The Mychal Moultry Jr. Funeral and Burial Assistance Program is supposed to give Illinois families with severe financial needs up to $10,000 to help bury children under 17 who were killed by gun violence. Almost a year after the measure went into effect, only eight people across the state have applied. Two of them have received funds. That number is far below the 106 juveniles who’ve been fatally shot in Chicago alone since July 1, 2022, and whose families could have been eligible to apply for the funding, reports The Trace. The program was named after Mychal Moultry Jr. a four-year-old who was shot and killed. When Mychal Moultry, the father of the bill’s namesake, found out how few people have been able to use the program, he was incensed. “They gave us hope that his name will forever be known and he will be doing a positive thing, even though he’s not here today,” Moultry said, invoking his son’s legacy. “For them to go about it this way is an insult to me and his mother.”
The program allows families whose income is up to one-and-a-half times the federal poverty level to apply jointly with their funeral and burial provider. Within a year of a child’s death by gun homicide, families can mail an application to cover up to $10,000 of funeral and burial costs, including that of a casket, urn, and memorial services. Approved applicants receive funding within 30 days. If they don’t receive the money within 60 days, the state will start owing interest. The law appointed the Illinois Department of Human Services to run the program and required it to create a brochure and make it available on its website. Law enforcement is also required to inform families of the program. Moultry is not impressed. “If money is just sitting there, why is it not going to people who need it?” he asked. “Why do people have to be required to have a certain income to have their child buried?"