California Divide

Lea este artículo en español.  State Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) wants the state to acquire a stockpile of N-95 masks and set up a strike team to distribute them to farmworkers when they continue to work under dangerous conditions during wildfires in order to keep the country fed. Although Assembly Bill 73 has no funding attached, […]

Lea este artículo en español.  The widespread business closures at the start of the pandemic marked the first time in nearly 20 years that Marcial Delgado couldn’t cook or serve lunch in the cafeteria at Nvidia. He didn’t return to the company’s massive Santa Clara headquarters for nine months, but the single father-of-three still got paid. […]

Foster Farms shut down its facility on Cherry Street in Fresno following a coronavirus outbreak but reopened by Monday, according to company officials. Over the past two weeks, 193 workers at the 1,400-person facility in southwest Fresno tested positive for COVID-19, according to Ira Brill, vice president of communications for Foster Farms. None of the […]

A coalition of Los Angeles eviction defense attorneys is seeking postponements of all trials until the end of the pandemic.

More than 2 million Californians are struggling to keep up with rent — many of them single mothers with at least some college education. The situation will be made worse as some unemployment benefits begin to expire after Christmas and landlords begin evicting Feb. 1. This report is part of a multi-month series from the California Divide.

Aleida lost all her work at the start of the coronavirus shutdown. After using up her entire savings to keep her daughter and nephew sheltered, she missed rent for the first time in her life.

Patricia was already spending 75% of her take home pay on rent before the pandemic. Since losing her job as a medical transport driver, the single mother of two has fallen behind on rent.

Susan lost two of her three jobs at the start of California’s shelter-in-place order. She is just barely scraping by each month. Still, this once-homeless single mother says she feels rich compared to what she once had.

In many ways, distance learning is keeping Teresa from making ends meet. The waitress can only work weekends when her son isn’t in class. She’s falling behind on rent and considering moving out of state.

When Colette Barss sold her Seaside home this spring, her new east Garrison-area home had been sitting on the market for about 190 days. She ended up buying it for about $60,000 under asking price.  Today, that would be extremely unlikely.  The price of real estate has soared across the country since the pandemic, and California isn’t immune. […]