On weekends, Kathy Concepcion fixes big pots of spaghetti, ravioli, whatever her grandkids want— only lately “Lulu,” as they call her, has been stretched thinner than angel hair.
Between the price of rent, the rising cost of utilities and grocery bills, she has had to start going to a nearby food pantry.
“We wouldn’t be here if we could afford groceries,” she said, sitting inside the pantry at the intersection of North and Central Park avenues in Humboldt Park.
Concepcion waited on a bench alongside half a dozen other women inside the pantry run by Nourishing Hope at La Casa Norte. Almost all the women are Latino, and many are new to the pantry, which has doubled in size over the last year.
It’s a reflection of the deep divides that pervade the area, according to a new study, which found that financial disparities that exist across race nationally are amplified in Cook County.
The study, published Tuesday by the Financial Health Network, found that residents reported higher rates of being financially healthy, or able to save and pay bills, than the national average.
But residents also reported significantly higher rates of financial vulnerability, or being unable to save, than the national average — and race was a better indicator of participants’ financial health than it was nationally.
Black and Latino residents are three to four times more likely to be financially vulnerable than their white counterparts. And these disparities persist among relatively high earners.
The disparities found in the study are almost double the national average, where around 20% of Black and Latino Americans are likely to be financially vulnerable, compared with 12% of whites. The national rates were based on the financial research organization’s national surveys.
Asian residents were financially healthy at rates similar to whites, although they had lower rates than at national levels. Those considered neither financially healthy or unhealthy were considered financially coping, or able to meet basic needs but unable to plan for the future.
Researchers surveyed 5,422 Cook County residents between April and July of 2022 with funding from the Chicago Community Trust, a foundation that aims to close the racial wealth gap in Cook County.
For many, the results of the study were a confirmation of what they already felt.
“It further illustrates how we need more investment from the public and private sector towards addressing these disparities,” said Greg Trotter, a director of marketing and communications for Nourishing Hope.
The city provides funding for the mental health counseling the organization provides, Trotter said, but he has concerns about how his organization and similar groups will cope as reductions of federal benefits, such expansions to food stamp programs and the child tax credit, take full effect.
“We would all like to see more federal assistance, more help for people that we’re serving. The charitable sector cannot do this work alone,” Trotter said.
Next to Concepción in line, Maricela Bustamante wonders how she and the others will be able to get ahead. “It’s very worrisome.”
This is the first visit to the pantry for Bustamante, a stay-at-home mother of three. “My husband’s check isn’t enough to get us everything we need anymore,” said Bustamante, 46. “Milk, eggs, it’s all so expensive now.”
For many Black and Latino residents, the hardships of being financially vulnerable include around half of survey participants reporting that they are unable to pay all of their bills on time, and about four in 10 reporting that they experienced food insecurity over the last year.
Helping residents meet these day-to-day expenses would help narrow the gap, said Meghan Greene, one of the authors of the study, but the study’s findings show that the roots of the problem lie deeper, with a lack of access to financial services.
Across income brackets, Black and Latino residents have access to fewer financial avenues to build wealth. Eighty-seven percent of white households had access to a pension or retirement account, compared with 49% of Black households and 58% of Latino households.
Even among households making under $30,000, about 94% of white households had access to a checking account, versus 64% of Black households. White households in this group are three times more likely to be financially healthy than Black households and twice as likely as Latino households.
Among Black and Latino households making $100,000, the rates were still discouraging, with about 40% and 45% considered financially healthy, compared with 69% of white households and 62% of Asian households.
Andrea Saénz, president of the Chicago Community Trust, called the findings a “wake-up call.”
“The fact that if you’re Black or Latinx in Cook County, you’re significantly more likely to be financially vulnerable than the rest of the country, is shocking,” she said. “It’s something we all need to grapple with.”
The findings of the study didn’t include a quick solution, but Saénz and others hope they can keep working “to intentionally reverse this trajectory because, if left on its own it will get worse.”
The full study is available at the Financial Health Network’s website, www.finhealthnetwork.org.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
