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CHICAGO (WLS) — Federal funding cuts are coming to programs that help keep seniors employed.
Some organizations say they found just this week that the cuts will mean sending their senior clients home.
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The Community Assistance Program, known as CAPS, said they received a letter stating, come Monday, they’re going to have to turn away 141 seniors who depend on their help to get a job. Without federal funding, they say some of their seniors could end up homeless.
Seniors Friday said they have worked all their lives, and they’ll have to keep working to stay afloat.
“It’s like a little piece of heaven to make ends meet,” CAPs client Sandra L. Robinson said.
Robinson, 67, who says she’s worked since she was 16, is watching her little piece of heaven, the Community Assistance Program, go away. The CAPS senior community service program provides jobs and training for over 100 seniors that have less than $18,000 per year in income.
“We were told that if anybody worked after the first of July, they would not pay for it,” Community Assistance Program CEO Sheryl Holman said.
Holman said she was notified that the federal budget does not currently include funding for the program. And so, the Illinois Department of Aging could not authorize seniors to continue work.
“I’m chasing dollars now,” Holman said. “This program is vital to them. They have nothing else. I mean, who can live off $1,000 a month?”
Holman says CAPS receives over $2 million in government funding. She says she has clients who will have no way to pay rent or for life-saving medication, like insulin.
“It’s going to be tight. I have my rent. I have my meals and the medication. And I depend on the job that covered that part of it,” CAPS client Tammy Spivey said.
The seniors are already sending letters out to their representatives and even working on their job resumes.
“I don’t want to stay at home and sit, and I’m not going to stay at home and sit,” CAPS Client Juanita Wright said.
Some, like Wright, are employed through CAPS, at the Atlas Senior Center.
Just a few weeks ago, they were celebrating Senior Day.
Now, they’re trying to keep hope alive.
“Seniors have paid their price. They’ve worked their timeline. And here they are again,” Holman said.
CAPS said their senior program is so valuable that their current waiting list is 120 people.
The Illinois Department on Aging did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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