NEW YORK – A year ago, Elvia Banuelos’ life was looking up. The 39-year-old mother of two young children said she felt confident about a new management-level job with the U.S.
Census Bureau — she would earn money to supplement the child support she receives to keep her children healthy, happy and in day care.
But when the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic last March, forcing hundreds of millions of people into strict lockdown, Banuelos’ outlook changed.
The new job fell through, the child support payments stopped because of a job loss and she became a stay-at-home mom when day cares shuttered. “The only thing I could do was make my rent, so everything else was difficult,” said Banuelos, of Orland, California.