Out of work and eager for change
For these residents, stimulus inaction has led to anger, despair
For 25 years, Lucia Romero cleaned the Aetna offices in Hartford, working from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. But she was laid off when the
COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, just a few years shy of her retirement.
Like many unemployed residents of Connecticut, Romero is struggling to make ends meet amid a once-booming economy turned sour due to COVID-19. Their anger may not be surprising: just 31% of Connecticut residents approve of President Donald Trump’s performance in office, according to a recent poll by Sacred Heart University.
Romero says she has seen little
support from Washington, D.C., since the $600 in extra weekly unemployment benefits expired at the end of July. And with just a few days until Nov. 3, she is among jobless voters in Connecticut — where the official unemployment rate was 7.8% in September — who see the election as a chance for a new beginning.
Romero, 62, of Manchester, knew she wanted change in the White House long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And the last seven months — plunged into unemployment and anguished by the White House’s slow and uneven response to COVID-19 — have put her political views into sharp relief.
“Now the people are without extra money, when we need extra money more than ever,” Romero said in Spanish. She plans to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday.
For Romero, losing her job derailed her retirement plans, forcing her to lose crucial time to contribute toward her pension. And ever since the $600 bonus dried up, she has had to rely on her adult sons for support, adding another layer of stress to a pandemic that makes her fear for her own health.
“It’s sad to see your son in the parking lot, sitting in the car, and he’s waving at me and saying ‘Hi Mom!’ but from a distance,” she said. “It gives me tremendous sadness. It’s more than sad — it’s depressing.”
Four decades on the job, then a layoff
Pat Fisher worked for 42 years in the cafeteria of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., starting out on the grill and working her way up to head cashier.
One day in early March, after the cafeteria staff had finished preparing sandwiches and salads for the day, she and her co-workers were told that the cafeteria would be closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher said. Soon after, she went on unemployment.
“We didn’t realize what we were facing, and then it came into June and July, and now everyone’s panicking, wanting to know when they’ll go back to work,” she said.
Seven months after being laid off, Fisher has already sent off her absentee ballot for Biden. She praised Biden for his work with former President Barack Obama to expand affordable healthcare.
“Why would I vote for someone that has more money than me and paid less taxes than I do?” Fisher said of Trump. (A September New York Times report revealed that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and in 2017.)
Fisher, who lives with her daughter and granddaughter, now has to survive on half the income she was used to bringing home. She often has to make soups to stretch her money, she said.
An emotional roller coaster
Denzell Smith, 28, of Naugatuck, was a manager at a big chain movie theater before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“It was my first job that I’ve ever had,” Smith said. “I’d been there since 2009. I worked my way up from sweeping popcorn off the floor to being a manager.”
But on March 15, Smith lost his job. “Just going in every day and seeing my team, making sure that they had everything that they needed to do their jobs, seeing the smiles on their faces ... all that completely changed,” he said. “I probably won’t see some of those people ever again because everything ended so abruptly.”
Smith, who recently got his real estate license, said the last seven months have been “a pretty emotional roller coaster, figuring out how I’m going to provide for myself, how I’m going to provide
for my loved ones.” He dislikes President Trump’s handling of the pandemic and plans to vote for Biden on Election Day.
“In general, there’s a lot of confusion,” Smith said. “Getting everyone on the same track is important, and up until this point, it doesn’t really seem like it’s going in that direction. I just feel like if something’s going to change, it has to change soon.”
‘I just can’t pay my bills like I used to’
When Shalbert Dudley was laid off from her job on March 20, she was at first cautiously optimistic that she would be back to work in a few weeks. Dudley, 60, of East Hartford, worked for 13 years at The Hartford, first as a security guard and then as a driver shuttling employees from parking lots to their offices.
Seven months later, she remains unemployed, the primary care
giver for her 6-year-old granddaughter. She said she has been forced to weigh paying bills against having enough food to eat.
“With my bills, half the time I have to call and make a decision, to pay a little here, a little there. I just can’t pay my bills like I used to,” she said.
Dudley plans to vote for Biden on Tuesday because she wants to see the White House slow the spread of the COVID-19, which killed her cousin, and provide support for people like herself, who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
“[Trump] didn’t really do too much about the virus,” she said. “People are losing their job, their house, their lives.”
Unemployment, then COVID-19
This year has shown Luz Quezada, 35, just how little the federal government is willing to help her. Quezada, of Danbury, was laid off from her job as a home care worker in mid-March due to COVID-19 and her husband, who works in a restaurant, had his hours cut down to a few days a week. At the same time, Quezada’s 3-yearold daughter, newly diagnosed with autism, started remote therapy, and Quezada’s 13-year-old stepdaughter shifted to online learning. The couple began to draw down on savings to pay their rent and bills.
Although Quezada is an American citizen, her husband is undocumented, which, like other couples in their position, prevented them
from receiving the COVID-19 relief check sent out by the White House.
“If you are not white, if you have something to do with an immigrant, then you don’t belong. You don’t belong here. The opportunities are not for you. The assistance is not for you,’’ Quezada said.
Quezada also did not initially receive the unemployment compensation she was owed, forcing her to turn to local and state politicians for help. Finally, in the middle of May, her compensation kicked in, with the $600 bonus included.
“It was like we were swimming in the water and dying and someone pulled us out of the water,” she said.
At the same time, in April, Quezada and her husband came down with symptoms of COVID19. She had a painful sore throat and chills; he had trouble breathing at night. They ultimately both tested positive for the virus — and continued to test positive for weeks after. Finally, at the end of May, Quezada’s husband was able to return to work.
Months later, Quezada worries about having to apply for food stamps when her unemployment compensation runs out. And she is nervously anticipating Election Day.
“I’m very fearful,” said Quezada, who voted for Biden via absentee ballot. “But on the inside, I have a little hope.”