April 1, rent's due: Many struggle to pay in virus outbreak
Jeffrey Collins | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO
Jade Brooks at her apartment, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Boston. It's the first of the month and everybody knows the rent's due. Wednesday is the first time the landlord is knocking on the door since the coronavirus turned the economy upside down. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Jade Brooks at her apartment, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Boston. It's the first of the month and everybody knows the rent's due. Wednesday is the first time the landlord is knocking on the door since the coronavirus turned the economy upside down. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Jade Brooks at her apartment, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Boston. It's the first of the month and everybody knows the rent's due. Wednesday is the first time the landlord is knocking on the door since the coronavirus turned the economy upside down. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
This photo provided by Itza Sanchez shows herself at her home in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Like many people across the U.S., Sanchez says she won’t be able to make April’s rent because she’s out of work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of Itza Sanchez via AP)
In this March 28, 2020 photo, Andrea Larson poses for a selfie during isolation in her East Nashville, Tenn., home. Larson makes a comfortable living with her job as a sommelier at a popular Nashville restaurant, but she also has student loan debt, a car payment and credit card debt. That doesn't leave her with a lot left over at the end of the month, she said. Now she is out of work and staying at home to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus. (Andrea Larson via AP)
This undated photo shows Roushaunda Williams in Chicago. After getting laid off from her job bartending at a downtown hotel, Williams was able to scrimp and use credit-card cash advances to make April's rent for her two-bedroom Uptown Chicago apartment, but she's worried about how she will pay in May. (Roushaunda Williams via AP)
In this March 30, 2020 photo, Tnia Morgan, 39, stands outside the Baltimore County, Maryland, home that she rents and shares with her pregnant 18-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old nephew. Morgan was laid off on March 6 from her job serving food at a hotel banquet hall, and she hasn't received a paycheck in more than three weeks. The rent is due Wednesday, but Morgan is grateful that her landlord is willing to give her more time to pay. (Tnia Morgan via AP)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo Luke Blaine stands at the front entrance of his home in Phoenix. Blaine, 30, a bartender at Fez, a popular restaurant in downtown Phoenix, was laid off with the rest of the staff when the business shut completely to follow Arizona’s state precautions amid the pandemic. Blaine said he was blessed to have been taught the value of a dollar by his parents and was entering unemployment without any debt. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo Luke Blaine, right, and partner Kyle Schomer, left, tend to their garden at their home in Phoenix. Blaine, 30, a bartender at Fez, a popular restaurant in downtown Phoenix, was laid off with the rest of the staff when the business shut completely to follow Arizona’s state precautions amid the pandemic. Schomer, who’s also 30, works from home in technology, and shares the rent in a stylish neighborhood of small adobe-style homes. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo Luke Blaine, left, and partner Kyle Schomer, right, tend to their garden at their home in Phoenix. Blaine, 30, a bartender at Fez, a popular restaurant in downtown Phoenix, was laid off with the rest of the staff when the business shut completely to follow Arizona’s state precautions amid the pandemic. Schomer, who’s also 30, works from home in technology, and shares the rent in a stylish neighborhood of small adobe-style homes. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo Luke Blaine, left, with partner Kyle Schomer, right, sit on the porch at their home in Phoenix. Blaine, 30, a bartender at Fez, a popular restaurant in downtown Phoenix, was laid off with the rest of the staff when the business shut completely to follow Arizona’s state precautions amid the pandemic. Schomer, who’s also 30, works from home in technology, and shares the rent in a stylish neighborhood of small adobe-style homes. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
This 2020 selfie shows Ruqayyah Bailey of St. Louis County, Mo. With rent due on the first of the month for millions of Americans, many are struggling to come up with the money on time because of jobs lost or other complications of the coronavirus outbreak. (Ruqayyah Bailey via AP)
In this March 29, 2020 photo, Spokane cook Jason W. Still, 30, in seen in this portrait in Spokane, Wash. Still and most other kitchen workers at the fine dining restaurant Clover were laid off from their jobs after the state's restaurants were closed for seated service under social distancing guidelines put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus Still is waiting to learn how much in unemployment payments he will qualify for while working on applications for graduate school. His wife has kept her job in the legal marijuana industry and he has some savings, but Still says after this mo…
A photo, date not known, provided by Natiah Jones shows Sakai Harrison, 27. Harrison, a personal trainer and apparel designed in New York City, lost his primary source of income after gyms were ordered closed in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Natiah Jones via AP)
In this March 30, 2020 photo, Tinisha Dixon, 26, takes a selfie at her apartment in Atlanta. She is scrambling to come up with the $1115 in monthly rent for the apartment she shares near downtown Atlanta with her partner and their five kids. She said she was set to get a job at the State Road and Tollway Authority, but that was put on hold. She worries the family will be evicted and become homeless again. (Tinisha Dixon via AP)
In this March 30, 2020 self-made photo, Jas Wheeler, 30, sits for a photo in Burlington, Vt. With rent due on the first of the month for millions of Americans, many are struggling to come up with the money on time because of jobs lost or other complications of the coronavirus outbreak. (Jas Wheeler via AP)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo, Neal Miller poses for a portrait near where he is living during the COVID-19 outbreak in Chicago. Miller said his last stable job was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago, sharing a house with four others to save money on rent. Now, all but one of the housemates are now out of work and decided this month to tell their own landlord that they couldn't pay on April 1. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this Monday, March 30, 2020, photo, Neal Miller poses for a portrait near where he is living during the COVID-19 outbreak in Chicago. Miller said his last stable job was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago, sharing a house with four others to save money on rent. Now, all but one of the housemates are now out of work and decided this month to tell their own landlord that they couldn't pay on April 1. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
It's the first of the month, and everybody knows the rent's due. For millions of Americans, Wednesday is the first time the landlord is knocking on the door since the coronavirus outbreak turned the economy upside down.
