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Decky Alexander: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to our weekly conversation on equity and opportunity in our county and our community. I'm your host, Decky Alexander. And as we lead up to Election Day, we at Washtenaw United are expanding and shapeshifting our focus from those who move and shake the nonprofit and advocacy world to those who move and shape our policy world, our elected and candidates for state Senate and state House. Our first guest in the series is State Senator Sue Shink, who represents the 14th Senate District including parts of the Washtenaw footprint: Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Township, Dexter Township and Chelsea. So a couple quick notables about State Sen. Sue Shink. She is a community advocate, public servant and mother who has dedicated her adult life to building healthier, more resilient communities. She grew up in southeast Michigan and earned her bachelor, master's, and law degrees from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Prior to being elected to the Senate, Shink served as the chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and as a Northfield Township Trustee. But most cool to me is she lives on a small farm in A2, Ann Arbor, with horses and cats and a duck--singular. Senator Sue Shink, what are some things and notables that we may not know about you? And we want to welcome you onto our radio show!
Sen. Sue Shink: Thank you! Well, I don't know if ALICE [asset limited, income constrained, employed] was a thing when I was a young person, when I was a kid.
Decky Alexander: Sure.
Sen. Sue Shink: But I suspect that I grew up in an ALICE household because we qualified for free lunch. And when my father started his own business and we made a weekly trip to the day-old-bread store, and I've eaten my fair amount of government cheese. And so, I think that's it's likely that my family was an ALICE household. So, I grew up wearing hand-me-down clothes. I still wear hand-me-down clothes. I wear hand-me-up clothes too from my kids. And I think that's one of the things that like a lot of people in Michigan are right there with me, right? Like, you say, "Oh, I ate government cheese." Everybody knows what that means, right? Who's done it? And so I think that's something that I bring to my position that is helpful to me when I am trying to solve some of the problems that Michigan families are facing.
Decky Alexander: And just to clarify for those listeners who may not know, ALICE stands for "asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed families," and that's a lot of what United Way focuses on. And these families, as you alluded, make too much money sometimes to qualify for social programs, but not enough necessarily to meet their basic needs. And so you talked a little bit about your own personal experience. Thank you very much. From a policy standpoint and how you would repair and shift the safety net so that it supports ALICE families and those in poverty, is there something specifically that you have done or would continue to do?
Sen. Sue Shink: Well, there's a lot. The first thing that is important in solving any issue is listening to the people, right, to make sure that I'm doing what people need. And one of the things that I was able to do as part of, what we call, the Democratic trifecta that was now for two years, two years ago, was to enact the biggest tax cut for families in a generation. That is super cool! So, in our district, District 14, it's worth over $10 million. And in Jackson County, it affects about 10,000 people. In Washtenaw County, about 14,000 people statewide, 640,000 families, have a larger tax cut because we passed what's called the earned income tax cut. And so, that was cool, right? That was something that a lot of people may not even realize where it came from, but it does put more money in their pockets, and it's worth $10 million in our district. And one of the things that we know is that when families have more money, they tend to spend it close to home. So that's cool. And then another thing that I helped make happen, absolutely not my idea, but what a great idea: Dr. Mona Hanna in Flint developed Rx Kids, and she did that with families who were affected by the Flint water crisis. And now it's in Ypsilanti, which I don't represent but care about, and then also in Jackson, in Blackman Township. And so moms who are pregnant, 16-plus weeks at the launch date or after, get $1,500 during pregnancy, and then babies get their $500 per month for six months after birth. And this isn't actually income-dependent. Any mom can, or any mom and baby can, qualify, but it's a prescription because the research from the amount of time that it has existed shows that the moms and babies do better. There's less stress, there's actually fewer calls to child protective services, the children are healthier, and then they perform better in school. And so what a win, right? There's a lot of stuff. Those are some of the two, what I think are, really big ones. And then, well, this is really big. So, this isn't ALICE, but it will affect a lot of families. We actually were able to save Medicaid and SNAP in Michigan because the Republicans would have eliminated it, pretty much. And there was a whole bunch of changing of tax code and things like that to make sure that people were still able to access benefits. And I get that ALICE families don't often qualify for those, but there are a lot of families who are kind of like in the edges, right? They're close. And so, we want to make sure that people are okay here in Michigan, and that's something that I've been working on. There's more, but I don't want to talk the whole time.
Decky Alexander: Well, you've done a lot more than make sure that people are okay in Michigan. The RX program in particular is foundational, right? How someone begins in this world is often how somebody continues to live in this world. You are listening to Washtenaw United on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Decky Alexander. And today, we are talking to both candidate and state Senator Sue Shink on actions and policies she has taken and would take to support some of our county's most economically vulnerable residents. So, you mentioned a little bit about SNAP, and more than 105,000 fewer Michiganders received SNAP in August compared to January of this year. So you alluded a little to what some of the policy decisions have been made, but what is your platform to strengthen the SNAP system at this pivotal time?
