Roman Orange had to stop saving up for his own apartment. Cathy Stewart had to pull money out of her retirement savings. Jessica Nolder and her 4-year-old daughter were surviving on spaghetti.
More than 1,400 Pennsylvanians called a single nonprofit organization with questions about financial assistance in the past month. Even with lawmakers rushing to push through economic stimulus packages offering options for people to apply for relief during the COVID-19 pandemic — and more being considered — many have yet to see those benefits.
When the benefits finally do arrive, for some low-income workers the short-term financial support could add up to more than they were making while employed full time. But that won’t be true for everyone and, in the meantime, many are stuck in limbo — figuring out what they qualify for, how to apply and when they can expect to see any relief. And missing rent payments, deferring car payments and taking trips to the food bank.
People are saying, “What are you complaining about? You can get this and this and this,” Ms. Stewart, 55, of Jefferson Hills, said. “No. You can’t get this and this and this. They are so slow on this.”
“There are some of us treading water hoping to God some kind of wave doesn’t come by and push us back down to the bottom again,” she said.
Ms. Stewart has been without any income for six weeks. Before the pandemic, she worked four jobs: a ride-hail driver, a music teacher, an extra for TV shows and movies, and an employee at a company that catered for entertainment events.
She wasn’t able to apply for unemployment compensation until about a week ago. A member of the gig economy, she had to wait for the state to set up a new system for people who were not previously eligible.
That system has now received more than 78,000 applications since launching on April 18, according to data on the state’s unemployment website. Pennsylvania expects people to receive benefits from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program within the next several weeks.
After being laid off from his job at Disaster Restoration Services in mid-March, Mr. Orange applied for traditional unemployment compensation but did not have enough work history to qualify.
Mr. Orange, 24, of Trafford, had worked for DRS since October of last year. Before that, he worked for a local restaurant for five months.
He had about 14 weeks of work credits, which is another way to determine if an individual is eligible for unemployment compensation. The state said he needed 18.
“I want to get a small apartment and start living my life as an adult,” Mr. Orange said in an email. “This loss of income has set me back.”
It also means he can no longer help his mother pay for the phone bill, the cable bill and food for the house they share.
Falling further behind
Mr. Orange made $12 an hour at DRS, or about $480 for a 40-hour work week. Ms. Stewart made about $400 a week.
In Pennsylvania, unemployment compensation usually averages about half of an individual’s salary and cannot exceed $572 a week.
Under a new federal program — part of the economic relief package to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic — anyone eligible for unemployment compensation will also get an extra $600 every week they are unemployed through July.
If both are determined to be eligible for the extra federal funds, Mr. Orange and Ms. Stewart will make more money each week collecting unemployment benefits than while working full time.
That stipulation has triggered some controversy, but advocates say it is a way for people to catch up on mortgages or rent payments and unpaid bills.
“For the first time, people are going to get substantially close to, some even more than, what they were making when they were working,” said Barney Oursler, founder of the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, which has been helping people navigate the unemployment system since the ‘80s.
“The $600 supplement to state unemployment ... is just so central to people’s ability to feel like they won’t be falling further and further behind each week.”
Ms. Nolder, who has been a server at Denny’s in Pleasant Hills for 13 years, usually makes about $600 a week, counting tips. She earns $2.83 an hour.
She was working the night Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all restaurants to stop dine-in service. Since then, she has only worked one shift to cover to-go orders, a quiet shift that didn’t see many orders or tips.
When she filed for unemployment compensation — the first time since she had started working at Denny’s when she was 17 years old — she was denied because the state said she didn’t have enough work experience.
“It was heartbreaking,” Ms. Nolder said. “I can’t go to work because of a pandemic. I can’t get the unemployment I was entitled to and that is even more heart wrenching.”
That’s when Ms. Nolder and her 4-year-old daughter survived on spaghetti and meals cooked at friends’ homes.
The hardest part was “the anxiety of not knowing where I’m going to get my next dollar from — no income, no light at the end of the tunnel, we don’t know whenever the restaurants are going to open back up,” Ms. Nolder said. “My daughter, I’m her sole provider. How am I going to make ends meet?”
