At the beginning of 2020, Brisandi Ruiz was hopeful about the year ahead. Her two-year-old was enrolled in a high-quality preschool program near their home in Greenbelt, Maryland. The office manager of a medical technician company, Ruiz was working to validate her medical degree from her home country of the Dominican Republic, so she could practice medicine in the United States. Her husband, Francisco Villar, had steady work in the construction field, and they were planning to have a second child. But then reports of cases of the novel coronavirus hit the news. By March, most of the nation was under lockdown.
Her son’s preschool closed, and Villar saw a steady decline in his work hours. It didn’t take long for Ruiz to feel overwhelmed. “Trying to do all these things, keeping the house, working from home, calling customers—it was driving me crazy,” she said. The couple tabled their plans to get pregnant. Soon, Ruiz had to quit her job. Short on savings, the family saw their financial situation quickly worsen. Unemployment benefits temporarily helped, but Ruiz began to fear that if they couldn’t get a stable income soon, her family might struggle to afford food and end up homeless.
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