Sen. Sue Shink: So we can't change federal law, but what we were able to do was to protect Michigan from some of the worst effects of the federal law. And so we were able to change the way SNAP came into...I guess funds for SNAP came into state coffers, because otherwise it would have been a lot less. And so just saving that. But the reason that there are fewer people on SNAP now than in January isn't because people are doing better. They're struggling. It's because of the change in the federal requirements, including that people now have to sign up every six months. And for some people, there's a work requirement that they just aren't going to be able to meet. But I will say that many of the families who are facing struggles with finances here in Michigan, they're working. So this isn't directly SNAP, but we have raised the minimum wage. Is it enough? No way! No way! It needs to be over $20 for people to be able to afford basic necessities at a full-time job. But we have Double Up Food Bucks. That is one of the things we've done to strengthen SNAP, so that if you have a Bridge card, you can actually get twice as many fresh fruits and vegetables as you would be able get paying with the same amount of money in cash. And so that's encouraging more fruit and vegetable consumption. We also know that oftentimes fresh fruits and vegetables can be more expensive. And we also were able to preserve free breakfast and lunch in schools. And so any kid, regardless of whether they're qualified for benefits or not, can access that. And that saves families quite a bit of money each year, thousands of dollars each year. And then we have also been able to invest more in child care, which is something that young families tend to face as a real barrier to being able to work. And so that's a big deal too.
Decky Alexander: So, in addition to the necessity of food, we also know that there's a necessity in housing and shelter. It's a primary necessity. And the ALICE report shows that 36% of Washtenaw County families don't make enough to afford a basic budget. And more than half of those families in the county spend more than three out of every 10 dollars they earn on rent. Senator Shink, how will you ensure working families and young Michiganders and people exiting homelessness can find even entry-level housing?
Sen. Sue Shink: So this is a huge challenge, and the state, and I voted for this, has invested over $150 million into affordable housing and workforce housing. One of the things I know is that it takes forever. There's a ribbon-cutting on Washington Street for an affordable housing development that I helped with back in the early days. That was eight years ago. And then, Veridian – there are people living there now. It's an affordable housing neighborhood that the county has supported. That started before I was a county commissioner, so over eight years ago. So it takes a really long time. I have and will continue to support wraparound services that come with housing, like what Avalon Housing does. That's not available everywhere, but there's also not enough of it here. So, I've also brought and will continue to work to bring money to substance use programs that also provide housing. So that's pretty important when people are trying to get off of using drugs. Oftentimes, like opioids, they may have even started when they were prescribed them by their doctor. And that's a real problem too. So sometimes people will say that they support affordable housing, and then what's happening is luxury housing. I don't believe that luxury housing is going to solve the affordable housing problem. And so I am focusing on affordable housing that people who don't make enough to pay market rate can really afford.
Decky Alexander: It's often noted that housing is the most critical prescription for ensuring a healthy and viable life. And so your efforts in supporting supportive housing are notable because that really is what is needed. It's housing plus. Sue, is there any particular bill you mentioned, Rx Kids, or proposal or policy that you've worked on or want to work on that would address some of our community members – those who have limited assets, but not so limited, sort of like your own story at the beginning, that they are eligible for resources and benefits? Is there a pie in the sky, a dream proposal or a policy that you would put forth if you could?
Sen. Sue Shink: Yeah. So the Senate Democrats have been working on this because this is a problem that's been building for years, and we have taken a lot of actions. So we've passed bills to help make renting easier and help increase the responsibilities that landlords have. Some of those have passed through the House and become law. Some of them have been held up by the House. But we've developed an agenda called "A Michigan You Can Afford." And so you can just Google it and you will find us, or you could Google "Senate Democrats" and "A Michigan You Can Afford." And it has everything that – maybe not everything, but some of the bills that we intend to pass if we get majority or a cooperative House, I should say. It includes continuing permanent free breakfast and lunch, banning private equity firms from buying over 100 homes at a time, which I actually think is too high. I think we should take it down to like 10. Giving families a break on back-to-school supplies, creating state-run retirement accounts and a state-run health insurance exchange. One of the things that I hear most from small business owners is, "We want to give our employees better benefits, but we can't afford it, and that is the biggest expense that we face." Cutting auto insurance rates by 10% regardless of where you live and allowing drivers to sue insurers for bad faith and then helping them with that. Stopping the excessive rate increases that we've seen, and then capping interest on medical debt, capping the price of essential drugs. That's something I've been working on for four years now. And that's one of the biggest expenses I hear from people, is that they actually cannot afford the drugs that their doctors are prescribing them. So that's not all of the things that we're trying to do, but it's a taste. And if people Google "A Michigan You Can Afford," they can learn a lot more. And if they have ideas, I'm happy to hear them. The best ideas that we ever get are from people who are experiencing the problem that needs to be solved.
Decky Alexander: That is a perfect way to end, giving sort of an invitation for listeners to share to and with you their ideas for making a Michigan that we, you, I can afford. That was state Senator and candidate Sue Shink, running in the 14th and sharing her platforms and policies as it relates to our county and community social safety net. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you can hear it right here every Monday. I'm Decky Alexander, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
ABOUT SUE SHINK:
Senator Sue Shink is a community advocate, public servant and mother who has dedicated her adult life to building healthier, more resilient communities. She is serving her first term in the Michigan Senate, where she is fighting for working families.
Shink believes that government’s role is to serve the people with skill, honesty and integrity. Hailing from a proud union family, she grew up in Southeastern Michigan and earned her bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Prior to being elected to the Senate, Shink served as chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and as a Northfield Township trustee. She was also chair of the Agricultural Land Preservation Advisory Committee (ALPAC) and served as a member on the Huron River Watershed Council as well as the Washtenaw County Food Policy Council.
Shink lives in Northfield Township on a small farm with her husband, Tom, where they proudly raised their three daughters.
RESOURCES:
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