Without notice, the state reversed course and began putting money in her account — but didn’t provide her with the bank card she had opted for rather than direct deposit for another few weeks.
The supplemental $600 hasn’t come yet, so with unemployment compensation, she is getting $178 a week.
‘I never had to ask for help before’
Right now, there are policies in place to prevent financial hardship in the short term, like a stop to all evictions or foreclosures for at least the rest of the month and forgiveness on utility payments. But those bills aren’t going away.
“What we don’t want to see happen is that people don’t pay and then all of a sudden in June or July you get a $3,000 bill. And then you’re really in a pickle because you never could have paid that kind of money to begin with,” said Julie DeSeyn, vice president of community impact for the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization.
Based on data collected from United Way Pennsylvania, people in Pennsylvania started asking about rent assistance, unemployment compensation and access to food at a higher rate than usual in mid-March, around the same time the governor closed public schools and nonessential businesses.
Between April 21 and March 13, the day that schools closed, 9,662 people in the state called United Way’s 211 hotline for help with housing and shelter. In that same time period, 5,564 people called about food.
By comparison, in those weeks last year, 6,941 people called about housing, 1,238 about food.
“There are just a whole lot more people calling 211 and saying I never had to ask for help before but …,” said Kristen Rotz, president of United Way Pennsylvania.
“We are serving a lot of people who we define as financially struggling. They were struggling before COVID-19 — they were working every day, earning money but not enough for all their household’s basic needs and not enough to save for a rainy day,” Ms. Rotz said.
A lot of people are struggling with figuring out “the next step,” said Sarah Welch, director of the Jewish Family and Community Services’ Career Development Center.
That organization has been fielding questions like these: What is the difference between being furloughed, laid off and terminated? How do they know if their job is coming back? How can they accept a new job if they don’t have any options for child care while schools and other facilities remain closed?
To address some of these concerns, JFCS revamped its weekly newsletter to include available resources. The most recent edition had an open rate of 200%, meaning most people opened it more than once, Ms. Welch said. The most clicked-on portion was about finding mental health resources to cope with the unknown, she said.
‘We would be homeless right now’
Tricia Hopkins, a hairdresser who worked at nursing homes and personal care facilities in Beaver County and has been out of work since those facilities stopped allowing visitors, already called her bank to make sure she can pay interest-only on car loans and mortgage bills and the minimum payments for credit card.
She has had good credit for most of her nearly 30-year career but is worried about the impact of the pandemic on her ability to sign off on loans for her son’s apartment and tuition at Slippery Rock University this fall.
Ms. Hopkins usually made about $700 a week, before accounting for the money she spent on products, and could cut hair for as many as 18 people in one day. When she first realized she wouldn’t be able to work, she began applying for jobs at essential businesses, like grocery stores, but hasn’t heard back from any yet.
She tried to apply for benefits through the new system available to those who are self-employed but said it keeps advising that she apply for traditional unemployment compensation — something she knows she is not eligible for.
“I’ll be a lot less stressed when I can get this application filled out,” she said. “I think I’ve gotten over the worriedness. I think I’ve gotten over it, for now. I’m trying to look for the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Kristen Chandler, a licensed social worker and guidance counselor from Erie, has been helping people navigate the unemployment system — and trying to figure it out herself — for years.
“They couldn't handle the claims before. How in earth can they handle them now?” she said. “It's going to get ugly.”
To supplement her sometimes-inconsistent income as a social worker, she also works as a bartender, blackjack dealer and lifeguard, among other side gigs. Because of her part-time seasonal work, she has had trouble filing for unemployment compensation and spent hours on the phone seeking help.
During the summer months, Ms. Chandler works on the Victorian Princess, a riverboat cruise ship in Erie. The summer tourism and events carry her family, and many others, through the slower winter months, she said. That work may not come this year.
“I have a master’s degree and I have to work for $10-$12 an hour. And I’m OK with that, but that doesn’t cover the bills and feed your children,” Ms. Chandler said. “If I hadn’t been a person that saves money and has a small savings account, we would be homeless right now.”
First Published: April 27, 2020, 9:34 a.m.