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Citywide:

“Jobs are at the center of everything. The amount of job loss is devastating. The city and state have a role to create job opportunities. The loss of public sector jobs that has been exacerbated by the pandemic has really impacted the large Black middle-class workforce. Government has the power to prioritize, to expand services in times of crisis, like in schools and parks. It’s time to reimagine a bold vision of public sector growth.” – Citywide nonprofit leader

South Side:

“No one is moving on any investment. There is so much vacancy. No one is investing in retail or real estate; people are not doing mall walks or retail. Specifically, new investments like Walmart and Marshalls pulled out. There’s just no appetite for investment.” – Near South Side Latinx business development leader

“The barrier is access to capital, traditional and non-traditional, government should step in. Black entrepreneurs have gone through program after program but haven’t had the option to get capital to at least fail.” – Far South Side Black community leader

“Digital access has improved this school year over last year. Obviously, it caught everyone off guard. Some people just couldn’t get on. It was so frustrating for parents. Even when you have the devices, you still can’t connect. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy getting it to work. A lot of that got fixed over the summer.” – Mid-south Side Black nonprofit leader

“There is an economic impact across the board as well as an emotional impact. Younger people are having separation anxiety from friends, cabin fever. They’re tired of being isolated. Seniors are fearful. What will happen? We talk about the social and emotional impacts but don’t really dig into it. For seniors who have to venture out for food, that can be even more scary.” – Near South Side Black nonprofit leader

“There has been an increase in sex work as people are trying to make ends meet. There has been an increase in sexual harassment where landlords were literally saying to their tenants there is another way you can make ends meet.” – Mid-south Side Black nonprofit leader

“I think the community would like to see businesses thriving along the main economic thoroughfare. I think the idea of economic stability and growth is important. Having places to shop and not having to drive a long way away to get what they need.” – Far South Side Black community development leader

“Most of these communities have a bad perception. People don’t see them as safe. That has an economic impact on the community. We don’t work on violence issues, but safety and where police officers are, etc., are part of our work.” – Far South Side Black community development leader

“Some businesses had a grand opening and then have to close. It is no small feat. People invest everything they have, and then they have to shut down. That loan they have to repay doesn’t get paid back. They can’t pay their family members back or replenish their savings. What they thought would be a short-term loss was a long-term problem. Now they are more in debt than ever. You have people who are clawing their way back. I’ve had conversations with business owners in other parts of the city, and it’s different.” – Mid-south Side Black nonprofit leader

“We have to address the Black and Brown tension. There are differences, and Black people have their own grievance with the U.S. Both communities had to work as essential services workers in food, retail, hospital services.” – Far South Side Black nonprofit leader

“I’ve fallen out of love with Chicago and do not trust that I can survive and thrive in the US. People want to leave Chicago. They’re going to Las Vegas, North Carolina or any place other than living in an environment where your life is in danger from your own community or the police force.” – Far South Side Black nonprofit leader

“PPP wasn’t time-efficient. Banks choose who they could get a return on, with existing relationships and larger balances. Smaller or unconnected businesses were turned away because they didn’t have relationships with a bank or didn’t have enough payroll. Banks didn’t think they would make enough off of these businesses.” – Near South Side Latinx business development leader

“There was so little for small businesses. They went to their bank thinking that they would get PPP. Maybe they banked at Chase, and they thought they would get funding. But they found that the internal policies favored the big businesses. There wasn’t anything to help them.” – Mid-south side Black nonprofit leader

“There are strained relationships because one person might lose their job and then another person in the family might lose their job the next month or have their hours reduced. The increase in domestic violence or the increase in homicides is related to the stress.” – Mid-south Side Black nonprofit leader

West Side:

“Art allows the imagination to run free and allows us to reimagine our community.” – West Side Black nonprofit leader