Many of those renters are without jobs - nearly 3.3 million people in the U.S. filed for unemployment the week of March 16, about five times the previous high in 1982. Most state and local governments are putting evictions on pause as states prepare to pay unemployment and the federal government prepares to send stimulus checks. So for most, April's knock won't come with a notice to get out.
But a roof over the head is one of the most basic needs in life. Without money for rent, how can the other bills get paid? And while many will get a reprieve in April, eventually the rent comes due, whether or not the restaurant, plant or construction site reopens when the COVID-19 threat lessens.
Here are some of the stories of Americans trying to make the rent, this month and beyond.
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At 21 years old, Jade Brooks pulls in her family's only full-time salary, working at a hospital switchboard.
Brooks' mother just lost her job at a health insurance company - a casualty of the plummeting economy. She's found part-time work at the hospital, but between them, they make only $400 weekly after taxes and insurance, Brooks said. Their rent is $1,810.
During sleepless nights, Brooks worries most about her 8-year-old cousin, who lives with them.
“I don’t want her to grow up in a homeless shelter, having to sleep in a bunk bed with other people, asking why we have to stand in a long line to get a room to sleep in, why we have to stand in a long line to get food, why she can’t invite her friends over,” Brooks said. “It’s hard to explain that to an 8-year-old.”
- Michael Casey, Boston
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Itza Sanchez knows she can't make her $400 rent for April. She's praying to Virgin of Guadalupe that she doesn't get kicked out of her Richmond, Virginia, mobile-home park.
Sanchez made her money searching for and recycling scrap metal and selling tamales in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Fear of getting sick has stopped both income streams.
A single mother of two who immigrated from Honduras to the U.S. 14 years ago, Sanchez's 7-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have been eating lunches delivered to the neighborhood by schools and depending on churches for other meals.
“I'm basically penniless,” Sanchez, 39, said in Spanish.
She hasn't heard from the landlord about what will happen if the rent isn't paid. So she keeps praying.
“May she help us. May the virgin put her love over us and help us."
- Regina Garcia Cano, Washington
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Andrea Larson made $70,000 a year curating wine lists and suggesting pairings to customers at 5th & Taylor. But the popular Nashville restaurant closed its dining area, and working as a sommelier isn't something Larson can do from home.
The first unemployment check was $275 for a week. Larson said she was humiliated but applied for food stamps.
“I'm screwed financially,” Larson said. “If I do pay my rent, it's going to eat into my food money.”
Larson, 42, moved from a high-rise downtown apartment to a house in east Nashville four months ago. Rent was cheaper. She planned to pay off debt and start saving. Instead, she called credit-card companies and said she couldn't pay the minimum.
Larson's restaurant offered a few shifts answering phones for takeout, but she figures it's not worth the risk of getting COVID-19.
“I do wine, and nobody wants to hear about wine right now," she said. "They just want to chug it.”
- Travis Loller, Nashville
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Roushaunda Williams was able to scrimp and use credit-card cash advances to pay the $1,850 rent for April for her two-bedroom Uptown Chicago apartment.
But the rent comes due again in 30 days. Can she afford a smaller apartment in her building if one's available? Should she move in with friends if they'll let her?
“April 1 isn't even here yet, and I'm already working on what I'm going to do for May 1,” Williams, 52, said.
Before being laid off, she made drinks and chatted with people from around the world for 20 years as a bartender at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in the heart of Chicago's downtown Loop.
Income depended on tips — in the best times, she'd make $70,000 to $100,000 annually. Now, she's on unemployment for the first time and searching for work.
- Kathleen Foody, Chicago
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Tnia Morgan shares her Baltimore County, Maryland, townhouse with her 18-year-old pregnant daughter and 18-year-old nephew. And they all spend a lot more time together since Morgan was laid off March 6 from her job serving food at a hotel banquet hall.
Morgan's landlord told her to take her time with the rent. But it isn't the only bill piling up. She ticks them off — car payment, car insurance, cellphone, internet, water, gas and electricity. And she always has to buy food, so tough choices are ahead, especially until unemployment benefits kick in.
Morgan, 39, has checked on getting food stamps and looked for work at stores and warehouses with no luck.
