Furloughed workers and those working without pay during the partial shutdown are coming up with all kinds of ways to make ends meet.
Julie Burr, who’s a contract worker for the Department of Transportation, got advice to set up a GoFundMe page in order to help pay rent.
“I made a goal of approximately two months of salary, because I wasn't sure how much this would last,” she says. “I have met my goal, so I appreciate everyone helping with that. That's going to help get us through. It helped with my January rent, and more than likely will have to help with February rent also.”
The page has received more than $9,000 in donations. One donor writes in part, “It is heartbreaking to see ego wars of billionaires rob the average person of their salaries…”
The shutdown has indirectly impacted non-government employees as well. Uber drivers, like Clifton Monroe, are feeling the pinch.
"Whenever the government is shut down, it really affects us," he says.
Driver Nate Murrell says government employees are usually some of Uber’s biggest customers. But now, he says they’re also his competition.
“With the government shutdown, you have more people that working for the government doing Uber,” Murrell says. “And the full-time Uber drivers, that is really affecting us too, and our money."
It’s also a period of great uncertainty for food banks, particularly like one in Connecticut, where 10 percent of their goods come from federal dollars.
"If the SNAP program gets disrupted, we can't keep up with the need,” says Bernie Beaudreau, CEO of Connecticut Food Bank. “We would not be able to make up for the difference."
