‘Drowning:’ My rent has gone up, everything costs more, and I just got laid off

Living in Philadelphia my entire adult life, I’ve seen a lot of changes. In those 30-plus years, I built a family here, saw neighbors leave, and neighborhoods change. But none of that change compares to what the people of this city are going through this summer.

Up until just last month, I worked in the billing department at a Temple University Health System. My job was dealing with credit issues, and I saw firsthand the struggles that folks are having paying for medical care. It was heartbreaking.

But I don’t do that anymore. Recently, I was laid off. I have no idea what comes next.

My experience and what I saw among the people who I talked to at work, who are struggling now more than ever to pay their bills, shows that this is a time of crisis. The state government needs to step in to help working families who are barely hanging on.

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I worked around the clock at this job for 10 years, and I just had the best performance reviews of my time there. Plus, Temple Health increased their profits during the pandemic. Still, they just let me and my whole department go.

Before the pandemic, I worked 20 hours of overtime each week to help out my employer and build a comfortable life for my daughter. But when COVID-19 hit, I was no longer allowed to work overtime, and my pay decreased by $20,000. Now after 10 years of diligent work, I’m receiving 10 weeks of severance pay.

I still owe $14,000 in student loans I haven’t been able to make payments on, and I already had to make an emergency withdrawal from my 401(k) during the pandemic to pay my bills. My rent has increased $200/month in the last two years, and as anyone can see on their utility bill, at the gas pump, or at the grocery store, everything costs more now. I’m trying to cut back however I can — saving electricity, driving less, and buying cheaper groceries — but it’s not enough.

“My rent has increased $200/month in the last two years.”

My daughter is just starting college and plans to become a doctor. It pains me to still have student loans that I’m unable to pay while she takes on debt of her own. The lack of people of color in the medical field leads to worse outcomes for patients of color, and it shouldn’t require taking out thousands of dollars in student loans to fill that representation gap. Anyone should be able to go to school and become a health care worker if they work hard — it shouldn’t be dependent on how much money you have.

That’s just one example of what I see in our community today — working people not getting the support they need to thrive. No one can deny that life costs more, and people need more help than they are getting.

Pennsylvania could give working people some extra relief, like providing utility subsidies that would help everyone cope with inflation. The majority of bankruptcies are tied to medical bills, and based on my years of talking to people about medical debt, I’m convinced we can — and should — do more to help. That includes capping medical costs, which won’t just help low-income residents. (I’d say most working people would struggle to afford an extra $1,500 on a routine medical procedure.)

Above all, we need to put money back into the pockets of working Pennsylvanians. The state government recently passed a budget that includes great investments in education, and a property tax rebate for seniors, but everybody in Pennsylvania needs help right now. The $2,000 stimulus checks that Gov. Tom Wolf proposed would have gone a long way to ease my financial burden, just like the federal stimulus did at the beginning of COVID. Unfortunately, petty politicians torpedoed that idea.

Now, folks are in a worse situation than before, and I can’t help but feel like we’re not doing everything we can. This is a life and death situation, and it’s only getting worse.

My message to our elected officials is simple: People are drowning, and we need a life raft. This isn’t about politics; it’s about people.

Renita Sales lives in Philadelphia and is a member of WorkMoney, an organization helping people earn more and pay less.