Families brace for financial impact of COVID-19 school, work shutdowns
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New York City children head to school in September 2019. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By David Brand
Luís Acapina walked briskly past Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Bushwick Sunday night, his son Brandon, a second-grader, pushing a scooter next to him as they entered Ridgewood.
A few hours earlier, Mayor Bill de Blasio had announced that New York City public schools would close until at least April 20 as the COVID-19 outbreak spread. The drastic decision, driven by mounting pressure from teachers, unions and public health experts, left tens of thousands of families like the Acapinas in a bind as they face tough decisions about work and childcare.
Acapina’s wife will skip her food delivery job — and lose her wages — in order to take care of Brandon while he is at work. “It’s not going to be easy these days,” he said.
A few blocks away, at a storefront church near the Maspeth border, Yaneli Guzman gathered with friends, family and other congregants for a late dinner inside a storefront church.
Guzman, a Cypress Hills resident, works as a housekeeper in Manhattan and will stay home with her five-year-old daughter who is in kindergarten. She has no choice anyway, she said. Her boss told her not to come in to work.
“I won’t be getting paid,” Guzman said in Spanish. “It’s terrible. I’m going to have to use all my savings. I have a little for an emergency.”
On Monday, de Blasio also urged New Yorkers to keep their children home from daycare centers — another blow to the economy, and to low-wage workers in particular. School closures and workplace shutdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak will have a devastating financial impact, say low-income residents and their advocates.
More than 50 percent of kids already live in or near poverty, according to an annual report released this month by the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, or CCC. One out of every 10 public school students experienced homelessness at some point last year. CCC revealed in October after analyzing state Department of Health data.
The COVID crisis could make things worse without extreme intervention by the city, state and federal governments, said CCC Executive Director Jennifer March.
“We’re fearful that it will have an immediate financial impact on households that are already struggling,” March said.
“Many poor or working poor households were already working in sectors with job volatility and limited wage growth, and we’re particularly concerned now because prior to the crisis, these households had limited income and were facing housing insecurity,” she added.
March urged the city and state to extend a temporary moratorium on evictions because many households will be unable to make rent as they stay home to watch their children or lose their jobs during the hospitality industry shutdown. A federal stimulus package should extend sick time and unemployment benefits, she said.
“In some instances people are losing not just their one job, they’re losing multiple jobs,” she said.
Schools will continue providing food for students in need of meals between 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. this week but that is not enough for families with young children who cannot stay home alone, or for parents facing major pay cuts and layoffs.
Nina Figueroa and her husband, both restaurant workers in Washington Heights, have been taking turns watching their two children, ages 4 and 13. The daycare where they send their youngest daughter is closed indefinitely, Figueroa said.
She works the daytime shift and her husband works in the evenings, but both have had their hours severed since the state shut down all restaurants Monday evening. Soon, they will both be out of work, she fears.
“It could happen tomorrow morning,” she said in Spanish. “I’m worried about the loss of money.”
“We have some savings, thank God,” she added. “But we don’t know how long we can last without work.”
