Elogia More finished her final shift at the Aetna building in Hartford at 1:30 a.m. on March 19. The next day, the cleaning company she spent the last four years working for sent a layoff notice.
More, a member of the union SEIU 32BJ, said her husband suffered a stroke when he was working during the pandemic, so for a while they were getting by on unemployment -- including the $600 weekly federal supplement.
But that assistance expired on July 31, and the Peruvian family isn’t sure how they will make ends meet.
“And there’s no work, and that’s the saddest thing, that there isn’t. There is disinfecting [opportunities], but two people disinfecting, can you imagine?” More said in Spanish.
More says her husband lucked out when he found a temporary job cleaning offices at Pratt & Whitney, but she’s still looking for work, even though she fears that two family members doing the same work is risky for their health and well-being.
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy have called for lawmakers to expand the federal program that has helped many front line workers pay their bills. Murphy said recently that some families could be on the brink of eviction if the benefit is reduced, especially in a state where the average rent for an apartment is $1,700.
“The average unemployment benefit, across the country, is about $370 a week, so let’s say you added $200 to that, instead of $600 to that. That would mean that over the course of the month, somebody that is unemployed in Connecticut because of this pandemic would be bringing in somewhere just north of $2,000 a month,” Murphy said during a news conference.
Latinos have been hit especially hard financially by the pandemic. According to a recent report by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the national unemployment rate for Latinos in April 2020 stood at 18.2%, the highest of any major group. In Connecticut, the overall rate of unemployment for all workers has averaged over 8% for three consecutive months.
Sebrina Wilson is a single mother who says the federal aid helped her get by when her grant-funded job as support staff in Hartford public schools ended.
“The extended benefits allow me to maintain a decent lifestyle ... as it is ending, with my rent, my food and just ability to have transportation, I am not going to be able to afford these things,” she said.
Elogia More says she is hopeful that she’ll find employment, but she worries about how long her family will be able to make ends meet without the federal aid. In the meantime, she helps her husband make sure he doesn’t get infected with COVID-19.
More says she’s applied for work in a factory, a laundry and fast-food restaurants, so for now all she can do is wait, hoping that someone calls her back.
