Chicago organizations and neighbors navigate life during 'shelter in place' due to the coronavirus pandemic

Three days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a “shelter in place” order mandating that Illinoisans stay home in order to help stem the coronavirus pandemic in Illinois, the Chicago Cultural Alliance was one of many agencies feeling the effect of reduced foot traffic.

The Chicago Cultural Alliance, which includes 40 cultural heritage centers, museums and historical societies, sent an email blast March 23 that said “the long term financial stability of these important community-based organizations is in question. Many are still providing resources to their communities such as elder care and food relief. Others are working diligently to engage their constituents who are home under the 'shelter at place' (SIC) ordinance. Continued engagement with their community is not only important to the stability of these organizations, but now more than ever Chicagoans need to be uplifted by cultural enrichment and immersed in an ethos of mutual respect, especially during these divisive times.”

The Chicago Cultural Alliance will likely delay its May 12 MOSAIC gala, which is not only a key community event for its members but also crucial to its financial survival. As a result, the email blast, signed by Elspeth Revere, interim executive director, and four other officials, urged people to donate to the new Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund, which was formed by the Chicago Community Trust, the City of Chicago and the United Way of Metro Chicago to support local non-profits. chicagocovid19responsefund.org

As the COVID-19 Response Fund website notes, many people across the Chicago region will go without paychecks, which can affect their ability to pay rent and buy food. Donations to the response fund will help provide increased access to emergency food and basic supplies, rent and mortgage assistance, utility assistance, direct financial assistance for household supplies, and nonprofit safety and operations assistance. Except for a small credit card processing fee, 100 percent of the donations will go directly to this general fund, whose list is expected to be published soon. Donor advised funds could work with their sponsors at the United Way.

The Chicago Cultural Alliance also asked that people contact their legislators to let them know that museums need critical support. They urged Congress to provide at least $4 billion emergency relief for nonprofit museums through June.

President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act March 18, which the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) said was a “crucial step, but it did not go far enough. Right now, Congress is negotiating on additional emergency funding. It is vital that this next bill do more to protect those who need assistance most.”

JCPA urged the following principles in additional legislation:

• Accessible and affordable testing for the coronavirus, regardless of income, disability or immigration status;

• Assurance that people can take sick leave for themselves or to care for family members without risking their jobs or pay checks;

• Assistance for low-income workers to provide for their families;

• Special care for individuals at increased risk of infection, such as those in prison, in immigration detention or long-term care facilities, or who are homeless;

• A focus on low-income and vulnerable communities ahead of major businesses and industries. “Such policies also have the strongest economic impact. Any bailouts and emergency assistance for major industries and businesses must be paired with comparable assistance for economically at-risk workers and vulnerable individuals.”

Introduced just a week before its passage, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act provides supplemental appropriations to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), as well as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). It also suspends work requirements for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

Families First also requires employers to implement an infectious disease exposure plan that meets temporary Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards and it establishes a federal emergency paid leave benefits program.

Senate leaders were continuing to negotiate the third legislative package in response to COVID-19 on March 23, according to an email blast from ONE Northside. However, this largest relief measure still did not include any rent relief for low-income households.

ONE provided a sample letter to House and Senate members that called for $10 billion in assistance using the HOME program and $2.5 billion for the Capital Magnet Fund. “Immediate impacts range from the inability of people to pay their mortgages or rents because of lost wages and other priority expenses like food and health care,” read the letter.

Established during the 2008 recession, the Capital Magnet Fund is one of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) funds. Using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it provides competitively awarded grants to CDFIs and eligible nonprofits to attract private capital for investment in affordable housing for low to extremely low income people, as well as renovation of buildings that will house neighborhood businesses and community service facilities.

While “social distancing” requires that everyone stand at least six feet apart to avoid spreading the virus, ONE Northside also suggested that “we are not distancing ourselves from our relationships, just our physicality.”

“Mutual aid” is the solution, like the Black Panther Party’s free breakfasts and lunches for community members, or “when people band together to meet immediate survival needs because of a shared understanding that the systems in place are not acting fast enough to meet people’s needs,” as ONE Northside quoted Sylvia Rivera Law Fund founder Dean Spade.

“It takes a village, it really does,” Glenview mom Bonnie Kearns said about the mutual aid efforts of her block during the quarantine.

In efforts to limit the spread of the virus, moms on the block have been texting each other about limited trips to the grocery store. Every other day, someone makes a trip for requested supplies. Deliveries are dropped off on porches in plastic bags with a text that food and paper towels have arrived.

Kearns took it a step farther after she received an email from Prairie Grass Café about curbside pickup and Sarah Stegner’s cooking tip hotline (847.920.8437) as well as Rohit Nambiar’s complementary wine list. She texted moms to take a break from cooking with pot roast and wine delivered to their doors in bleach-wiped delivery boxes.

Kearns had also planned a surprise birthday party March 14 for her husband at Kaiser Tiger in the West Loop, which had to be canceled on one day’s notice. “It made me sick to know that servers were depending on the income and the loss to the restaurant would be great,” she said. “I didn’t care about the deposits or what I was going to be charged.”

The Prairie Grass email, however, gave Kearns an idea. “Surely, the EMTs, firefighters, urgent care workers and hospitals in the West Loop had people that needed to eat. Since I have no idea when we would be able to reschedule the party, I asked the restaurant to use the money for better, more worthwhile causes and did not ask for a refund.”

People need to think about how their lost deposits on parties can be used for good, whether a credit to that restaurant in gift cards or catered lunches for the less fortunate or for workers at essential businesses staying open, she said.

“Anything to let these restaurants keep that revenue and perhaps put it towards the people that need it now,” Kearns said. “Not in five months. Now.”

-Suzanne Hanney, from emailed materials