TAMPA, Fla. — A year into the pandemic, Floridians' wallets are still strained.
"It isn't easy," Mike Drake said.
The banquet server and his wife live in Orlando. Both of them have been furloughed since last year. Work is starting to pick up, but nothing is steady.
"I just worked today at a convention. It was a golf tournament, but you know, that's my first shift in three weeks," Drake said.
The couple aren't the only ones struggling. Paralegal Gia Cuccaro is also on unemployment after being laid off in March. She's still searching for a job.
"It's been a rollercoaster ride," Cuccaro said. "I want to work. I mean, I made more money when working. I'm not making more money sitting home."
Both are claiming Florida's weekly benefits of $200-275 a week, but the money isn't enough.
"I still have to reach into my savings account to finish paying bills. You know, that's draining," Drake said.
But the passage of a stimulus package out of Washington would help. They would each get a one-time check of $1,400 and $300 federal dollars would be added to their weekly benefits.
"Anybody who's on unemployment is obviously going to be able to benefit from the $300 extra supplement up until Sept. 6. That was slated to end on the 13th of March," said Vanessa Brito, a Miami-based community activist with a background in Florida politics.
Brito says the stimulus would come just in time. She's been helping Floridians file for unemployment since last year.
"The consensus with all the claimants that I deal with right now is, 'Oh, my God, it's gonna be signed into law before the expiration on the 13th,' which alleviates so much. It hurts me that still every day there are people that haven't been paid in months and have lost everything. Even with this extension that passed today," Brito said.
While the bill goes to the house, those without a job are anxiously waiting for help.
"Instead of shopping at the Dollar Tree, I can actually go to Publix. If it didn't pass, and it didn't go through, it really would have been tragic. Thank God that there does look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel," Cuccaro said.
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