12 million Americans are either unemployed or without income
Single Mothers in America: Poverty, Depression, and Inadequate Housing
When the pandemic caused restaurants to shut down in California, waitress Alida Ramirez lost her livelihood, and, like other single mothers, she plunged into poverty as unpaid rents piled up and reliance on food banks grew.
Alida was forced to give up her second job as a delivery man for Instacart to take care of her 11-year-old daughter and the 21-year-old son of one of her autistic siblings, when her husband was arrested in July for acts of domestic violence.
Ramirez has not paid rent since October for her modest Concorde residence in suburban San Francisco.
"I have to choose between insuring food or rent," she says.
To meet the needs of the family, she resorted to food vouchers from her daughter's school and another provided by a local church that could be used in a neighborhood store.
She relies on her relative's salary, who works part-time in a "McDonald's" restaurant, to pay for the indispensable Internet subscription for her daughter to pursue her education from a distance and car insurance premiums.
Alida Ramirez herself often forbids eating to save money.
She reveals that she felt "guilty" about this situation, saying "I thought I was a bad and irresponsible mother."
However, she soon realized that she was not alone in this predicament, as she reached out to her neighbors to negotiate with the leaseholders.
"We all face the same situation, and many of us are single mothers," she asserts.
The impact of the epidemic has intensified, especially for women who work in the service sector most affected by the economic crisis.
More than 12 million Americans, either unemployed or without income, fear the loss of the aid they hold on to the eve of Christmas following the suspension of the plan passed by Congress in the spring.
Depression
In Washington, Maria Lara fears that she will soon be evicted from her miserable apartment, who can no longer pay her rent, as the temporary exemption from paying rents ends after Christmas.
The young Salvadoran mother, a mother of a little girl, used to work as a cleaning lady in a hotel before the epidemic.
And she performs simple tasks in construction workshops, but she no longer works "except for two or three days, and sometimes four every two weeks."
"We live with mice because the owner promises us to sterilize the building, but he does not do so," said Maria Lara, who spreads mice in her building.
«Corona neighborhood»
In the northern part of New York, Marisol Gonzalez lost her job in the spring when the epidemic hit "the Corona neighborhood", where she lived in Queens, then lost her apartment, which cost 2200 dollars a month, in October.
This Salvadoran massage therapist now shares a room with one of her daughters.
Simple jobs allow her to pay the room rent ($ 850), electricity bills and the price of the metro card, and she goes to the food bank once a month.
The burden of the epidemic increased on her shoulders last month, after her 20-year-old daughter was hospitalized as a result of depression as a result of isolation measures.
"I pray that her condition will improve and she will come back to us," the 45-year-old mother says.
The epidemic has caused restaurants to close, piling up unpaid rents, and increasing reliance on food banks.
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