“Since the summer, the food desert aspect has been exacerbated, especially healthy food. On the positive side, we’ve had to think about this differently. This has led us to dream in a new way about what is on the other side. We’ve had to think about green technology and other solutions. This is rock-bottom. There is nowhere to go but up.”- West Side Black nonprofit leader

“… businesses have been closing. Many have not had the funds to survive during the closing and then also have enough funds to reopen when things normalized.” – Humboldt Park Latinx nonprofit leader

“I used to hear stories from the elders about how everything they needed was in walking distance. Not just economic well-being but having places to relax and having places for entertainment. Having a thriving community is just that. These are human beings. They need to have all of their needs met. It’s night and day what is afforded to families in Lincoln Park compared to here.” – West Side Black nonprofit leader

“We saw what happened after George Floyd, and people just made statements instead of really changing things. We have to think about how do we think about structures and policies and how do we really change the reality? A lot of this work feels colonial. You get people to give money, and it comes with strings attached. There is always a string attached. Are we really thinking about how does this process looks and who does it benefit? Everything must look different, especially in this moment. We have to make sure this is anti-racism.” – Humboldt Park Latinx nonprofit leader

“When we talk about the percent of income required to live, Puerto Rican women earn less, so that percentage of the income is even lower. We need to talk about what are standards across the board.” – Humboldt Park Latinx nonprofit leader

“Some people aren’t behind on their rent, but that is because they might be spending all of their income on their rent. People are just going without to a certain extent.” – West Side Latinx nonprofit leader

“The pandemic hits, and before it exacerbated the issues, it paralyzed the community. The ways to access help, the whole safety net was paralyzed for the first 30 to 60 days.” – Far West Black side nonprofit leader

“Folks were not set up to weather this. People might have been able to weather two months, but not ten. That’s what makes it almost insulting to get $600. It’s nothing.” – West Side Latinx nonprofit leader

“Invest S/W is this great policy, but it is only in Black communities. We don’t want to fight with Black communities. We want them to get what they need. We want to make sure both communities get what they need. We don’t want to be fighting over the scraps.” – West Side Latinx nonprofit leader

“Some parents can’t work because they have to be home with kids. Others have to go to work and then have to ask a 16-year-old to watch the younger kids. Their schoolwork is getting put to the side. They are having to do their homework at 11 at night. That has been a huge thing. CPS has set up lots of supports, but they just aren’t available to people most of the time.” – West Side Latinx nonprofit leader

“There is an opportunity to get away from the scarcity model. If we are rethinking how we work, why not!? For a long time, organizations have been working on scrimping and scraping for funding, and it is not sustainable.” – Humboldt Park Latinx nonprofit leader

“Honestly, gentrification in housing is at such an egregious level of unaffordability. We need housing policy that is courageous. We need to talk about rent control. We can call it whatever we want, but we need to figure out how to help people stay where they are.” – West Side Latinx nonprofit leader

“When houses are put up, we have to ask who is this for? When businesses come in, who are they for? We have to be for our people by our people.” – Humboldt Park Latinx education leader

“This vision is what we work on every day. We want to see people thrive. No one should have to spend 60 to 70 percent of their income on housing, but that is what we are seeing. I want to see artists as leaders and stakeholders in their community. They should be viable business owners, but many of them are having to work around the clock. The Puerto Rican Cultural Center is creating new models to help them be viable and be able to really do well as a business. People should be able to see themselves in the places they live. Do they see themselves reflected in the community, the businesses, the cultural spaces? We are working on making Puerto Rican town be a sanctuary where all the spaces are dedicated to the people who live there.” – Humboldt Park Latinx education leader

Southern Suburbs:

“Pre-COVID, we were receiving $40,000 to 50,000 a month in cases for homeless prevention. Now it’s over $120,0000 a month. The organization has already run out of state funding, even with extra funding from the CARES Act. That’s $900,000 in funding since July. There’s no slowing down. Once the moratorium goes away, people are not going to be okay because they are going to be so far behind on their rent.” – South suburban nonprofit leader