Community Overview

• Mount Airy, historic northwest Philadelphia neighborhood
• 30,000 residents, diverse economic/racial community
• 9 months into coronavirus pandemic
• Job losses, business scaling back, new city restrictions implemented
• Residents facing various hardships from same virus

Chris Marcel - Jazz Musician Financial Crisis

• Typical monthly income: $3,000-4,000 from restaurant/bar performances + piano lessons
• Live music industry crushed by pandemic
• Current financial status: "All money's gone, good until end of month"
• No traditional job security, books months in advance normally
• Gig cancellations: Finding out 2 days beforehand work cancelled
• Unemployment benefits: Received additional $600/week through federal pandemic assistance program
  • Checks stopped July despite believing eligible for additional aid
  • Trouble filing claims online
  • PA Department of Labor: Can't comment on individual cases, notifies when claim status changes
• New house purchase at beginning of year, worried about mortgage payments
• Cost-cutting measures:
  • Stopped paying liability insurance
  • Gets groceries from local non-profit produce distribution
• Hopes for more stimulus money + vaccine restaurant/entertainment comeback
• Anxiety growing: "Light at end of tunnel getting farther away"

Jessica Rights & Nick Freeman - Mount Airy Groceries Non-Profit

• Catering professionals laid off from full-time jobs
• Started helping neighbors get produce at pandemic beginning
• Developed into full-blown non-profit: Mount Airy Groceries
• Services: Low-cost/free food boxes delivered citywide with partner organizations
• Target populations served:
  • Newly food insecure due to COVID
  • People afraid to grocery shop (chronically ill)
  • Largest group: Mothers at home with school-aged children
• Nick's situation: Out of job less than 2 weeks after hearing about coronavirus
  • Received some unemployment benefits early pandemic
  • Now has part-time job
• Financial pressures with foster kids at home, bills piling up
• Considering selling car and cabin purchased earlier in year
• "Very carefully going through what's necessary or not"
• Trying to structure salaries into non-profit
• Jessica may need job elsewhere if no paycheck available
• Stress levels: "Long term sustained worry and stress... there's a breaking point... many of us are right about there"

Dana Profit - Copywriter Job Search at 49

• Helping with Mount Airy Groceries website
• Laid off from 10-year job in August
• Taking side projects to enhance portfolio
• Job searching at age 49: "Never imagined she'd have to do"
• Challenges: Had to relearn many things
• Emotional impact: "Every rejection or non-response... is depressing, I get blue"
• Personal impact: "Always take it personally... How can you not want me? I'm fabulous"
• Skill development: Taking online graphic design classes
• Goal: Become one-stop shop for small business websites
• Financial support: Relying on severance + unemployment benefits
• Concerns without additional stimulus:
  • Health insurance coverage (especially during pandemic)
  • Rent payments
• Family support: Sister is landlord, won't get evicted
• Independence preference: "Don't want to drain their finances... rather hold each other up rather than climbing on their shoulders"
• Self-reliance: "Going to try to pull myself up first"

Community Outlook

• Uncertainty about recovery timeline for Mount Airy residents + Americans nationwide
• Vaccine rollout across US + additional stimulus from Washington
• Residents want optimism but uncertainty weighing heavily
• Dana's determination: "If I have to work four jobs... anything I have to do to keep heat on, lights on, roof over head, food on table"