As the Oregon Employment Department (OED) continues to be overwhelmed with unemployment benefit claims, and the federal government quibbles over renewing coronavirus relief funds, Portlanders who lost work back in March are still struggling to get byāand full of questions about their futures.
In early May, the Mercury interviewed five Portlanders who had been laid off or were under-employed because of COVID-19ās economic impacts. They told us about delayed unemployment checks, impossibly long call wait times at the Oregon Unemployment Office, mounting unpaid bills, and uncertainty as to when theyād be able to work again.
We recently caught up with three of these Portlanders (the other two did not respond to follow-up requests). While each of their circumstances have changed for the better since early May, theyāre still dealing with unpredictable state and federal unemployment benefits, and difficult choices to make around working and spending.
And they still arenāt sure what the coming weeks and months will bring.
āWeāre just waiting for more things to open up.ā
Dylan Singleton lost his beer sales job at Point Blank Distribution in March, and spent the following three months calling the OED thousands of times a day, attempting to get his missing unemployment checks sortedāto little avail.
Singleton later learned he had entered one digit of his Social Security number incorrectly on his original application. Because the OED is facing an unprecedented number of applications, and is processing them on outdated software, that sole error was enough to delay Singletonās benefits indefinitely. Singleton corrected his mistake, but still hasnāt received a check.
āI havenāt heard anything else from [OED],ā Singleton told the Mercury in late July. āI havenāt received a letter in the mail, no email or anything.ā
But Singleton has found another source of financial relief: In June, Point Blank rehired him as a truck driver. The new position earns less money than his previous role as a salesperson, but heās made enough to pay off his most pressing bills and start paying his roommate back for rent she covered while Singleton was unemployed. His employer told him heās first in line to be promoted to a salesperson when a job opens upābut they need to wait for demand from restaurants and bars to increase.
āWeāre just waiting for more things to open up,ā he said. āWith all these big scares, restaurants and bars are worried about continuing with businessā¦ Especially the smaller restaurants and bars Iāve been in contact with, they are very hesitant with ordering beer, because they donāt know if theyāll have to close down and throw things away again.ā
Singleton still hopes to receive his three monthsā worth of unemployment benefit back pay from before he got rehired by Point Blank. He blames the delay on the āarchaic computer systemā that OED failed to update when it had the chance.
āI work Tuesday to Friday,ā he said, āso Iāve been spending my Mondays calling them and trying to figure out whatās going on.ā
āIām running into walls left and right.ā
Riley Hession lost her job at a Portland restaurant in March, as soon as it became clear restaurants would need to close to in-person dining. But after waiting over 10 weeks, her initial unemployment claim was deniedābecause she had voluntarily left a second restaurant job right before the pandemic began. Hession said she quit that second job because sheād started making more money at the first one, and never wouldāve quit it if she knew the dire situation sheād soon find herself in.
āI didnāt have a clear answer for a long time,ā Hession said in a recent interview with the Mercury. āThey had to do it by the book, which I think is so wrong given the current emergency. I was devastated.ā
But after another weeks-long process that included conflicting information from different OED claims processors, Hession managed to qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a federally funded program that provides relief for people who donāt qualify for traditional unemployment, but still lost wages due to the coronavirus.
Hession almost didnāt qualify, however, because she initially gave the wrong answer to this confusingly worded application question: āAre you unable to reach your place of employment because of the quarantine imposed as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency?ā
Hession initially answered āno,ā reasoning that she no longer had a place of employment. After being denied once and calling the office countless times, a PUA claims specialist from OED finally told her she should mark āyes,ā because her previous employer had to close its doors.
āI canāt imagine how other people are interpreting this question, because itās so bizarre,ā Hession said. āThis was two months in and no communication. Iām having to extract all this information myself, and Iām running into walls left and right.ā
Hession changed her answer, and finally started receiving benefits in late June. On one day alone she received thousands of dollars in back pay at once via direct deposit. Sheās used those funds to catch up on bills, and lives on the benefits she continues to receiveāthe state minimum of $205 a week from PUA, plus $600 per week from the federal CARES Act. But the CARES Act boost expired at the end of July, and Democrats in Congress are facing pushback from Republicans who are reluctant to extend it.
Hession is immunocompromised, meaning sheās at greater risk of experiencing complications from COVID-19. Hession said that if the CARES Act isnāt renewed, her plan is to āstart hitting the bricks harder again for a jobābut I donāt really know how thatās going to work.ā The restaurant industry is struggling due to closures and a recession, and Hession worries sheād get a job waiting tables only to soon lose it and ābe back at square one, not receiving benefits.ā
āI donāt know what the heckās going to happen in the next couple months,ā she said. āSo the plan is to save as much as I can, and play it by ear at this point.ā
āNobody can live on $205 a week.ā
After losing work as a college tutor when the pandemic hit in March, Morgan Gauss finally started receiving PUA payments in June.
āIt just showed up in the mail one dayāI got about 15 [back pay] checks all at once,ā Gauss said. āI think I cried a little bit when I watched all those checks slide into my mailbox, because it was finally there.ā
Gauss receives $205 a week from PUAāand was receiving the weekly $600 from CARES until it expired at the end of July. Faced with uncertainty about whatās coming next, and also unable to work outside her home because of a compromised immune system, sheās started taking measures to ensure she spends as little money as possible.
āIāve gone to the extreme of just sitting with a small fan on me with the lights turned off just to cut down on electricity bills,ā she said. āIāve changed my diet, Iām not getting takeout, not buying as many personal products. [But] when all you can do is sit inside your house all day, thereās not much you need to worry about except keeping your lights on and keeping your rent paid.ā
Gaussā PUA checks come at unpredictable timesāsome weeks, they arrive right on time, while other times they arrive several weeks late. She said she ācanāt complainā because sheās at least getting money, but she doesnāt know what sheāll do if Congress doesnāt pass a second stimulus package that includes a CARES extension.
āIf they donāt extend the CARES benefitsānobody can live on $205 a week,ā she said. āItās sure as hell better than zero dollars a week, Iāll give them that. But I just donāt see how anyone can survive.ā