For CBS News, Sara Machi reports on Chicago’s new “Emergency Supplemental Victims’ Service Fund,” which aims to “ease the financial burden and trauma inflicted on those directly impacted by gun violence … The idea is to give financial assistance for people who are shot, or their surviving family members; money that can be used on medical costs, lost wages, relocation, and funeral expenses.”
ICYMI: Safer Cities conducted a national poll last year which found that voters strongly support the type of direct cash assistance that Chicago’s new victim service fund provides:
- 86% of likely voters say it is important for survivors of violent crime to have costs covered for relocation when they face a continued physical safety threat.
- 85% of likely voters say it is important to provide no-cost medical care, such as mental health services, for a crime victim’s family member.
- 83% of likely voters say it is important that survivors of violent crime have costs covered for funerals, for example, when a child is murdered and the parents need to cover burial costs.
- 82% of likely voters say it is important that survivors of violent crime have lost wages covered when they cannot work for a period of time.
