Detroit grandmother falls on hard times because of coronavirus

Jacqueline Anderson works for local hospital

DETROIT – Grandmother Jacqueline Anderson said it has been a really stressful time keeping up with the bills and other finances in the era of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“I just hope that something else can be done. I’ll be glad when this is over with or I can go back to my 56 hours a week, you know, at least that helps me a lot,” Anderson said.

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Anderson works for a local hospital and has been underemployed. Her hours were reduced to just 16 hours a week.

So far she’s been surviving thanks to her family, but she’s wondering how much longer that will be able to last.

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“What about next month and the month after that? Depends on how long it’s gone for and I do not recieve unemployment at all,” Anderson said.

She’s not the only one in this situation. Thousands of people from Detroit are expected to be going through the same exact thing.

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“The ones who are working, for example, a couple of my co-workers -- you know, we are struggling. i’m on the frontline and I’m not getting anything extra, so I hope they can even help us,” Anderson said.

The state of Michigan has given out more than $1.37 billion to 820,000 workers affected by the pandemic.

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About the Authors:

Victor Williams joined Local 4 News in October of 2019 after working for WOIO in Cleveland, OH, WLOX News in Biloxi, MS, and WBBJ in Jackson, TN. Victor developed a love for journalism after realizing he was a great speaker and writer at an early age.

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.