Updated on February 23, 2021 at 6:41 pm Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic took a grip of Wilmington, Marymar Hopkins was laid off from her child care job. Her three daughters – first, third and seventh graders – were going to school virtually. “It was difficult because I was the only one and I couldn't work,” Hopkins said. Her daughters were eating twice as much being home. Money was running out. And crime was escalating in the neighborhood. In July, bullets went flying through their front door and into the wall and television. “I end up moving. We went to a hotel,” she said, because she didn’t have enough to pay a security deposit at another rental property.