Originally published on May 7, 2021 11:25 am
Ogas was laid off right as the pandemic hit. She d spent a career working on the business side of health care, and had a good professional network. She’d been laid off before, and always found another job.
Then, the shutdown happened.
“As a week turned into another week and turned into another week, it just became really scary,” Ogas said.
Ogas has spent countless hours over the past year navigating the unemployment system, searching for jobs and networking.
She cut back on household expenses, stopped going out to eat, and hasn’t gotten a haircut or a manicure in a year. That’s tough for a woman trying to make a good impression at job interviews, she said.
KERA News Mona Ogas was evicted from The Lodge at River Park while she waited on rental assistance from the Texas Rent Relief program.
When it launched in February, the Texas Rent Relief program struggled to help tenants who d fallen behind on rent due to the pandemic. In the first six weeks, just 250 Texans got help, out of the 72,000 people who applied.
Mona Ogas fell through the cracks.
Ogas was laid off right as the pandemic hit. She d spent a career working on the business side of health care, and had a good professional network. She’d been laid off before, and always found another job.
Listen • 1:43 A sign at a vaccination clinic in Arlington advertises a rental assistance program. A similar state-run rental assistance program was the subject of a report that found very few Texans have been able to get help more than a month after the program s launch.
A scathing staff report from the Texas House Committee on Urban Affairs released Monday details a host of issues that have plagued the more than $1 billion rent relief program.
“Here we are at the beginning of April and still only about 200 Texas families have actually received direct help from this billion dollar program which is unacceptable and we need to continue to get this worked out quickly,” Rep. Phil Cortez, a San Antonio Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Urban Affairs, told Texas Public Radio.
Texans Turn To The Hunt For Fresh Water After A Long, Hard Week tpr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tpr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.