Coming of age as a trans woman on Chicago’s West Side, Zahara Bassett used to spend hours traveling across the city just to access basic services.
“It was two trains and a bus,” Bassett said, describing the trip she regularly made from the West Side to the North Side to find LGBTQ-affirming services. “That’s a lot when you’re already trying to survive.”
Today, Bassett is the executive director of Life Is Work, a Black- and trans-led LGBTQ+ community center in Austin. Bassett founded Life is Work in part so others wouldn’t have to make the same exhausting journey.
Bassett’s experience reflects a broader reality in Chicago, where access to health care, food, housing stability, transportation and affirming services is deeply shaped by geography—and experts say those barriers can have long-term health consequences.
Data from the Chicago Health Atlas shows that life expectancy varies dramatically across the city’s community areas. In West Garfield Park, Fuller Park, Burnside, Englewood and North Lawndale—the five community areas with the lowest life expectancy—residents are expected to live 67 to 68 years, nearly 20 years fewer than those in parts of the North Side and downtown.
Those same neighborhoods also face long-standing economic barriers that shape health over a lifetime.
According to the Opportunity Atlas, which maps social and economic mobility across the U.S., the five Chicago community areas with the lowest life expectancy are also among those with the lowest average annual household income for children who grew up there and are now in their mid-30s. In those neighborhoods, average income ranges from about $16,000 to $20,000 a year.
While the life expectancy data does not track sexual orientation or gender identity, public health experts say the same structural factors that drive these disparities can be intensified for LGBTQ+ people facing discrimination or barriers to affirming services.
“If you’re LGBTQ+ and live in Lake View, you have a higher life expectancy than if you’re LGBTQ+ and live in West Garfield Park,” said Dr. Jorge Cestou, director of the syndemic infectious disease bureau at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). “Those factors compound.”
What drives Chicago’s life expectancy gap?
Public health officials say the city’s life expectancy gap is driven by decades of structural inequity that have concentrated resources in some neighborhoods while leaving others behind.
“Chicago has a history of residential segregation,” said Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “What that means is that the resources available to people depend on where they live.”
Those resources include access to health care, grocery stores, transportation, stable housing, safe spaces for physical activity and economic opportunity—all of which play a role in long-term health outcomes.
“We see concentrations of low life expectancy on the West Side and on the South Side, and higher life expectancy in the Loop and on the North Side,” Ige said. “And that has been consistent over the last 15 years.”
CDPH data shows that chronic disease, cancer, opioid overdoses, gun violence, infectious disease and maternal and infant mortality are among the leading drivers of premature death across the city. But Ige said those outcomes are shaped by underlying social and environmental conditions.
Transportation barriers, food access and neighborhood infrastructure all play a role, Ige said.
“If I have to get on a bus or travel three miles to get an apple, then it is harder for me to eat an apple,” Ige said. “These are some of the relationships and correlations we found that impacts people’s ability to make healthy choices and live healthy lives.”
While the life expectancy data reflects the general population, public health officials say the same structural drivers can carry additional weight for LGBTQ+ residents, particularly those who are also navigating racism, poverty or housing instability.
“There are so many attachments to life expectancy,” Cestou said. “Discrimination, stigma, health care barriers, mental health—all of those social determinants are more tied to LGBTQ+ communities.”
Cestou emphasized that LGBTQ+ people are not a monolith, and that geography plays a critical role in outcomes.
Discrimination within health care settings can further discourage people from seeking or continuing care, Cestou said, contributing to delayed diagnoses and untreated conditions—a dynamic that underscores the importance of having accessible, LGBTQ+-affirming services in all parts of the city.
“When people don’t feel understood or respected in health care spaces, they’re less likely to come back,” he said. “That medical mistrust builds over time, and it has real consequences.”
How these disparities play out on the West and South sides
On the West Side, structural barriers that shape life expectancy are visible in everyday decisions about where people seek care—or whether they seek care at all.
Life is Work’s headquarters sits near several West Side neighborhoods with some of the lowest life expectancies in the city, including West Garfield Park and North Lawndale.
“What we’re seeing is gaps in affirming health care,” Bassett said. “It’s one thing to have access, but if it’s not affirming, people are not going to want to access it.”
Bassett said many queer and trans residents on the West Side delay or avoid care altogether after negative experiences, especially when accessing services requires long travel times across the city.
“People don’t want to take 40 million buses to get somewhere,” Bassett said. “I did that when I was young, and I know how that felt, going from the West Side to the North Side just to receive services.”
Housing instability, food insecurity and employment barriers further complicate health outcomes, Bassett said, making it difficult for people to prioritize preventive or ongoing care.
“If you don’t know where you’re sleeping or what you’re eating,” Bassett said, “how are you supposed to prioritize medical care?”
On the South Side, advocates say geography plays a similar role.
Brave Space Alliance, which operates out of Hyde Park, serves LGBTQ+ residents from across the South Side, including neighborhoods with some of the lowest life expectancies in Chicago, such as Englewood and Burnside.
“Everything is further apart,” said Courtney McKinney, senior outreach coordinator at Brave Space Alliance. “It just takes so much longer to do things when you’re traveling from the South Side, or traveling north to access care.”
Brave Space Alliance provides food, clothing, housing referrals and behavioral health services—needs that are inseparable from long-term health and stability, according to Nikki Patin, interim CEO of Brave Space Alliance.
“If you don’t have employment, how are you able to house yourself? How are you able to eat?” Patin said. “All of these things connect back to health and wellness.”
What’s working to close the life expectancy gap
Public health officials say one of the most effective ways to address Chicago’s life expectancy gap is by bringing resources closer to the people who need them by partnering with organizations that are already embedded in their communities.
“We found that bringing resources closer to people and saturating communities with resources improves outcomes,” said Ige, pointing to reductions in opioid overdoses and gun violence when services are embedded locally.
That approach often depends on collaboration with community-based organizations, particularly those serving populations that may otherwise avoid traditional health systems.
“These organizations already have trust,” Cestou said. “Food is health care. Housing is health care. Everything they’re providing contributes to health care access.”
On the West Side, Bassett said Life Is Work’s role is often to bridge the gap between systems and the people they’re meant to serve. By working alongside larger health systems and public agencies, Bassett said community organizations can help ensure care is not only available, but actually usable.
Patin also cautioned against telling only a story of loss when discussing health disparities on the South and West sides.
“We hear a lot of gloom and doom about the South Side,” they said. “And while those things are true in many ways, what’s also true is that we experience a lot of joy.”
Patin pointed to community meals, mutual aid, celebration and connection as moments that don’t appear in datasets but matter deeply to long-term health and well-being.
“There are so many moments of joy and beautiful things that happen here,” Patin said. “And Brave Space Alliance is just one of many organizations helping to make that possible.”
This article is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at
economicopportunitylab.com/ .