Seattle City Wire

A Seattle woman furloughed weeks ago from her job with a national parking and driving company over COVID-19 says she's counting her blessings and trying to weather the pandemic's curses, but the economic effects of the virus show no sign of easing.

"I am a single parent of three children," said Shamso Yusuf, who until March 20 was a Premier Parking attendant at Marion and Minor Garage on Madison Street in Seattle, in a statement provided by Premier Parking. "As of today I have $20 in my account and I don't know how I am going feed my three children."

Yusuf said she's been going from food bank to food bank but the need is so great that sometimes he is turned away.

"Sometimes I will be in line more than three hours before the food runs out," she said.

As Yusuf waits in line, not certain she will get food or about his future, Premier Parking's future also is in doubt.

In late March, after the company's nationwide furloughs started, a Premier Parking official described to a Tennessee news outlet the company's wobbly position and called for government assistance.

Before the pandemic, Premier Parking employed more than 2,000 associates in more than 600 locations in more than 40 cities across the nation, providing services at concerts, sports and other events.

Once those events were postponed or canceled, Premier Parking's business dried up as the company's customers are largely stuck at home waiting out the crisis. Few to no customers left Premier Parking with no choice but to furlough of hundreds of its employees. These workers are among millions laid off in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-farm payroll employment fell by 701,000 in March alone, with leisure and hospitality jobs falling by 459,000, according to a report at the time issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

Yusuf counts her blessings - to a point.

"Thank God my family and I are healthy but I am experiencing an anxiety,” she said. "Since March 20 I haven't had any income and I wasn't able to get unemployment benefits."

She also has been unable to get through to Washington's employment security office. She is not alone. More than 30 million nationally have filed for jobless benefits since mid-March, overwhelming state employment security offices.

Yusuf said she doesn't understand why government isn't helping more.

"I understand the importance of the stay-at-home order but what I don't understand is, as a lot us already were living paycheck to paycheck, why we can't get help feeding our families in this difficult time," she said. "I am having a very difficult time understanding why we're being told to stay at home when the state is not helping us."