Left-wing Liberalism so good...Pain, despair and poverty reach fever pitch for unemployed workers

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/19/how-unemployment-pushes-workers-to-edge-
amid-coronavirus-pandemic.html

Randy Chase has lived in his pickup truck for months.

Luckily, the tiny cab of his 1996 Nissan is easy to heat and that’s a life
saver in the sub-freezing winter chill outside of Denver.

So, armed with a gas-powered generator and a small electric heater, the
57-year-old makes do.

Chase has suffered misfortune after misfortune since the spring:
Unemployment benefits have been stuck in limbo. Work opportunities have
been sporadic. Now, the cold makes it hard to find jobs in his trade, as a
mason on construction crews. His savings depleted and his truck partially
wrecked by a hit-and-run driver, Chase can’t move somewhere where jobs are
more plentiful.

“Having to stand on a freeway off ramp with a sign that says you’re hungry
— it’s a new experience for me,” Chase said.

Pain and desperation
It has been nine months since the coronavirus pandemic began its assault
on American livelihoods. Since then, financial desperation has steadily
grown for jobless Americans across the country.

Almost 8 million people have fallen into poverty since the summer. Savings
for many, especially the lowest earners, are either dwindling or gone.
Millions of households owe thousands in back rent and utilities — and face
a renewed threat of eviction in the new year. A growing share of
unemployed individuals say their households don’t have enough to eat.

Congress seems close to finalizing a $900 billion Covid relief bill that,
as of writing, appears to include extra unemployment benefits, stimulus
checks and small-business and rental assistance.

“I hope people in Congress understand the pain and the desperation people
are having,” said Bill McCamley, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico
Department of Workforce Solutions, which administers the state’s jobless
benefits.

“I get e-mails every day, constantly talking about people facing eviction,
losing their cars, worried about feeding their kids,” he said.

Two weeks to eviction

Adonijah Niles, a single mom, lost her job in mid-March. She had been
making about $13 an hour doing part-time clerical work for a hospitality
shuttle service.

Now, Niles, 26, is six months behind on rent. She and her three young kids
may soon be forced out of their apartment in Watervliet, New York.

Her current income — about $380 a week in pre-tax jobless benefits and
$500 in monthly food stamps — isn’t enough to cover the family’s basic
living costs. It falls well short of the federal poverty line for a family
of four.

On Friday, Niles received an eviction notice. The letter, dated Dec. 16,
ordered her to pay arrears — $5,400 — in full within 14 days or vacate the
apartment. Otherwise, the landlord, TCIM Properties LLC, will initiate
legal action to evict and recover damages, according to the document.

Niles received a similar notice in August, records show. She was protected
by a temporary eviction moratorium, but that expires after December.

This is the first time I’ve needed to use unemployment in my entire work
history, and the one time I did it just ruined my life. It should be
criminal what they are doing to me.
Mike Carpenter
UNEMPLOYED WORKER IN PHILADELPHIA
Living paycheck to paycheck for years has meant Niles didn’t have a cash
buffer for such emergencies. It’s hard for her to find a new job without
money for childcare — a plight that puts single mothers among the most
devastated by the economic downturn.

“Of course landlords need the income,” she said. “But if we don’t have it
to give, it’s putting us in a hard predicament.”

Bill Hamel, the property manager, didn’t return a request for comment.

$6,000 owed
By January, more than 11 million households will owe more than $6,000 in
back rent, utilities and late fees, on average — about four months’ worth,
according to an estimate from Moody’s Analytics. That’s a collective
deficit of $70 billion.

“I think the levels of hardship we see right now, in terms of food
insecurity and other measures, are at historic highs,” said Chloe East, an
economist at the University of Colorado whose work specializes in the
social safety net.

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That safety net doesn’t always provide adequate income support for people
who lose work.

Unemployment, welfare, food stamps and other social programs replace just
19% of one’s prior wages in the months after job loss, on average,
according to a paper published this month by East and David Simon, an
economist at the University of Connecticut.

