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A Full-Time Nursing Job Isn't Enough: Survey Finds Nearly 7 in 10 Chicago-Area Residents Cutting Utilities to Get By
An unscientific survey of more than 1,200 Chicago-area residents found nearly 68% have limited utility use because of cost, about 34% say they're just getting by, and nearly 40% name groceries as their biggest expense. A 38-year veteran oncology nurse who took on side jobs at a garden center and orchard says her full-time paycheck no longer covers the essentials.
A registered nurse with 38 years in the oncology field says her full-time paycheck no longer stretches far enough, so she has spent the past two years picking up side jobs â at a garden center in Chesterton and an orchard in Hobart â to cover basic expenses.
"I mean I make a decent living, but it still makes it hard for me to make ends meet," Kammi Fox-Kay said from her kitchen table.
Fox-Kay said the breaking point came as her NIPSCO bills kept climbing. Over the past two years, state regulators have approved rate increases for the utility that the company projected would raise the average residential customer's bill by roughly 28%.
The orchard work paid $12 an hour, she said, and came with a perk: cheaper donuts than a dozen would cost at retail.
Fox-Kay is one of more than 1,200 people who responded to an unscientific affordability survey of greater Chicagoland conducted by NBC 5 Responds. The findings sketch a region where even steady, professional employment is increasingly insufficient:
- Nearly 68% of respondents said they have limited their use of utilities because of cost. - About 34% said they are just getting by financially. - Nearly 40% said groceries are their biggest expense. - Just over 10% said they have used a food pantry.
While only about one in ten survey respondents reported using a food pantry, demand for free food has surged at agencies across the region. The Friendship Center Food Pantry in Lincoln Square has seen demand triple over the past year, according to executive director Nadia Jimenez, who said the pantry stocks resources for the whole family, including babies and pets.
"It's also just unbelievable to me to see professionals even coming in," Jimenez said.
The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana also reports unprecedented demand.
Fox-Kay said she visited a pantry several times in recent months while she was out of work caring for a family member. She has donated items to pantries in the past and said she plans to pay it forward again when she is able.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana operate programs and locations throughout the region for residents who need help putting food on the table.
The survey results are not scientific, but they echo what frontline providers say they are seeing: households with working adults, including credentialed professionals, turning to charity and improvisation to cover essentials as utility bills and grocery prices outpace wages.