CITY & STATE INFO

City of Chicago COVID Response Center: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid-19/home.html

State of Illinois COVID-19 Response: https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/coronavirus/Pages/default.aspx

PUBLIC HEALTH RESOURCES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html .

University of Illinois at Chicago’s COVID-19 Public Health Response HUB: https://publichealth.uic.edu/uic-covid-19-public-health-response/

BUSINESSES & NON-PROFIT

Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund. This Fund supports local non-profit organizations that have been impacted by Coronavirus and are actively working to support the communities they serve: https://www.chicagocovid19responsefund.org/

Grant application/interest: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7YtOABWNwzj-GP4Rfo4Tyxf3sL96Wd2F5tlQ4aWnH9jPeTA/viewform

City of Chicago Small Business Relief Package: Mayor Lightfoot announced a $100 Million Relief Package for Chicago Small Businesses. The new fund will provide more than $100 million in low-interest loans to severely impacted small businesses over the coming month, targeting historically under-resourced communities with an emphasis on minimizing hardship for those businesses and their employees. For more information and to fill out the application, please click here. The State of Illinois has also announced some relief programs for businesses in the state. For that information, please click here.

The University of Chicago’s South Side COVID-19 Small Business and Nonprofit Emergency Fund: https://coronavirusupdates.uchicago.edu/community-support/

EMPLOYEES

Illinois Department of Employment Security – Unemployment Insurance: https://www2.illinois.gov/ides/Pages/COVID-19-and-Unemployment-Benefits.aspx

In order to process the extremely high volume of unemployment benefit claims due to COVID-19, IDES has implemented the following schedule for those filing claims online and over the phone:

Online Filing Schedule:

• Those with last names beginning with letters A-M will be asked to file their claims on Sundays, Tuesdays, or Thursdays.
• Those with last names beginning with letters N-Z will be asked to file their claims on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays.
• Saturdays will be available for anyone to accommodate those who could not file during their allotted window.

Call Center Filing Schedule:

• Those with last names beginning with letters A-M will be asked to call on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 7:30am – 6pm.
• Those with last names beginning with letters N-Z will be asked to call on Mondays and Wednesdays between 7:30am – 6pm.
• Fridays (7:30am – 6pm) will be available for anyone to accommodate those who could not file during their allotted window.

The day or time of day in which a claim is filed will not impact whether you receive benefits or your benefit amount. Additionally, claims will be back-dated to reflect the date in which a claimant was laid-off or let go from their job due to COVID-19. Note: The days in which you can file a claim may be different from the days in which you are asked to certify.

ROC United Restaurant Workers Disaster Relief Fund: For restaurant workers immediate needs for financial assistance, visit rocunited.org/relief to apply for assistance.

COMMUNITY & FAMILY

Chicago Food Depository: With a few exceptions, our network of 700 partner agencies and programs remains open. Find a food program at https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/find-food/.

Chicago Public Schools Food Distribution: Beginning Tuesday, 3/17 CPS schools are distributing free food boxes containing 3 days of breakfast & lunch for every student in the household from 9-1p. Lunchroom staff will also distribute prepped meals outside of the school. For emergency delivery, please call 773-553-KIDS.

Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS): Until March 27, DFSS will provide a three day supply of food (½ fresh & ½ frozen) that will be home delivered instead of provided onsite. Seniors who find themselves in need of such support can call 312-744-4016 anytime between 9a.m. and 5p.m., Monday-Friday. This resource is for City of Chicago residents only.

IMMIGRATION

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): All USCIS field offices, asylum offices and Application Support Centers (biometrics) will NOT provide in person services until at least April 7th, including interviews, naturalization ceremonies, and biometrics collection appointments. Emergency services will still be available, and a request can be made by contacting the USCIS Contact Center to schedule an appointment. The Chicago office will be sending descheduling notices to applicants, petitioners, and natz applicants about their appointments/oath ceremonies. All engagements will be rescheduled when USCIS resumes normal operations. See the attached USCIS announcement.

