Out of work ... so what’s next?
As jobs are idled and unemployment rises, some Bay Area residents struggling to get by
As the world around her seemingly falls apart, her husband’s shuttered business brings in no income, and the novel coronavirus death toll inches higher, Anais
Villalobos is trying to ride out the storm in her kitchen.
“Today’s chicken and cheese enchiladas,” she said, her 4-monthold wailing in the background. “And somebody asked for a veggie option, too, so I’m doing for them cheese and beans.”
When the Bay Area’s mandatory shelter-in-place order closed
Efren Villalobos Jr.s’ downtown San Jose barbershop indefinitely, the family suddenly found itself with no means of support.
Anais thought she’d drive for Postmates delivery service with little Efren III in the back seat, but her car failed the inspection, thanks to a cracked windshield. That’s when her husband suggested that Anais, who already cooks for their church on Sundays, start selling and delivering her meals to their neighbors.
At $15 a pop, it’s hard to imagine the proceeds will make up for the lost barbershop income.
“But it’s at least going to help,” Anais said.
The Villalobos family is among the tens of thousands of Californians who abruptly lost their jobs when Bay Area counties enacted mandatory shelter-in-place orders Tuesday, requiring all nonessential businesses to close.
Gov. Gavin Newsom followed Thursday with an order encompassing the entire state.
For many, particularly lowwage workers, the orders were a swift and devastating blow.
Experts say the damage may linger long after the COVID-19 outbreak dies down. Despite emergency protections put in place by local, state and federal officials, some low-income workers may get pushed further down the economic ladder. Others may miss rent payments and end up
on the streets, adding to what is already a crisis of homelessness in the region. From Oakland to San Jose to Santa Cruz, many jobs may never return and small businesses closed by the virus may never reopen.
San Jose-based bartender Mary Palac worked her last shift at Paper Plane on March 14. Though Palac, 34, has enough saved to last a few months, she’s worried about the impact of long-term closures on her colleagues and local businesses.
“This is the first time I’m saying this out loud, but I’m scared for what’s going to be at the end of this,” she said, her voice cracking. “Will our business survive? Will I have a job to come back to? Should I be applying for all these jobs at Safeway and Costco even though that scares me, too, the idea of being out there and exposed?”
California had a 34% increase in unemployment claims during the week ending March 14, with 58,208 people filing claims, according to statistics released Thursday by the Department of Labor.
And that data was gathered before the state issued mandatory shelter-inplace orders. Newsom said Wednesday that California had received 80,000 applications the previous day.
Even though local, state and federal officials are jumping in to help with special assistance, some workers are falling through the gaps.
After the Shed salon in Emeryville closed Tuesday, hairstylist Martha Muga’s income suddenly dried up. Her husband, a banker, is still working. But with three teenagers to feed and rent due April 1 for their Orinda home, they’re uneasy.
“I can’t even help our situation, so it’s entirely on my husband,” 48-year-old Muga said. “And I’m very worried about making ends meet, for sure.”
Muga is looking into what government assistance, if any, she’s eligible for. But so far, she hasn’t had any luck.
For small-business owners, the stress is different but just as intense. They worry not only about their own pocketbooks but also about paying employees and keeping their enterprises afloat through the end of the shutdown.
“So far, we’ve made $182 this week. It’s terrifying,” 40-year-old Kendra Baker said Thursday.
She and business partner Zach Davis closed their three Santa Cruz eateries Monday: The Penny Ice Creamery, Snap Taco and The Picnic Basket. On Thursday, they reopened The Picnic Basket and Snap Taco for delivery and pickup only.
They’ve laid off 80 of their 85 staffers, said Baker, who made the calls.
She and Davis have rent to pay, loan payments to make and a $6,000 state tax bill due at the end of the month. Baker isn’t at all sure they’ll make enough on pickup and deliveries to cover their costs and stay in business.
To make matters worse, the partners recently learned that their business-interruption insurance has a carve-out for virus outbreaks. They’ve submitted an application for a federal Small Business Administration loan, but if approved, it will be at least six weeks before they get any money.
The shutdown also is hitting the Bay Area arts community hard. San Jose’s City Lights Theater Co. had to cancel its world premiere of the play “Coded” before its first show. Now Executive Artistic Director Lisa Mallette said the theater’s situation is “dire.”
Proceeds from things such as ticket and concession sales typically make up about 40% of the theater’s revenue, with the rest coming from donations, Mallette said. To get through, they’ll have to rely entirely on donations. Mallette estimates the theater needs to raise $10,000 before April 1 just to make payroll and $150,000 to pay all their bills for the next two or three months.
“If this goes on for a really long time, I don’t know how long we’ll be able to last,” she said.
Opera singer Katharine Gunnink, from the small town of Talmage in Mendocino County, had temporarily relocated to San Jose and gone through two rehearsals of “The Magic Flute” with Opera San Jose before the show was canceled. So Gunnink, who was to play the “Second Lady,” packed up and moved back to Talmage to work at her family’s Harley-davidson shop in Ukiah, which is open for limited business.
Gunnink had spent months preparing for the role, and she and her wife — they have a 4-monthold daughter — had been counting on that income. To help people like her, Opera San Jose set up the Artists and Musicians Relief Fund and plans to send checks to more than 80 people who are now out of work. It won’t be as much as Gunnink would have made, but it’s something.
“We were worried because the contract really was how we had planned these couple of months,” she said. “But we have savings, so we’re going to be OK. There’s bigger things to worry about.”
Other workers, such as Oakland dance teacher Anna Danner, are scrambling to figure out how to make money online.
“Everything got canceled or I had to cancel it,” said Danner, 27, who is thinking of offering virtual classes. “It’s like a puzzle, to figure out how to do something online.”
For 30-year-old Cheynne Lishman, the coronavirus outbreak was a huge upset; it likely will force him to change careers. Lishman, a pilot for Compass Airlines, will be out of a job when the company folds April 7.
Because demand across the airline industry has plummeted, there are no job openings anywhere, he said. Instead, Lishman, who has been flying for six years and recently moved from Palo Alto to Las Vegas, is considering going into law enforcement, or maybe back to school.
“It’s kind of a shocking thing,” he said, “to have been flying for so long and all of sudden, you can’t fly anymore.”
Dalana Castrell of Santa Clara is still driving for Lyft and Uber, even though she’s 60 years old and worries she’s at a higher risk of complications from COVID-19. But ride requests have all but dried up because everyone is staying home. By midafternoon Friday, she had made $14.
Castrell doesn’t have next month’s $1,750 rent for the studio apartment sheshares with her teenage daughter. She reached out to nonprofit West Valley Community Services for help but hasn’t heard yet whether they can give her anything.
And rent isn’t her only expense.
“Today I have to find gas money,” Castrell said. “And I still have to pay my phone bill. And that is what I’m trying to hustle up right now.”