The first of the month is just days away, and thousands of newly unemployed — and underemployed — workers in New Orleans and across Louisiana aren’t sure how they're going to pay their April rent.

Hospitality and service-industry workers made up a large part of the first wave of layoffs due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, federal data showed nearly 73,000 Louisiana residents filed unemployment claims in the week ended March 21, up from around 2,000 a week earlier.

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Now, the bartenders, busboys, concierges and waiters, along with rise-share drivers, artists, musicians and others who have lost their livelihoods are hearing from landlords about what they need to do to keep a roof over their head.

Laura Walch, a long-time bartender at Pal's Lounge in Faubourg St. John, hasn't had a shift in two weeks after the city ordered bars shut down as part of a strategy to slow the virus's spread. After two decades in the service industry, she is picking up odd jobs washing people's houses with a pressure washer she owns, and considers herself lucky for it.

“A lot of other people are writing letters to their landlords trying to get a break,” Walch said. ”It’s a grim situation. I think a lot of people are putting a happy face on it now, but what happens if another month goes by without people making money?”

A big answer to that question came Friday with the passage of the $2.2 trillion federal economic stimulus package, which includes some protections for renters. In many cases, evictions for lack of payment have been frozen for 120 days, and landlords must give 30 days notice after the hold expires. The law also bans any "fees, penalties or other charges related to nonpayment of rent." Breakdowns of what is and isn't covered is available here and here fair housing advocates are busy parsing the bill to figure out who is and isn't covered.

The biggest gap at this point appears to be any non-federally assisted properties without a mortgage. Someone renting a house that is paid off, for example, is not bound by the federal ban, but is covered by the city's moratorium on evictions, which at this point stretches to April 24 and could yet be extended further.

But one thing is clear: Those advocates say the law, which also includes a one-time direct payment of up to $1,200 for individuals and more for families, is really only the beginning of what needs to be done to secure housing.

“People need some certainty in this crisis,” said Maxwell Ciardullo, policy director for the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. “A one-time payment is nice but people have reoccurring expenses. That’s the fear that we have heard from so many of the workers that power our hospitality economy here: They’re going to get behind and they’re not going to have a way to catch up, and as soon as the (ban) is lifted, there is going to be a tsunami of evictions.

“I think that’s why we still need to see a vast expansion of rental assistance programs at the federal level,” he said.

Hannah Adams, staff attorney with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, which provides free legal aid for people with low incomes, said landlords should work with tenants on structured payment plans without interest charges. With mortgage forbearance already in place, "no one is going to get foreclosed on right now because their tenant isn’t paying their rent.”

“It’s certainly the right thing to do in this moment,” she said. “The goal here is not to get the tenant deeper in the whole, it’s to get the landlords paid and keep the tenants in their homes."

The crisis has already had several instances that illustrate how bad things can get. Adams' group has already taken up two cases in which landlords have locked out tenants, an illegal practice embedded in some leases that unscrupulous landlords use to deny tenants their legal rights under the normal eviction process.

On March 20, just days after the telling the property manager of her North Tonti Street guest house that she would be out of work for at least a month, Kyla Milling was told she would be trespassing if she was home the next day unless she paid her weekly rent. She called the police, who told the property manager that was against the law, and while she was doing so they put a lock on her door. The police did not make an arrest, but told Milling she could force her way in through a window or break the door to get her things, which she did. The next day the property manager and owner came in and began taking all of the appliances out, throwing Milling's food away in the process.

Milling, who worked in a nightclub in the French Quarter, said the police came again and told her landlord what he was doing was wrong, but no arrests were made and she had no choice but to leave. She considered going home to family in Connecticut, but was unsure of whether she should fly, and wonders if she will be any better off there.

"I don’t know where my next check is coming from," she said. "I don’t know how I’m going to eat.”

Milling is crashing at a friend's apartment for now, sleeping on a friend's couch and living in close quarters.

"Hopefully they can help me find a place to stay," she said. "I don’t know what to do or where I’m going. I’m really scared."

"I’m trying to just be patient and be thankful that I am in good health, that I have good friends who are willing to help me, that I could call the police and they were able to be helpful," she said. "It just really saddens me that someone could be so evil at a time when everybody is going through the same thing."

Milling's plight underscores a point raised by Ciardullo.

“This is a public-health emergency, and any one persons health is only as good as everybody’s health, because we all rely on the same (health care) system,” he said. “And stable housing is one of the best defenses we have.”

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For Carey Mischler, her rent problem isn’t with her home, it’s her business.

A massage therapist thrust into a world where people avoid even coming within six feet of each other, Mischler is not sure what will become of the Mid-City business she spent 12 years building.

"My phone basically stopped ringing," she said. "I'm a message therapist, no one wants me touching them.”

Michler's landlord has said she can pay what she can but will still eventually be responsible for all of the rent. Mischler doesn’t see how that’s going to help her beyond next month.

“I’ve been in this industry for 30 years,” she said. “I have no other skill and I’m almost 50. I don’t think anyone is going to want to hire a 50-year-old massage therapist. I honestly have no clue. I’m kind of floating right now.”

“I am prepared to have to close my business,” she said. “I think that’s more of a possibility than opening it back up. After that I have no idea.”

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Walch, the bartender, also considers herself lucky that her landlord is her boss, and is able to count on some measure of understanding. It's a situation many with so-called "mom and pop" landlords find themselves in, but those property owners rely on the rent for their income, and need money now just as badly as their renters do. Estimates say about 50 percent of rental units nationally are owned by mom-and-pop landlords, though it's not clear what the breakdown is in New Orleans.

Elayne Leyda, who has two tenants in her house on Dublin Street in the Riverbend neighborhood, has told both of them she will work out a payment plan if something happens to their income. Leyda said her government job is safe for now, and her mortgage company has been working with her on the note.

"I really think it falls on the landlord to work with their mortgage company to be as humane as possible (to tenants)," she said. "I have very little patience for people who are property owners only for profit. They have been destroying our city for quite some time now, and this just brings that to the fore, I think."