Among its many impacts, the COVID-19 crisis has clearly reminded us that so many in our community have been struggling for a long time. The reality of deep structural inequalities for working families and communities of color are now laid bare by this horrific pandemic, and the suffering has only been exacerbated as this virus continues to ravage those who have the least ability to make it through these harsh and unprecedented times.
To even begin to think about finding our way out of this pit, we must develop a recovery plan – from both economic, social and public health perspective – that puts our most vulnerable families first.
Ensuring the health of low-wage, essential workers needs to be top of mind. These hard-working people, performing critical jobs in our community, are among the highest risk for contracting COVID-19. Last month, we led the effort to ensure that all of our workers in San Jose were guaranteed paid sick leave during this crisis. This was an important first step, but for these families, health care is as essential as the work they are doing every day. County data highlights this need, as our communities of color are disproportionally represented in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Access to child care is another of the most urgent needs for our essential workers, and one that we must address in our response. At a time when service industry essential workers form a greater portion of the workforce than ever before, the necessary closure of our schools and many childcare services has left families with few options. It is our responsibility as public officials to ensure that all essential workers have access to affordable child care, so that they are able to work without the additional burden of figuring out their child care arrangement.
We need to leverage available state and federal funds to provide free, publicly funded child care for all essential service workers. Finally, we need a stronger social safety net for every family harmed by this crisis. This means ensuring that all of our residents have reliable access to food and other essentials. It also requires us to be proactive in our approach to utilities, as a wave of power outages similar to the ones we faced last year could be catastrophic for families forced to shelter in place at home. We know that so many of our families are struggling, and will continue to struggle to meet basic needs for months to come. It is imperative that we keep them from falling through the cracks.
These are not the only challenges that disproportionately impact working families. They face greater obstacles in regard to digital education infrastructure while schools are moving to online learning, as well as greater risk of domestic violence. Addressing these issues will not be easy, but the consequences of ignoring them will be catastrophic.
The structural inequalities that make life a struggle for so many of our region’s working families are nothing new, but we are now seeing the stark impacts of this inequality on our essential workers, who are putting their lives on the line to support their families.
A recovery that leaves out our vulnerable families and marginalized communities is not a recovery at all. Our path forward must be built around this truth.
Sylvia Arenas represents District 8 on the San Jose City Council. Maya Esparza represents District 7 on the San Jose City Council.
