Affordable housing proved to be life-changing for Pola Jaramillo and her family.
 
Stories like theirs explain why the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has mobilized a new housing campaign it calls Sweet Home Chicago.
 
Like you, they know that hardworking families deserve a home, too.   CLICK HERE to make a contribution to this effort.
 
“Without that apartment, I wouldn’t have been able to raise my daughter Samieh and finish college,” she says simply.
 
Because of her rent-subsidized apartment, Pola was able to support her daughter while working part-time until she finished her bachelor’s degree. After graduating in 2006, she found a career as coordinator of a transitional job-training program for ex-offenders, run by the non-profit Association House. Pola is proud of the program and new grants she helped win to expand job training.
 
And when she needed to do so, Pola was able to invite her mother to share her home. Pola’s mother, Alicia, labored 30 years in factories and cleaning offices at night, but lost her job a year ago after health problems piled up. Pola asked her mother to move into the family’s three-bedroom apartment. Alicia looks after her only grandchild when Samieh comes home from preschool.

“My daughter has a place to call home, first and foremost. My mother could no longer work and has a home with us as well. All of us have a place we can call home,” said Pola.
 
Pola tries to return the support she was given. She serves on the directors’ board of her coop, and volunteers on Bickerdike’s housing committee. She is grateful for opportunities that include allowing her and her neighbors to purchase the coop building after 10 years – a milestone she plans to achieve.
 
Your support helps the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless as it works to create affordable housing for families. Sweet Home Chicago has mobilized 12 community and labor organizations, including Bickerdike, as they advocate for the working families who already live in city neighborhoods being redeveloped.
 
Your support also allows us to work on behalf of families, unaccompanied teens, and adults living in shelters and transitional housing, and to advocate for homeless children seeking access to public schools.

Our work makes a difference, and so do you. 

CLICK HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to support our work.