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.

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.

The mutual aid movement has sprung up across California as networks offer food and other forms of relief. But it's too soon to tell if these groups will stick around beyond the pandemic.

The pandemic is accelerating the demise of the middle class, leaving many unable to sustain financial independence. In Silicon Valley and elsewhere, middle-class workers have found themselves unable to make rent.

Hello! We’re publishing more of our work in Spanish to better serve our diverse state. Make sure to click here to read the article in English. Demand for food and social services has grown almost five-fold in some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Now, the sole full-service social services provider in Cupertino and other west valley cities […]

Lawmakers passed two safety net measures aimed at helping undocumented residents, many who work in essential jobs, access groceries and tax credits. Will Gov. Gavin Newsom sign the bills?

For generations, order and cleanliness had been Christina Lastra’s family’s way of fighting off poverty. But the day in July 1991 when her mother’s mysterious death was ruled an accident marked the end of the orderly life Lastra had been leading in Humboldt County. “We didn’t get peace. No one ever even thought of looking […]