North Lawndale Employment Network CEO Brenda Palms Barber said the new program will have a tremendous impact on North Lawndale and on families across the city that are similarly impacted by unemployment, mass incarceration and disinvestment.
“We continue to be a community that has four times the unemployment rate of other neighborhoods,” Barber said. “It’s expensive to be poor. And when you can’t pay a phone bill or can’t pay a utility bill or, or a water bill, it doesn’t make you ready to work. It doesn’t allow you to support yourself or your family.”
Lawndale resident Sadie Joseph, who has been helped by existing utility assistance programs after she was incarcerated, said the new program will be a critical pathway for people to get the assistance they need.
“The struggle is real, and everybody can’t afford it right after being incarcerated,” Joseph said. “Or just can’t afford it and [are] too ashamed to come forward.”
Pascal Sabino is a Report for America corps member covering Austin, North Lawndale and Garfield Park for Block Club Chicago.
Article Appeared @
https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/11/01/chicago-will-stop-shutting-off-water-service-due-to-unpaid-bills-water-is-a-basic-human-right/
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