Illinois families need monthly cash payments to weather COVID-19 crisis

Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, nearly one million Illinois residents have filed for unemployment benefits — more than one of every 10 Illinois workers.

We know that those numbers are only a fraction of the families that have been impacted by the virus. Many more are losing income, having hours reduced, getting sick or being forced to choose between getting sick and getting a paycheck.

Magdalena Zylinska, a single mother who works cleaning houses in Chicago, has to choose between continuing to work and put food on the table or staying home to keep her 12-year-old son safe. “I can’t even sleep at night, to figure out which bills to pay or not pay,” she says.