Renters worry about the future after economy turned upside down
Millions of American renters face uncertainty, worry after outbreak turned the economy upside down
It was the first of the month, and everybody knew the rent’s due. For millions of Americans, Wednesday was the first time the landlord was knocking on the door since the coronavirus outbreak turned the economy upside down.
Many of those renters are without jobs — nearly 3.3 million people in the U.S. filed for unemployment the week of March 16, about five times the previous high in 1982. Most state and local governments are putting evictions on pause as states prepare to pay unemployment and the federal government prepares to send stimulus checks. So for most, April’s knock didn’t come with a notice to get out.
But a roof over the head is one of the most basic needs in life. Without money for rent, how can the other bills get paid? And while many will get a reprieve in April, eventually the rent comes due, whether or not the restaurant, plant or construction site reopens when the COVID-19 threat lessens.
Here are some of the stories of Americans trying to make the rent, this month and beyond.
At 21 years old, Jade Brooks pulls in her family’s only full-time salary, working at a hospital switchboard.
Brooks’ mother just lost her job at a health insurance company — a casualty of the plummeting economy. She’s found part-time work at the hospital, but between them, they make only $400 weekly after taxes and insurance, Brooks said. Their rent is $1,810.
During sleepless nights, Brooks worries most about her 8-year-old cousin, who lives with them.
“I don’t want her to grow up in a homeless shelter, having to sleep in a bunk bed with other people, asking why we have to stand in a long line to get a room to sleep in, why we have to stand in a long line to get food, why she can’t invite her friends over,” Brooks said. “It’s hard to explain that to an 8-year-old.”
Itza Sanchez knows she can’t make her $400 rent for April. She’s praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe that she doesn’t get kicked out of her Richmond, Va., mobile home park.
Sanchez made her money searching for and recycling scrap metal and selling tamales in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Fear of getting sick has stopped both income streams.
A single mother of two who immigrated from Honduras to the U.S. 14 years ago, Sanchez’s 7-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have been eating lunches delivered to the neighborhood by schools and depending on churches for other meals.
“I’m basically penniless,” Sanchez, 39, said in Spanish.
She hasn’t heard from the landlord about what will happen if the rent isn’t paid. So she keeps praying.
“May she help us. May the virgin put her love over us and help us.”
Andrea Larson made $70,000 a year curating wine lists and suggesting pairings to customers at 5th & Taylor. But the popular Nashville, Tenn., restaurant closed its dining area, and working as a sommelier isn’t something Larson can do from home.
The first unemployment check was $275 for a week. Larson said she was humiliated but applied for food stamps.
“I’m screwed financially,” Larson said. “If I do pay my rent, it’s going to eat into my food money.”
Larson, 42, moved from a high-rise downtown apartment to a house in East Nashville four months ago. Rent was cheaper. She planned to pay off debt and start saving. Instead, she called credit card companies and said she couldn’t pay the minimum.
Larson’s restaurant offered a few shifts answering phones for takeout, but she figures it’s not worth the risk of getting COVID-19.
“I do wine, and nobody wants to hear about wine right now,” she said. “They just want to chug it.”
Roushaunda Williams, 52, was able to scrimp and use credit card cash advances to pay the $1,850 rent for April for her two-bedroom Uptown Chicago apartment.
But the rent comes due again in 30 days. Can she afford a smaller apartment in her building if one’s available? Should she move in with friends if they’ll let her?
“April 1 isn’t even here yet,” Williams said last month, “and I’m already working on what I’m going to do for May 1.”
Before being laid off, she made drinks and chatted with people from around the world for 20 years as a bartender at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in the heart of Chicago’s downtown Loop.
Income depended on tips — in the best times, she’d make $70,000 to $100,000 annually. Now, she’s on unemployment for the first time and searching for work.
Tnia Morgan shares her Baltimore County, Md., townhouse with her 18-year-old pregnant daughter and 18-year-old nephew. And they all spend a lot more time together since Morgan was laid off March 6 from her job serving food at a hotel banquet hall.
Morgan’s landlord told her to take her time with the rent. But it isn’t the only bill piling up. She ticks them off — car payment, car insurance, cellphone, internet, water, gas and electricity. And she always has to buy food, so tough choices are ahead, especially until unemployment benefits kick in.
Morgan, 39, has checked on getting food stamps and looked for work at stores and warehouses with no luck.
She appreciates her landlord’s kindness this month. But she knows he needs her rent money to pay his bills.
“If I don’t pay the rent, it falls on him,” Morgan said. “We can’t be evicted right now, but eventually they’re going to want their money.”
Bartender Luke Blaine was laid off when downtown Phoenix restaurant Fez closed, but he’s not too worried about rent — yet.
He shares his small adobe-style home and backyard garden of tomatoes, beets, squash, radish, lettuce and eggplants with his boyfriend, Kyle Schomer. Schomer still has his job in technology and works from home.
Blaine, 30, figures unemployment will kick in. His car is paid for, and he owes little beyond a small credit card balance.
Blaine credits his thrifty nature to his family. And that’s whom he worries about most these days. His mother and sister are nurses in Illinois, not far from hard-hit Chicago.
“It definitely is nerve-racking having your family on the front line,” Blaine said.