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January, 2012
At the end of every month, Chalonda McIntosh pays her bills. First, rent, then her car loan, then child care for her son. “Then, if I have enough left over, I put food in the house,” she said.But most months, she doesn’t get there. She often can’t pay child care on time and racks up late fees. McIntosh said she’s lucky to have a spot for her son at St. Vincent DePaul’s child care center on North...
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January, 2012
On a breezy Friday, Elda Burke and a co-worker waited at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for a plane to arrive from India. Onboard, there was an elderly couple who would need her help getting through customs, baggage claim and to the curb to hail a cab.Burke is one of the people who push wheelchairs from gate to gate for people who are disabled or elderly.It’s a job where workers rely on...
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November, 2011
Dolores Mederos likes numbers. A former accountant in Mexico, she keeps a detailed monthly budget for her household in a computer database. But one thing about the U.S. financial system puzzled her: credit.“My entire life, I’ve bought things in cash,” she said. “When I moved here, I noticed that everyone has to have credit.”Credit scores can go as high as 850, but a good score is considered...
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November, 2011
When Stephen Henry moved back to Roseland in 2009 to pastor the church he’d grown up attending, one of the first things he did was size up the neighborhood. The technology consultant-turned-pastor hadn’t lived there in more than two decades after moving to Atlanta.“The neighborhood wasn’t so neighborly anymore,” said the 46-year-old. “It was just the ’hood.”A vacant lot sat to the left of Mary...
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June, 2011
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to deploy 500 additional beat officers this summer to a handful of the city’s highest-crime areas could mean that more black teens are headed to jail for low-level crimes at a rate disproportionate to teens of other races.A Chicago Reporter analysis of Cook County court cases found that black teens aged 15, 16 and 17 are nearly four times more likely to be charged...
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April, 2011
It’s not uncommon for homeowners to fall behind on their mortgage payments, forcing banks to initiate lengthy foreclosure proceedings.In many cases, the homeowner has long since moved out, leaving behind a vacant home with no one to maintain it, and the home falls into disrepair.So, on whom does accountability fall?In theory, it’s the homeowner. But more often than not it’s impractical for the...
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April, 2011
Helen Love closes her eyes to remember how West Gladys Street looked when she first moved to her Austin block with her husband and children in 1968. She thought she had stumbled upon heaven. For decades, she described the homes not just by their brick color or house number, but by the names of their owners.Today, many neighbors have either died or moved away, and thin plywood boards are...
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April, 2011
Freeman Hess sits at the dining room table in his brick bungalow in Roseland on Chicago’s South Side. At 78, his gray hair is thin and fuzzy, like the coating of a peach, but his arms are muscular. He hasn’t lost the physical strength he acquired from operating a forklift for Cook County for 43 years. But in all his years of work, starting off picking cotton in Brownsville, Tenn., and coming to...
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March, 2011
Maria Ortiz held the crying newborn in her arms, rocking her back and forth to try to get her to sleep. But the baby wouldn't quiet down; she was hungry. Ortiz kept rocking, knowing there was no formula in the house to feed her granddaughter. "I didn't have any money," she said, her voice trembling as her eyes filled with tears. Ortiz should have had money. She worked full-time as...
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