She appreciates her landlord's kindness this month. But she knows he needs her rent money to pay his bills.
“If I don’t pay the rent, it falls on him,” Morgan said. “We can’t be evicted right now, but eventually they’re going to want their money.”
- Michael Kunzelman, Silver Spring, Maryland
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Bartender Luke Blaine was laid off when downtown Phoenix restaurant Fez closed, but he's not too worried about rent — yet.
He shares his small adobe-style home and backyard garden of tomatoes, beets, squash, radish, lettuce and eggplants with his boyfriend, Kyle Schomer. Schomer still has his job in technology and works from home.
Blaine, 30, figures unemployment will kick in. His car is paid for, and he owes little beyond a small credit-card balance.
Blaine credits his thrifty nature to his family. And that's whom he worries about most these days. His mother and sister are nurses in Illinois, not far from hard-hit Chicago.
“It definitely is nerve-racking having your family on the front line,” Blaine said.
- Anita Snow, Phoenix
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Ruqayyah Bailey's life had balance — so important with her autism — before coronavirus.
She was going to college and was a part-time cafe cashier. She couldn't wait for the Special Olympics in March, to run and compete in long jump and shot put.
But the virus closed the cafe, canceled the meet and ended the community college's personal instruction.
Bailey, 30, of St. Louis County, was dipping into savings for food and other necessities, so she's moved back in with her mother. She hopes it's temporary and she can get back to her apartment, with its $400 monthly rent.
“I had to suspend my internet and my cable,” Bailey said of her apartment. “It’s tough because I’m so used to being there in my own little space.”
- Jim Salter, St. Louis
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Jason W. Still was let go from his job as a cook, and he's found one small benefit: He hasn't spent as much money since he's inside most days.
Still and his wife — who works in packaging for a marijuana dispenser in Spokane, Washington — should be able to make April's rent as they wait to see what he'll get in unemployment and from the federal government.
Still, 30, worked at a high-end restaurant and just finished the last classes for his bachelor's degree. Now he's applying for graduate school to study environmental economics and public policy.
In unemployment, he has a lot of time on his hands: “I’ve seen corners of my house that I didn’t know existed.”
- Anita Snow, Phoenix
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It's a lousy choice, but an easy one for personal trainer and apparel designer Sakai Harrison — food in the refrigerator over April rent for his Brooklyn apartment.
Harrison, 27, moved from Atlanta to see whether he could succeed in the toughest place in the world. And he was on his way, with 20 clients training one-on-one.
Then, his gym shut down with the rest of the city. And the $1,595 rent is due.
“The way I see it, the whole world is on pause,” Harrison said. “I'd rather allocate my money towards my actual survival, which would be food.”
An acquaintance is letting Harrison use a basement as a makeshift gym. It has dumbbells, a bench and a punching bag left by a previous tenant. Harrison wears disposable gloves and keeps his distance. A few clients keep coming, but not as many as before.
“My clients are like my family, for the most part, especially in New York, because I'm here alone,” he said.
- Aaron Morrison, New York
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Tinisha Dixon was homeless before she moved into her current apartment and is now struggling to make the rent.
She said she was about to start a new job at the State Road and Tollway Authority. But the job was put on hold, thanks to the virus.
The rent bill of $1,115 is due whether she's working or not. It covers the apartment near downtown Atlanta she shares with her partner and their five kids. Dixon, 26, said she's trying to braid hair, and her partner has sought work as a security guard.
Dixon's landlord had gone to court to evict the family before the coronavirus. Now she worries not making April's payment will strengthen that case.
“Are we going to be out on the street when this is over?" she said. "Because this is what we’ve been fighting for this whole time, not being back out on the street.”
- Sudhin Thanawala, Atlanta
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With help from friends and a nonprofit, Jas Wheeler can pay April's rent. But Wheeler and their partner just bought a house down the road in Vergennes, Vermont, and the first mortgage payment is due in May.
“I am just really just trying to pray,” said Wheeler, who hopes to see unemployment checks soon but worries the system is overwhelmed with so many people out of work.
Wheeler was laid off from a bakery. The 30-year-old thought about a grocery-store job, but they don't want to risk exposure to the coronavirus. So for now, they'll wait to see whether the bakery reopens.
“I would rather just get an unemployment check and ride it out ... I’m really thinking at the end of all this whenever that is, I’ll be happy to get any job that I can get."
- Michael Casey, Boston
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Neal Miller is refusing to pay April's rent, to make a point.
Miller's last stable job was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago. He recently was working temporary jobs, until that dried up, thanks to the virus.
Miller, 38, shares a house on the west side of Chicago with four others and pays $400 of the $1,500 monthly rent.
Miller and his roommates decided to join leaders of Chicago activist groups calling for a rent strike amid the virus outbreak.
“We wrote a letter, sort of stated our situation,” Miller said. “We're still waiting to hear back. We're not sure if that's a good sign or if that lack of response means we'll be hearing from a lawyer.”
- Kathleen Foody, Chicago
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.