all of the number of landlords throughout your community, and throughout communities who have decided that they would like to be able to rent their properties to people who may have experienced homelessness, and will end their homelessness through renting their properties to folks.

So I think that's also a key strategy in identifying and supporting landlords, private market landlords who are receiving tenants, and taking in tenants, who are able to pay a portion of their rent or their rent, all of the rent to help.

- As you well know, there's often a mental health component for the chronic homeless issues across America, as well as in Illinois.

Are you trying to meet that demand and that need as well?

- Of course, yes, absolutely, and we know that within the population of people experiencing homelessness in Illinois, about 19% of those are living with a mental illness.

I mean, it may feel, or folks may feel like it is, there are more, but really, it's that.

It's about 19% are living with a mental illness, and we embrace and encourage communities to embrace a housing-first model, which means that the first piece is to ensure that someone has access to a warm and safe home, 'cause it's difficult to focus on any health condition, be that a mental health condition, or another chronic health, diabetes.

For example, where can people store medications?

If you're diabetic, where can you store your insulin?

For other types of meds, or support that people may need, it's very difficult to maintain those health regimens without a home.

So within a housing-first model, it really is that the first place is just to ensure that someone has an apartment of their own, and then to be able to bring in the supports, and to support someone, and being able to make the choice to engage in their mental health treatment.

- We always think of homelessness as kind of an urban issue, but is it almost worse in rural areas, because it's hidden so much?

- Yeah, so I think that, you know, we just completed listening sessions all across the state, in order to create our new plan to prevent and end homelessness, and in that, spent a lot of time in rural communities, where they were very clear about the challenges that rural communities face in addressing homelessness.

For one, that is more hidden, right?

Where in urban communities, you may see folks living in encampments, or very visibly living on the street, where in rural communities, people experiencing homelessness may be living in cars on property, on large properties, or living in barns.

And in that, said that folks that work in homelessness within rural communities can very clearly talk about the outreach and engagement, that they are able to meet, and try and support folks in rural communities.

But we know that this is not an urban problem only.

It really is felt, and shared by households, and families all over our state, and it really is our goal to understand how we can support families, regardless of if they live in the city, or in more rural communities.

- The first Illinois State Homelessness Chief, Christine Haley.

And if you need help in Illinois, you can dial 211 to get help from the State Department of Human Services.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.