It’s going on another month. The coronavirus pandemic continues. And Americans suffering the economic consequences will have to worry again once their upcoming hiring checks expire on August 1.
Many unemployed due to the crisis are already receiving payments. And the arrival of August brings new concerns. An additional $600 in weekly federal unemployment benefits that has helped many others pay for their spending will expire in late July, with Congress meddled in a war of words over a new aid set.
Unless lawmakers also intervene, a federal moratorium on evictions has protected millions of tenants; some Americans remain protected by similar state and local actions.
The Associated Press reconnected with renters first interviewed ahead of their April payments. Four months later, some have returned to work. One saw her church step in to cover her rent. Some found landlords willing to negotiate, while others are still looking for relief.
Sakai Harrison moved to New York to consult with a non-public teacher and designer; However, his gym closed its doors at the beginning of the pandemic, and after weeks of struggling to pay rent and put food in his refrigerator, he knew what to do. Do.
He moved back to Georgia for greater stability.
In May, he left his Brooklyn apartment and his $1,595 monthly rent for Atlanta. When the first of the month arrives, your new seat costs about $400 less, and is larger.
“It’s the greatest ray of hope I’ve ever seen, ” he said.
He trains with some individual clients and has an educational camp with a dozen others.
This week he met four of them in a park, where they did squats, dominated and a military-style ramp. Harrison then took them to a gym to work out with dumbbells. They were not dressed in a mask to oppose viruses; Harrison said they were taking precautions, but under pressure that the state didn’t need to cover his face.
Harrison modeled the right shape and pace, corrected the men as needed, and joked gently when they got tired or slowed down. Some beards leaned back and Harrison smiled.
It charges its consumers a little less than at Blink Fitness in New York, but this amount is helping them expand a clothing brand. Take a line of shoes, T-shirts and caps.
Unless there’s another stop, Harrison said, “I’m fine.”
– Aaron Morrison, New York and Ron Harris, Atlanta
Demanding financial situations continue to increase for Roushaunda Williams months after wasting her nearly 20-year task at the palmer house Hilton Hotel bar in downtown Chicago.
Possible hotel reopening dates have been delayed, Williams said, and jobs in the hotel sector remain short.” He hopes he will not be able to pay his hiring of $1,900 until September, especially if Congress reauthorizes $600 a week in more unemployment assistance under a new aid program.
Williams, 52, said he asked the control company that owns his apartment for rent relief or other help. So far, you’ve been told your rent would be charged if you could pay.
The governor of Illinois recently prolonged a moratorium on deportations until August. However, Williams is concerned about the accumulation of debt while unemployed.
“I’ve exhausted my savings,” she said. “So I don’t have a safety net at all now.”
– Kathleen Foody, Chicago
Jas Wheeler once hoped to weather the pandemic and repaint in a Vermont bakery. Not anymore.
Wheeler, 30, is immunocompromised and fear of returning to the bakery would increase the threat of infection. The former social worker who works in a small grocery store who will pay less but leaves more room for social estrangement.
Wheeler attended the concert, anticipating wasting weekly aid on unemployment at $600. This cash allowed Wheeler and his wife, Lucy, to repay their $850 monthly loan.
The couple closed on their house in Vergennes the same day Wheeler was laid off in March. Wheeler’s wife kept her jobs, but money remains tight. They’ve sold a car and are growing some food.
“Unemployment without staggered benefits is enough to live on,” Wheeler said. “We’re broke.”
– Michael Casey, Boston
Although the pandemic took away both of Itza Sanchez’s income, his faith. The mother-of-two says the generosity of her church in Richmond, Virginia, saved them from hunger and eviction.
Sanchez fell under contract when she stopped promoting homemade tamales and collecting junk for fear of contracting the virus. In mid-July, it owed about $950 in non-paid rent. It was at this point that Sanchez won the account of leaving the cell home where his circle of relatives lives.
She forgave when her church sent $800 directly to the owner.
Now you will raise $460 for the August rental. Receives donations of food from the church. The school formula offers lunches to your 11- and 7-year-olds.
An immigrant from Honduras, Sanchez is entitled to unemployment benefits.
“In this crisis, we have moments of anguish and hopelessness,” Sanchez said.
“But I’ve been blessed so far.”
– Regina García Cano, Washington
For Andrea Larson, life has taken an unforeseen turn.
She lost her sommelier job in mid-March, when restaurants closed in Nashville, Tennessee. She was just getting by on unemployment, but worried about choosing between losing benefits or going back to an unsafe restaurant job. Then a former boss offered her a spot at a new restaurant – the White Limozeen, named in tribute to a Dolly Parton song and decorated in over-the-top kitsch.
Although Larson is still afraid of the virus, he appreciates that his employer “has spent a lot of cash to make sure other people are incredibly safe.” In her duplex, a plumbing crisis forced her to live in a structure area for a few months. But he counts it as luck: he didn’t have to pay the rent.
