Housing or Healthcare: The Choice Nobody Should Have to Make

Get to Know Carina

Sep 10

What I hear most in this district is that people are being forced to choose between housing and healthcare. Between food and the support systems that keep a family standing. If that's the choice we're leaving people with, then we're failing them as a government, and it's our job to be there when they can't cover both.

I want to be specific about what that failure looks like, because it isn't abstract. Someone died because they couldn't pay for their insulin, because they had to pay for housing instead. That is a decision a person made about their own survival, with the numbers in front of them. And people are making versions of that decision every single day in ways that ripple out to their families and their whole community.

I've spent my career sitting with families in crisis and financial instability. So I know these stories firsthand. A politician in Springfield doesn't. They don't know these people, and they don't see the real impact. Carrying those voices into that building is exactly the job I'm asking for.

Here's the part people don't like to talk about: taxes are an investment in our community.

And right now our state constitution requires a flat tax, no matter what you earn, we all pay the same rate. That structure leaves an enormous gap in the support systems Illinois families need. I support a progressive tax, or what I'd rather call a fair tax, because a tax structure should reflect what people can actually bear.

What that funds matters just as much. I want a state healthcare system that covers everybody rather than certain groups, Medicaid for all, because medication is every bit as essential as food.

And here's the difference: when someone can't afford food, we have food pantries. There is no equivalent for a person who can't afford life-saving medication.

That gap is a policy choice, and it's one we could fix.

Thank you to everyone who continues to show up, speak up, and invest in the work of shaping our shared future. I’m deeply grateful to be on this journey with you.

Let’s keep going—because together, we’re stronger.