The Daily Herald updates us today about a stalled plan to create a rental subsidy program.
Jacqui Mullen, one of the thousands of homeless single mothers in Illinois, is “tired of being a statistic.”
The 24-year-old works full time at a minimum-wage job taking care of elderly and disabled people. After paying for food, clothes, child care and diapers for her 21-month-old son, there isn’t money to pay rent. So she and Benji live in a dormitory-style shelter for women and their children.
“My major long-term goal is to have a home in a decent neighborhood and my kids to come up healthy and happy,” Mullen said.
She might get help reaching that goal if state lawmakers approve a plan to subsidize rent for an estimated 5,500 low-income families, but the measure has been sidelined by differences between Cook County officials who want a piece of the money involved.
This has been a weird fight from day one. The county’s own lobbyists, have, at times, lobbied both for it and against it at the same time.