For Mom In Wheelchair, Third-Floor Apartment Is A Challenge
Meet Melissa Pacheco
(CBS) -- A Chicago woman who was shot and paralyzed in a robbery four years ago says she is struggling to become independent, but it's hard.
Every time she leaves her apartment, her teenage sons must carry her down three flights of stairs.
"I had gotten shot twice. And the result of that is, I'm paralyzed from the chest down," Melissa Pacheco, 37, tells WBBM's Steve Miller.
She and her four children live in a Northwest Side apartment on the third floor. She doesn't want to leave the neighborhood because she wants her kids to be close to their schools.
When she needs to go out, her sons must carry her down three flights. The logistics aren't always convenient because her sons must leave at 7 a.m., and she must wait outside in her wheelchair for her ride. Sometimes she waits as long as 90 minutes.
She'd like to move to a ground floor apartment somewhere nearby, but says she keeps getting rejected.
"I'm not really sure what the reason is, but I get rejected on the phone if I tell them I'm in a wheelchair. I've been rejected when I go see the place," Pacheco says.
Pacheco says she's been on a Chicago Housing Authority waiting list for several years.
The CHA is reviewing its records, the agency tells WBBM.
