>> Affordability is a top concern for voters this election season and new data is shedding light on how widespread of an issue it is for Chicagoans.

The new Chicago speaks survey by Norc at the University of Chicago and first reported here by W T Tw News finds that more than half of Chicagoans are either just getting by or finding it hard to get by nearly 30% say they can't pay some bills or can only make partial payments on some of them.

And among those employed, nearly 20% think it is very or fairly likely they will lose their job or be laid off in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, social services organizations are working to help fill the gaps for residents struggling with the rising cost of food, health care and housing.

Joining us now are Vance Welsh associate director at Norc at the University of Chicago.

Peter temp for president and CEO at all.

Chicago making homelessness history.

Nolen Downey sr director policy is Greater.

Chicago Food Depository.

And Curt Miller, senior regional director at Employment Employer Services, which operates American job centers with in the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership Network.

Gentlemen, thanks to all of you for joining us.

Then, I should say, you know, we are excited to partner with you all on these on these quarterly survey.

So thank you for joining us to discuss this one.

Of course, we've been hearing a lot about the affordability crisis.

What are the numbers show about?

What Chicagoans are experiencing?

The numbers released show that Chicago winds are making But just barely the numbers that you cited earlier where over half of Chicagoans are either not making it or just getting and only around 5% or so.

Our report that they're thriving and so really what the overall picture is is.

>> One of kind of a precarious situation where folks really don't have a lot of room for error in any sort of way.

No margin for There.

>> Pete, we know housing costs are typically the largest expense and your organization offers emergency financial assistance with that.

What has demand been like?

>> As Vince is describing, demand is increasing because just as housing costs are going up.

So too, are grocery prices CAS utility bills, all those things combined to make making it day by day, even more challenging.

And when folks are living paycheck to paycheck, that puts people at risk of homelessness.

And of course, you can have a house, but it's difficult to pay for all the things that keep the house going.

Look, you can have a house, but you have to have utilities and you have to have food get to work.

>> How are you prioritizing the resources that you are able to offer?

>> We believe that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from ever happening in the first place.

You mentioned our homelessness prevention funding.

That is one of the best ways that we can help people to never enter homelessness in the first place.

It's also one of the most cost effective with around $1000.

We can prevent a family from ever becoming homelessness ever becoming homeless.

on the tail end, if we provide a suite of services, it can cost upwards of $25,000.

So that homelessness prevention funding keeps a family safely in their home keeps that peace of mind and keeps folks with the ability to work and to manage their health care and their families in the grand scheme of things $1000 could be a small amount if it means, you know, means keeping somebody in their home.

Things are betting homelessness.

>> Kurt, mentioned concerns of job near the beginning of the segment.

What are some of the common scenarios are barriers that people are dealing with by the time they come to you looking for help.

So people come in.

They're looking for stability.

That's the main thing.

So there's one story I have.

So we had a young lady coming to our American job Center, Shannon appointment and she got there.

She had a prop jet 6 get you've all 6 kids with her.

And so my career coach was like, well, we're gonna have to reschedule.

And what happened was in that situation to have daycare.

So she brought the kids with her to be able to do that.

And so those are the things we see coming in is people coming in worried about that and worried about if they're going to have a job when they laid off and also receive people worried about technology.

They haven't worked in a while to go back into the workforce.

How do I navigate this workforce?

How do I use technology and intimidated thinking technology is going to take their job?

You mentioned, you know, young woman, a young mother of son with 6 kids coming to you all are maybe not young to mother and 6 kids having y'all.

I mean, what what can you do in that situation?

>> I mean, because if she's got to reschedule, right, can you director towards resources?

Because childcare costs money.

She clearly didn't have it that particular day.

Yeah.

>> So usually you have a one-on-one conversation with the career coach and then address the barriers we have make referrals, making sure that the kids have daycare make sure that when she's able to go back to work, all the barriers are addressed.

And so we make sure that she's able to short to work transportation, make sure everything's covered.

>> Know in the study also touches on the impact of President Trump's one big beautiful bill.

which talked about a lot in the last year and a half.

What has been the impact of that on the bank?

>> It's been devastating.

I mean, there's no way around it.

The first round of cuts to hit from that bill were cuts to snap otherwise referred to as food stamps from the time that that bill passed.

And now we have 460,000 fewer people enrolled in SNAP and Illinois.

And when the bill first passed.

So that is staggering.

