In May of last year, Luceanne Taufa, 62, got a letter the Las Vegas where she had worked for 18 years. Given pandemic closures, she had lost her job.

“I felt sick: mentally sick, physically sick. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know what to do,” Taufa said.

Taufa, her husband, and their five children relied on the job not only for basic life expenses but also for health insurance — and, most urgently, her husband’s heart medication.

It took two months for unemployment to kick in, which meant Taufa burned through a lot of her savings. She got food from her union’s food bank, and her kids chipped in to help with electric and water bills. Still, sometimes her utilities were cut off.