Having served on Governor Pritzker’s transition team and been appointed by previous governors to advisory boards and state councils, Puente already had plenty of name recognition when the coronavirus started devastating Latin American neighborhoods — 11 of the 15 worst-hit ZIP codes in the metro area are majority-Latino — and she used that visibility to get resources where they were needed most. She painstakingly compiled a list of dozens of organizations, many of them little known outside their communities, for the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund. To date, 71 of those organizations have received more than $5 million for rent and utility assistance and other programs.
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