Aid for undocumented residents more complex than financial stimuli
Graphic showcasing monarch butterflies in flight, an image often used to symbolize immigration to the United States from Latin American countries. Photo provided by Gage Park Latinx Council.
There are about 300,000 undocumented residents living in Chicago; they don’t qualify for the federal stimulus package, they don’t receive unemployment benefits and most are uninsured. Local government and community organizations, like Gage Park Latinx Council (GPLXC), have addressed some of their needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there are many facets of aid that have not been addressed.
As March was nearing to an end and the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases kept growing exponentially, Gage Park Latinx Council launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for their mutual aid fund for undocumented families on the Southwest Side. In under a month, they surpassed their original goal of $25,000 and are nearing $50,000 in total contributions and received more than 2,5000 applications for assistance. Based out of Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood located on the city’s Southwest side, GPLXC is a grassroots community organization primarily focused on first-generation youth programming. But as the pandemic expanded they saw the need to provide undocumented residents with financial aid and moved quickly to fill the void.
“We realized that many of our families are undocumented, they have lost their job, or they just need financial assistance and they're not going to get any stimulus checks due to their legal status,” said Samantha Martinez, outreach coordinator for GPLXC, about starting the mutual relief fund. “And so we decided, like a month ago, to start this and within like two days we were able to put the GoFundMe together, we were able to create the applications and we started doing outreaching not only within our networks but also using social media.”
Originally GPLXC had planned to distribute $500 to over 60 families but after the influx of applications, they decided to stipend the fund on a per need basis. According to Martinez after reading the applications she found that most community members who applied needed assistance paying for rent and medicine. However, she found that they needed assistance in other aspects as well.
“There was an instance in an application, for example, that highlighted how their landlord wanted to evict them, even though right now they can legally evict anybody in Chicago. But our applicant was not aware basically of their rights, and of this new initiative that you can be evicted,” said Matinez. “And so they were fearful that they were going to get evicted because they were not informed that this had passed.”
In another case, an applicant knew her chances of receiving financial aid from GPLXC were slim, she instead asked if she could be directed to other organizations or resources to help with her rent.
According to Martinez, while resources for undocumented and minatory residents are limited it often goes unnoticed because often times the information is in another language or they don’t materials such as computers and internet connections to access the information.
“Sometimes they don't always know where to seek support or who to call,” said Martinez.
Although, Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed an executive order expanding protection and services for undocumented individuals; however, it is still not enough to address the needs of the city’s 300,000 plus undocumented residents according to Martinez.
The executive order includes:
“Establishing the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program, which provides disaster relief aid for the housing costs faced by individuals and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic”
“Offering online Enrichment Learning Resources through Chicago Public Schools for all students at all levels, so that each student, regardless of immigration status, can continue to pursue a top-notch education”
“Starting a $100 million Chicago Small Business Resiliency Fund to provide small businesses with disaster relief cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is available to any entrepreneur, including immigrant business owners”
“The order by Lori Lightfoot is just opening access to undocumented community members to take advantage of city services. But again, what we see at GPLXC is that even though it’s great that Lori Lightfoot is doing that, our community needs more types of support because unfortunately one of the programs through Rental Assistance Program is only going to be 2000 people who are going to be chosen,” said Martinez about Mayor Lighfoot’s executive order. “I'm pretty sure there's over like over 10,000 people who need that type of support.”