We have never seen million.

Okay.

Slow decline like that.

And food banks like us.

We are not position to meet that need.

We've set it on the show many times for every meal that we provide.

Snap provides 9.

And so when we're operating in the wake of these historic cuts to the safety net cuts to snap cuts to Medicaid, then Senate.

We have so many people that are just barely getting by.

And as more and more people lose, these critical supports.

We are going to be encountering more and more folks in the lives of our pantries who are now no longer getting by because they cannot afford their basic needs.

>> Vince, what does the study show or wanted to find out how people perceive federal programs like SNAP?

So we asked 2 questions with regard to kind of the federal safety net programs.

Number one, we asked if people thought that the federal government was currently spending about the right amount to much or too little on these programs and what we found is the majority of Chicagoans feel like the federal government is spending too little on the safety net programs and there's some.

And even this by party affiliation, there Republicans and are less likely to feel that the government spending too little and Democrats independents a little more likely to spend that they're looking at.

And you're looking at a graph graphic on screen right now from the report that that reflects what you're saying.

Go >> And then we also asked about awareness of the one big beautiful bill and >> expected impact on what we found was awareness was really an with.

About 45% of folks in Chicago knowing nothing or very little about the bill and only around 11% of folks in Chicago saying that they know a lot.

What and we also asked of the people who something about the one big beautiful bill.

What do they expect?

Those impacts to be.

About 80% of people who knew something about the bill expected negative impacts on SNAP or on Medicaid, OK?

people had some expectations going into that.

That legislation.

>> Pete, what are some common misconceptions that people have about homelessness?

The first and largest common misconception is that it's somehow people's fault that they become homeless.

>> Homelessness is a housing problem.

When housing is unaffordable, people end up becoming homeless.

That is the single most destructive myth around homelessness.

How do you how do you counter that?

It's important to tell those stories to tell the story that Vince is sharing that it's about the affordability and living in our city and that communities are really, really struggling.

And that people are working like encourage program.

People are seeking food to feed their families and that.

The math doesn't work.

It is too hard to make ends meet and as you stated, housing is the single largest expense for any family.

And when the pressures are on eventually you can end being homeless.

>> Kurt, how to how you know, the different issues that all intersect with affordability, head of that out of those impact job seekers, the people that you work with.

>> So a lot of ways because you even within a underemployed, it's tough because you're not meeting all your bills.

You're working so you can set up job interviews.

Also picking up kids, daycare.

Also, if you're arrest in one upskill a job, you got to find time to good time to go down to American job center and look at the resume.

So people looking for stability and without that without the direction, get overwhelmed.

And I think that's the big We say.

People experts in their own lives and so we try to work with them and say, hey, these are opportunities.

But you have to have a plan.

And that's the one thing we're able to do when they come in work with them.

plan on how to kind of maybe improve their wages and get a better job can be a lot of you have stability.

If you have it's a lot either Nolan, how do you think food fits into the broader conversation about affordability?

>> Well, I mean, it's been said food prices are going up.

But I think most disturbing are some of the tradeoffs that families are being forced into when housing prices go up.

That is a hunger issue.

When people lose access health care, that is a hunger issue.

It is not just grocery prices in cuts to snap that are driving people into our pantry lines that housing prices being increased its job loss, its loss of health care.

All of these things are things that we consider to be the root causes of hunger and things that we need to for truly gonna solve hunger in this country.

The cost of gas to get to the grocery store.

No question pantry or then talking.

Policymakers used this research which they know.

I would say the main takeaway is that.

>> Affordability.

is is front of mind.

Multiply because so as everyone here said it is about housing costs.

It is about food costs.

It's about employment, stability.

And so.

While our survey does not really measure.

The policies that people think that.

The government should be undertaking.

What it does when it does allow policymakers to know is that this is a very, very serious issue and it is really worth.

For all of their constituents and their constituencies.

It's really worth investing effort into finding solutions that address the totality of the affordability situation, right?

Put put hard numbers behind what people are actually feeling and experiencing that are living through.

>> Pete, what would you say is needed to make housing more affordable?

First and foremost to acknowledge that housing is a human right.

>> And that everyone deserves the safety of a home.

If we can start there, the policy initiatives can fall.

We do need investments at every level of government from the city to the state to the federal government.

But at the end of the day until we start treating housing like the human right, that it is, we will be dancing around the edges.

That's where we'll have