News of the congressional agreement on a second federal stimulus package was welcomed in San Diego County on Monday.
“I watched it for a long time, kind of waited, kind of gave up,” said Andy Jones, who thought the government should have acted sooner. “Regular people need money. They need money to survive, they need money for basics.”
Jones received a stimulus check in the first round. Tbe retired teacher said she was able to live off her retirement earnings so she gave the money to more-needy people and to places like the food bank. When she gets her second stimulus check, she said she'll do the same again.
“We all need to help each other -- that’s the way it works,” Jones said, adding, “when people here [at the top financially] don’t help people here, I just get chills thinking about it. It’s not right.”
Keri Davis-Duffy owns two hair salons named Gila Rut, one in Hillcrest, one in Otay Ranch. At one point, she owned a third but shuttered it during the pandemic.
“My gosh -- I mean, my employees: I worry about them the most, which keeps me up at night,” Davis-Duffy said.
Davis-Duffy said that making sure her employees and their families have money coming in is a huge responsibility for a business owner. She told NBC 7 that she hoped that the additional federal unemployment benefits that are a part of the second stimulus package will help those who lost their jobs. She also plans to apply for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, aka the PPP.
“We’ve been closed since Dec. 5," Davis-Duffy said. "We need, A, to get business open, and we need some help.”
