guardian | In Kansas City’s poorest neighbourhoods, they wait and they watch.
The city’s most vulnerable residents wait for coronavirus to reveal
itself as they watch its daily progression from the edges of the country
to the heartland. But they face another wait too. For the money to run
out, uncertain which of these two potential calamities will arrive first
but dreading the day the two collide.
Chris Brown lost his job as a waiter as soon as Kansas City’s mayor
ordered the closure of restaurants and bars. “I was lucky that I had a
little money in my pocket when this happened. Not a lot. Maybe $100. But
that’s more than a lot of people, especially in my industry. I know a
lot of my comrades out there only had $20 in their pocket when the
restaurant closed. I don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
Until the end of last week, Brown and his wife, Alex Smith, still had
a lifeline. Smith worked as a bartender at a hotel which remained open
in a neighbouring county. But that closed on Friday and now the couple,
both in their mid-40s, are down to the cash in their pockets with no
savings and no health insurance.
“We took the little money we have and came down to get groceries so
we at least had some food for the next few weeks,” said Brown outside
the Save A Lot discount food store on Kansas City’s east side, one of
the poorest parts of the city.
Coronavirus has been relatively slow to reach the sprawling plains of
Missouri and Kansas, although deaths have been creeping up. But its
impact is already felt among the hardest-up residents of Kansas City,
which straddles the Missouri
River dividing the two states. Both are reporting a spike in
unemployment claims and they’re likely to go on rising with the Kansas
City metro area under a stay-at-home order from Tuesday and more
businesses closing.
Even when they were working, Brown and Smith earned only $2.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage for servers, plus tips.
0 comments:
Post a Comment