By Katie Balevic
I had never heard of the ACLU before in my life, but they ended up helping me with some legal troubles. I really felt like I had a family member on my side and like somebody actually cared. They called me one day and said they have a program that offers $1,000 a month, along with counseling programs and a bunch of other things. I said, “Sign me up.”
To this day, it’s unbelievable they picked me. I never thought in a million years that I would be in a position where somebody is giving me $1,000 a month for a year. It is overwhelming, and it also came at a very critical time in my life.
I’m a widow with three sons, two of whom are grown up and one younger one who lives with me. I’m unemployed, but I am a certified chef. I lost my job, so this program came at just the right time when the payments started in November. It’s helping me pay a lot of personal bills, and it’s helping me do activism work in my community.
Working in a community is something new and different for me. I got our tenant organization up and running again, so the stress for me right now is getting people involved in rebuilding and redeveloping our community. We meet monthly, so I have to run copies and buy lunches, gifts, books, things like that. I feel good when I’m getting a gathering together and can give something back. The guaranteed monthly income program has really given me peace of mind.
Even when I was married and my husband and I were together with three children, he always worked, and I always worked. We still struggled, and sometimes I even had two jobs. It was hard. The rent was always high. I was evicted at one point and sleeping in my vehicle for four or five months while trying to find a place to live.
I know people who lost their jobs and don’t know how to apply for unemployment. I know women who are pregnant and don’t know how to apply to get WIC. I went out into the neighborhood looking to see who I could help because I’ve seen situations like this all my life where people can’t find help even when programs are out there. The government has programs out there ready to assist, and they’re just not being implemented in the neighborhoods, and I think that’s really sad. So that is my endeavor, that is my passion, to find those programs and bring them to the neighborhood. And I’m using the funds to help me do that.