– Travis Loller, Nashville, Tennessee
Jade Brooks and her circle of relatives have relied on a moratorium on evictions in Massachusetts to help them through the pandemic. Still, 22-year-old Brooks worries: how long will it last?
Brooks’ mother hasn’t found find full-time work since losing her insurance-company job. And Brooks doesn’t get paid enough as a hospital switchboard operator to cover rent — recently raised to $2,075 monthly — for their two-bedroom Boston apartment.
His circle of relatives had a deportation hearing scheduled for August in court after refusing to pay the $265 increase. The governor then extended the deportation ban until mid-October, offering relief from transitoryness.
“It gave me a little more hope of perceiving things, of throwing myself into the fire,” said Brooks, who lives with his mom and an 8-year-old cousin.
Brooks expects the extra time to give his mother the chance to find work, and they may cancel a new lease instead of going to court.
– Michael Casey, Boston
After two months of missing bills due to a “rental strike,” Neal Miller and his roommates listened to the landlord.
To his surprise, he agreed to reduce the monthly rent by $1,500 for his home on Chicago’s West Side. Miller’s percentage is now $150, compared to $400.
Miller, 38, said the owner had given the impression that he would prefer a source of income for the house to nothing at all.
Miller’s last solid assignment was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University. During the pandemic, he repaired tasks: drafting thesis, accounting for a psychiatrist’s office.
Lowering rents lowered the pressure: “We are in an exclusive scenario because of the reaction we have received.”
– Kathleen Foody, Chicago
Tnia Morgan’s circle of relatives has grown through a unit since the pandemic turned their lives around. The birth of a grandson, the youngest son of his youngest daughter, on June 25 was a rare and, in a different way, stressful spring and summer.
“I love its smell. I love his smile. I love everything about him,” said Morgan, who has a home in Baltimore County, Maryland, with his newborn grandson, daughter and nephew.
I needed something to celebrate. His source of income fell after wasting his homework at a hotel reception in March. Invoices accrue every month.
Since then, 4 rental checks have been owed. Morgan’s owner pays him what he can. She estimates that this is almost part of what she owes since April.
Food vouchers feed his family. She says she tried unsuccessfully to enroll in unemployment benefits. His only source of income comes from his paintings for a food delivery service.
“It’s not much,” she said, “but it’s better than not having anything.”
– Michael Kunzelman, Silver Spring, Maryland
Ruqayyah Bailey has lost much of his independence and has re-inlaid his life.
Bailey, 31, is autistic. Until March, she lived in her apartment, worked part-time as a cashier at a St. Louis café and attended college.
The coronavirus threw this total design out the window. Bailey may no longer gain advantages from the individual tutoring that helped her thrive in college. The coffee’s closed. Without money, he moved back in with his mother.
The café reopened in June, but Bailey only works four hours a week. You have enrolled in seven hours of college categories, but are not sure about tutoring. He uses his savings to pay his expenses and fears losing his $600 in an additional week.
“I’m absolutely stressed, ” said Bailey. “I don’t know how to pay my bills. I don’t know how I’m going to get into my apartment.”
– Jim Salter, St. Louis
Jason W. Still spent nearly 3 months unpainted before re-cooking at an upscale restaurant in Spokane, Washington.
However, he returned to Clover’s kitchen when he reopened in early June. Before that, his wife’s paintings in the legal marijuana industry in Washington and Still’s unemployment checks helped them never lose a rent payment.
Encore repaints 40 hours a week. But you wonder if this will last, as COVID-19 infections accumulate in the United States.
“It’s scary for me to be in a service that can close at any time,” he said.
– Anita Snow, Phoenix
Tinisha Dixon raised cash to cover her monthly rent of $1,115 for April and May. Since then, he hasn’t been able to pay.
Dixon, 26, stores an apartment in downtown Atlanta with his wife and five children. Before that, Dixon homeless. Today, he worries each and every day that his circle of relatives is on the streets.
Dixon’s spouse works as a security guard, but the hour-reduction has reduced his income stream to about $800 a month. Dixon said he ran briefly at a coronavirus control site outside the city, but that relying on his spouse for the rides interfered with his job.
Before the pandemic, Dixon said, their owner had begun to take steps to evict them.
“I’m pretty beat up looking to locate everything, knowing how long I can hang here,” he said.
– Sudhin Thanawala, Atlanta
Eli Oderberg of Denver is still unemployed. He lost his job at a Colorado energy company in a wave of layoffs in mid-April caused by the economic consequences of the pandemic.
Oderberg, 36, has worked in the past on programs to track spills and leaks. He now receives unemployment benefits because he sends resumes and interviews for new jobs. He said he was a finalist for several positions but had not been hired.
Oderberg and his wife, Katie, made their loan payments. It is unemployed after wasting its work in the retail sector. She is also pregnant and the couple fears she will run out when the baby arrives. They also have a 5-year-old daughter.
“I’m looking to have a smart balance to power my family,” he said. “And I’m reminding myself that there are a lot of other people in a much worse situation.”
– Anita Snow, Phoenix