Residents Struggle With Rent Amid Pandemic
Bay City News Service
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A For Rent sign is shown outside of a property in San Francisco, Sunday, June 21, 2020.Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
By Astrid Casimire
Bay City News Foundation
The Bay Area might now be a buyer s market for apartments, but not for renters like Cecilia Orellana. She has not worked since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and now owes over $13,000 of unpaid rent.
Orellana immigrated from El Salvador in 2001 and her family now lives in the Woodland Park Apartments in East Palo Alto a working-class, majority Latinx community. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment for $2,850 a month with five family members: her husband, sister, son and two nephews.