Naturalization Oath Ceremonies at Courthouses: Oath ceremonies scheduled to take place at the Dirksen and Roszkowski federal courthouses have been suspended. This has not yet been confirmed by USCIS, but the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois itself issued an Order indicating such (see page 4, paragraph 7). The USCIS Chicago Field Office has confirmed that oath ceremonies in the U.S. Central District of Illinois for Friday March 20th are cancelled. The online system should be updated when an oath ceremony is cancelled. Therefore, it would be prudent to encourage clients to check online prior to their scheduled ceremony if they have not received any notification.

BENEFITS

Chicago’s COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant is currently accepting applications! TO APPLY VISIT:  www.bit.ly/chirenta

• The application is open now until April 1st, 202011:59 pm
• The grant can provide a one-time $1,000 grant to Chicagoans who have lost their job or lost hours as a result of COVID-19.
• Undocumented immigrants can and should apply.
• These are not federal dollars and would not apply to the Public Charge test.
• The selection process will be via a lottery system. And the Chicago Department of Housing will notify those selected.

ComEd: “Due to COVID-19, ComEd has voluntarily implemented a moratorium on service disconnections for non-payment, effective immediately. This suspension will apply to both residential and commercial customers and will remain in effect at least until May 1st. To further support customers who may be impacted by the pandemic, we will offer our most flexible pay plans to customers who indicate either an impact or hardship as a result of COVID-19.” https://www.comed.com/News/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

It is unclear if other Illinois utility companies are offering similar support to ensure peoples’ water, natural gas and electric service remain intact during this time. (https://www.energyandpolicy.org/utilities-disconnect-coronavirus/)

Public Benefits -Medicaid + Food Stamp Benefits:

• Division of Rehabilitation Services’ (DRS) Offices will close until early April.
• Family Community Resource Centers (FCRC) will remain open with reduced staff to follow Center for Disease Control (CDC) social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus situation. Please note that FCRCs will have a reduced workforce of 30-50% staff working from the public-facing offices. Many of the staff who are not working at the public-facing offices will be working remotely and still able to process important benefits. You can find out more by accessing IDHS’s advisory here: http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=123342

Comcast is taking steps to implement the following new policies for the next 60 days, and other important initiatives:

• Xfinity WiFi Free For Everyone: Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the country will be available to anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. For a map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots, visit www.xfinity.com/wifi. Once at a hotspot, consumers should select the “xfinitywifi” network name in the list of available hotspots and then launch a browser.
• Pausing Our Data Plan: With so many people working and educating from home, we want our customers to access the internet without thinking about data plans. While the vast majority of our customers do not come close to using 1TB of data in a month, we are pausing our data plans for 60 days giving all customers Unlimited data for no additional charge.
• No Disconnects or Late Fees: We will not disconnect a customer’s internet service or assess late fees if they contact us and let us know that they can’t pay their bills during this period. Our care teams will be available to offer flexible payment options and can help find other solutions.
• Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: As announced yesterday, it’s even easier for low-income families who live in a Comcast service area to sign-up for Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program. New customers will receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month. Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program’s Internet service was increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. That increase will go into effect for no additional fee and it will become the new base speed for the program going forward.
• News, Information and Educational Content on X1: For those with school-age students at home, we’ve created new educational collections for all grade levels in partnership with Common Sense Media. Just say “education” into your X1 or Flex voice remote. To help keep customers informed, we also have created a collection of the most current news and information on Coronavirus. Just say “Coronavirus” into your X1 or Flex voice remote.
• 24×7 Network Monitoring: Underpinning all of these efforts, Comcast’s technology and engineering teams will continue to work tirelessly to support our network operations. We engineer our network capacity to handle spikes and shifts in usage patterns, and continuously test, monitor and enhance our systems and network to ensure they are ready to support customer usage. Our engineers and technicians staff our network operations centers 24/7 to ensure network performance and reliability. We are monitoring network usage and watching the load on the network both nationally and locally, and to date it is performing well. (https://corporate.comcast.com/covid-19)