PHOENIX – The rent is due again for more than 30 million people around the U.S. who have filed for unemployment benefits after losing work in the coronavirus pandemic.
Jason W. Still has been waiting six weeks for his first unemployment check since losing his job as a cook at an upscale restaurant in Spokane, Washington.
Out-of-work bartender Luke Blaine in Phoenix got his first check three weeks ago, but now has to pay his landlord again. Eli Oderberg in Denver is among those swept up in a later wave of layoffs as the pandemic's effects spread from restaurants to corners of the economy like the oil company where he had worked on apps to track spills and leaks.