A Chicago business offered to pay a year’s worth of rent for the family of Little League World Series star Jaheim Benton, the 12-year-old who scored five runs in helping the Jackie Robinson West Little Leaguers to the United States title.
After the team lost the Little League World Series to South Korea, Benton returned to Chicago without a place to live. It turns out that his “family has been homeless since June.”
According to ABC Chicago, “the owners of a Chicago funeral home heard about the family’s plight and decided to pay their rent for an entire year.” Spencer Leak, Jr., from Leak and Sons Funeral Home in Chatham, told ABC Chicago, “I would hope that this rent turns into a mortgage that turns into home ownership for them.”
“We want our little superstar to have a roof over his head because that’s what he is,” he said. “He’s a superstar.”
According to ABC Chicago, “with Jaheim’s parents both struggling to find full-time work, the family was forced to split up and stay at friends’ houses.” Jaheim, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, was living with his father in “homes of friends and family, one step away from the shelters and the streets.”
Photo: Chicago Tribune
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