“For residents like Rosalia Salgado, in Hermosa, those hoops have long kept her from getting the help she needs.
The 31-year-old single mom, who is undocumented, says the cash pilot is one of the rare programs available to residents like her.
Salgado, who was two when her parents moved the family from Mexico, says the pandemic was the first year she was able to apply for some safety-net programs.
‘So after all this help just is done, it’s pretty much done for us and the families out here that are struggling,’ she said. ‘So that’s why this [cash pilot] is so important.’
Salgado works part-time with the advocacy group Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI); she also works weekends at Wingstop.
She said she makes about $1,500 a month and gets some help from the father of her two girls. But she still struggles to pay the bills, especially the high gas costs that pile up at the end of each winter.
Salgado said she plans to apply for the Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot, and if chosen, she said she would catch up on bills and save ‘for my children’s future, for their college, for anything that they might need in the future.’”
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