Covid -19 Food Needs in San Diego

[SD Transplant]

I am a bit surprised at the number of people queuing up in food lines during this time. Are people just living careless and haven’t learned a thing from the previous recession? I would expect a typical family to save 3-5 months of $ to cover during tough times. I guess I’m naive. I’ve also spoken to my wife that I was surprised that in my neck of the woods (Poway), I see expensive SUVs (Surburbans etc) lining up at school to pick up free food for kids.

My wife’s take is that some people are lazy and love the convenience of taking kids to pick up free food, but I might be wrong. Perhaps it is a huge impact and some folks are stretched financially and this thing is another nail in the coffin.

What are our piggs thinking? I mean the picture in this article speaks volumes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-crisis-heaps-pressure-nation-s-food-banks-n1178731

[Coronita]

There are also a few people who need food who are college students.

At work, through the contacts of one of the millennials that work for me, apparently there are a some students at universities who are having a difficult time. They aren’t from financially well-to-do families, but through their academic merit got a free ride to these schools. Except the free portion is only tuition. They still needed to pay for room and board, where one or two meals was included with the room and board cost. Those students also worked for the university, perhaps as a clerk or hourly administrative person.

Well, the university is closed, and went to online learning. Problem is they can’t stay in the dorm because that’s closed, and since the university is shutdown, they don’t have a job either. So they don’t get their included meals, and they have no job to pay for meals, and they can’t exactly call their parents and ask for money that their parents don’t have from abroad. The office pooled money together and we’re sponsoring a few of these kids that these millenial colleagues know that are just out of luck, so they don’t have to continue to go to the food bank…Some of the schools provided “host families” to provide them a place to stay, which is good.

Yes, for a lot of people, it’s really fucked up.

[Coronita]

A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck because rent is high and many of them don’t have a high income to begin with. They are just above the amount to disqualify them from Snap benefits and free healthcare, but don’t make enough to be above water…. and/or are on a huge California wait-list for federal assisted housing.

These people also tend to end up paying higher rent because they are perceived as being higher risk tenants, some landlords choose prefer financally more solid candidates and the ones that do pick them don’t need to negotiate rent with them because they have limited options (as opposed to an enginerd that makes $120k/year leasing a $1600/month condo can ask for a slight discount because of his/her superior financial situation knowing a lot more landlords would prefer them). Many of the big box corporate apts require a minimum of $100k/year verifable income to qualify for a 1/1. so they can’t even qualify for a lot of rentals. These aren’t simply just restaurant workers. I’ve seen people who are administrative assistant that would barely qualify for a lease and would be left with close to nothing at the end of each month. All else being equal, many landlords end up picking financially stronger candidates, inclusive …

Some of the landlords that took on these riskier tenants asked for a pie in the sky rent and probably got it, forgetting that if the shit hits the fan, these people won’t be able to make it and not be able to pay rent. Well, now it’s coming back to bite some of them in the ass..Because that once upon of time “risk for reward” that they didn’t have to think about when times are good , is bound to blow up when times are bad.

[Coronita]

This article does a pretty good job summarizing what a lot of low income tenants and landlords are facing.

Landlords that have previously catered to these lower income service industry workers thinking the gravy train was going to last forevee I think are pretty screwed .

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/they-could-face-housing-situations-that-spiral-out-of-control-more-than-half-of-renters-say-they-lost-their-jobs-due-to-covid-19-2020-04-09?mod=home-page

More than half of renters say they lost jobs due to coronavirus: ‘They could face housing situations that spiral out of control’

‘Low-income renters, especially those who lose employment during the crisis, will have a hard time paying back rent’

[Author]

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