After 18 years of working in food service, Shelley Bowers lost her job as a bartender at the Alibi Tiki Lounge when Oregon’s pandemic lockdown started in March.
Bowers was okay for the first few months. Between the $1,200 federal stimulus check, her unemployment benefits, and an additional weekly $600 from the CARES Act Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, she could cover groceries and rent on her two-bedroom apartment.
But the $600 stopped coming in July. Since then, she’s been scraping by with $397 a week in extended unemployment benefits, less than a quarter of her pre-pandemic income. Now, Bowers and around 12 million other Americans are set to lose these extended unemployment benefits they’re living on by the end of December. In Oregon, about 70,000 people may lose their benefits. Congress hasn’t approved any new help for unemployed Americans.