Community groups step in to provide immigrants COVID testing, relief

The unemployment crisis is a hard thing to solve - businesses sometimes have no choice but to let workers go. An innovative program tries to prevent joblessness by temporarily paying a portion of workers’ salaries at struggling companies.

Monthly unemployment checks are dissuading individuals from finding work for fear that their work will pay less. Oulu, Finland is testing out 'basic income' where everyone receives a government cheque, to encourage people to work without fear of losing their monthly assistance.

The Los Angeles Metro service is working to use the U.S. Employment Plan model to upgrade its fleet with eco-friendly buses. Through this model, the manufacturers who invest in and hire disadvantaged workers and support the local economy receive extra points which help them in obtaining contracts from Los Angeles Metro. This create jobs locally and helps disadvantaged communities grow while creating a fleet of zero-emissions buses.

In Alaska, a highly popular version of Basic Income gives residents between $1000 and $3000 a month. Although this wealth fund, and similar ones in countries like Norway, have been considered, critics argue that it wouldn't work in an American context.

Europe's generous social policies, such as allowing employees to retain their salaries while taking sick time to care for themselves or family members, may help to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak while also safeguarding the economy. Although the long-term impacts are yet unknown, in the short term, government-provided incentives are helping people and businesses stay afloat.

When the Bay Area issued a shelter-in-place order as a response to containing the spread of COVID-19, businesses had to adapt. From a local distillery creating hand sanitizer at cost, to a restaurant offering groceries, to a catering business selling drive-through meals, local businesses have gotten creative to maintain revenue and pay employees.

Thousands of people in Wuhan, China are volunteering to buy groceries, get medicine, and take community members to the hospital as a means to help those that need it during the coronavirus outbreak. Although the volunteers do not knowingly transport anyone diagnosed with coronavirus, the drivers wear protective clothing during their drives, which are organized by local neighborhood committees.

To address those that have been specifically impacted by economic crash due to coronavirus and to slow the spread, cities across the United States are enacting comprehensive measures to help. From a halt on all utility shutoffs to releasing inmates who have nearly completed their sentences or are being held pretrial on cash bail, local governments across the nation are looking for ways to address how the pandemic is impacting the most vulnerable.

As restaurants across the nation have been forced to close their doors during the coronavirus pandemic, some are turning to creative means to help account for the loss of revenue. In Philadelphia, restaurants have created a virtual tip jar to encourage patrons to "donate a tip" to a person or business while in San Francisco a restaurant owner has created a Facebook group that helps connect out of work servers with childcare jobs.

More and more economists and financiers are supporting the idea of a government-supported basic income check for everyone, regardless of financial status.