[Poverty] is hitting families in every single state in the country, every
single county, every single town. There’s been no area left untouched.
Megan Curran
RESEARCHER AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY’S CENTER ON POVERTY AND SOCIAL POLICY
And unemployment programs, the most important safety net for jobless
individuals, are the least protective for the neediest people, East said.

That’s because low earners are disproportionately hurt by wage and work-
history requirements imposed by states as a minimum bar to be eligible for
aid, she said.



And low wage earners — as well as people of color and those without
college degrees — are the very people who have borne the brunt of the
country’s job loss since March.

Employment among those paid less than $27,000 a year was still down 20%
from pre-pandemic levels in mid-November, according to estimates from
Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights project. By contrast, jobs among
those making at least $60,000 a year are up 1% from January.

Poverty everywhere
Now, the few jobless benefits some have are at risk of being turned off,
if Congress doesn’t extend temporary unemployment programs set to expire
in a week’s time.

Failure to do so will push 5 million people into poverty in January,
according to a paper published Tuesday by Columbia University’s Center on
Poverty and Social Policy.

Nearly 16% of Americans — about 52 million people — were already among the
ranks of the poor in November, according to Megan Curran, one of the
report authors.

?[Poverty] is hitting families in every single state in the country, every
single county, every single town,” Curran said. “There’s been no area left
untouched.”

Many jobless Americans have exhausted savings and other financial
resources, severely stressing their ability to weather a financial shock,
she added.

‘It should be criminal’
Many workers are suffering severe hardship as a result of administrative
snafus at unemployment agencies.

Mike Carpenter, 35, has struggled to collect benefits in Pennsylvania
since losing his job in the spring.

Without income, Carpenter, who lives in Philadelphia, drained savings and
could barely pay bills for a half year, he said. He took on debt to
finance basic needs. This week, his car was repossessed. He lost his
apartment and has been staying with a friend.

“It wrecked my credit,” said Carpenter, who had been a superintendent for
a luxury apartment builder. “I lost pretty much everything.”



Pennsylvania started paying Carpenter $500 a week last month but has
withheld all back pay, he said. Now, the state unemployment website
indicates he’s only eligible for a few more weeks of benefits.

The state was unable to provide specifics about Carpenter’s claim due to
privacy laws, according to Sarah DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

WATCH NOW
VIDEO02:01
How increasing jobless claims compare to rising Covid cases
She directed Carpenter to a customer service e-mail inbox to communicate
questions and complaints. Carpenter says he’s sent countless e-mails to
the agency, generally receiving no answer or a response that’s been of
limited help.

“This is the first time I’ve needed to use unemployment in my entire work
history, and the one time I did it just ruined my life,” Carpenter said.
“It should be criminal what they are doing to me.”

DeSantis didn’t respond to additional request for comment.

$11,000 and a shift in fortune
Randy Chase, the unemployed worker outside Denver, has also had a lengthy
fight for benefits.

He initially applied to the California Employment Development Department
for aid in April, having worked in the Golden State before heading to
Colorado.

California denied Chase’s request in October — almost six months later —
claiming he needed to provide additional identity verification, records
show. Chase claims he submitted the requested documents long ago and
appealed the decision.

“I’m in a desperate situation,” Chase said on Wednesday. “Right now, I’m
just trying to survive this little bureaucratic morass.”

Through it all, Chase has tried remaining in good spirits. He celebrates
the small victories — in November, he found a parking lot with an electric
outlet, saving $5 in daily gas to run his generator. He then received help
from the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative, a volunteer-led nonprofit that
makes safe, legal parking spots available to homeless individuals
sheltering in their cars.

After months of continual setback, it seems Chase’s luck has changed for
the better. He received a call from the California labor agency on
Thursday, following a CNBC inquiry, apologizing for the error and
informing him of the imminent release of owed funds.

He received a deposit of $11,000 on Friday and expects another $3,000
soon, followed by regular weekly installments.

A spokesperson for the California unemployment agency didn’t return a
request for comment.

“I don’t think I’m going to be struggling long,” Chase said.



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Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
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