The $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits ran out in July. Congress and the president can’t agree on how to replace them.

For many Americans, it may already be too late to prevent lasting financial harm.

With @gillianreporter https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/business/economy/lost-unemployment-benefits.html?referringSource=articleShare

For Latrish Oseko, the benefits meant being able to pay rent, buy food and get an ABCmouse subscription for her 4-year-old daughter.
Now the money is gone, and she is living in a motel, applying for jobs on her phone while watching the debate play out in Washington.

“I’m glued to it because I want to know, is there going to be hope for me?” she said. “They’re fighting, and I have to watch them fight, but they have a place to sleep at night.”

Republicans worry that the extra money was keeping ppl from working. But for Jason Depretis, the opposite is true: When the $600 ran out, he had to choose between rent and his car note.
The repo man came last week. Now he can’t get to the job he was meant to start next month.

Some people *were* choosing not to work, of course. Many of them have health conditions that make working in a pandemic unsafe.
Enrique Guzman is high-risk. So is his girlfriend’s mother, who lives with them. But he went back to work at LAX this week because he had no choice.

“It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, but I’m the only income in my household now and I needed to go back to work so we can afford to pay our rent, afford to pay our bills,” he said. “I’m putting myself at risk so that we can afford to stay afloat.”

Congress may eventually restore the benefits, perhaps even with back-pay. That might be ok for wealthier recipients, who have been able to draw on savings.
But for low-income families, even a temporary loss of income can be the start of a downward spiral.

An eviction can make it hard to rent in the future. Having a car repossessed can make it hard to find another job. And for children, periods of hunger, homelessness and stress can have long-term effects on development and learning.

As @LizAnanat told me: “Children cannot smooth their eating over the year.”