SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man who lost his hospitality job due to the COVID-19 pandemic is sharing the financial struggles he has endured since getting laid off.
Ricardo Ramirez worked in sales at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel downtown and was furloughed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was expecting to have just a few months out, and everything was going to go back to normal,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez was formally laid off a few months later and has had no luck finding a job.
“I’m not only applying for the hotel industry. I have applied everywhere,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez has been receiving unemployment benefits, but he worries about what will happen when the checks run out.
“I have pretty much worked through every single penny I have saved through the last eight years, and it’s been very hard,” Ramirez said.
As Congress still works to pass a COVID-19 relief bill, many families remain in limbo.
“It’s really affecting a lot of people more than what they know, and I think that they really need to get it together and do something and do it quick,” said Derek Avalos, Ramirez’s partner.
The deadline for a COVID relief package is looming, and the deal could help tens of millions of Americans struggling through the pandemic.