Pandemic exposes the vulnerability of Italy's 'new poor'

coronavirus pandemic did t produce Elena Simone's first budgetary rough patch. 49-year-old single mor found herself out of job market when 2008 global financial crisis hit Italy and never fully got back in, but she created a patchwork of small jobs that provided for herself and youngest of her three children.

That all changed with Italy's first COVID-19 lockdown in spring.

With schools closed, so went Simone's cafeteria job. Her housecleaning gigs dried up, too. While ors returned to work when lockdown ended, Simone stayed frozen out.

“re was a period when I was only eating carrots,’’ she recalled from her kitchen decorated with colourful plush characters shaped like vegetables.

For first time in her life, Simone needed help putting food on table. At a friend's urging, she enrolled for access to food stores operated by Roman Catholic charity Caritas. Her eligibility covers her through January, and she hopes to be off charity rolls by n “to make room for people who need it even more.”

charity serving more than 5 million people in Milan archdiocese, Caritas Ambrosiana, says pandemic is revealing for first time depths of ecomic insecurity in Italy's rrn Lombardy region, which generates 20% of country's gross domestic product.

Simone, who has two ult children and a 10-year-old son at home, is typical of Italy's new poor. se are people who mand to get by after 2008 financial crisis, staying off rar of Italy's welfare system by relying on informal, grey-market jobs and help of friends and family.

But between Italy’s near-total spring lockdown, introduction of a partial lockdown when virus surged again in fall and continued toll pandemic is taking on Italy's ecomy, slim thres that allowed people to weave toger employment have snapped.

where in Italy is this more evident than in Lombardy, where COVID-19 first exploded in Europe. Italian agriculture lobby Coldiretti estimates that virus has created 300,000 newly poor people, based on surveys of dozens of charity groups operating in region.

Caritas Ambrosiana provided help to 9,000 people during spring lockdown, 20% of whom reported that ir financial situation h “drastically” worsened over 10-week closure. In October, nearly 700 families requested food aid for first time.

Nationally, one-third of all people seeking help from Caritas during pandemic are first-time recipients, and in a reversal of usual trends, most are Italians and t foreign residents.

More than 40 organizations provide food on a daily basis in Milan, Italy’s financial capital. One of largest, Pane Quotidia, serves some 3,500 meals a day. Many of those in need once worked in restaurants and hotels, which have been particularly penalized by coronavirus restrictions, or as domestic help.

“It is even more widespre than we knew, especially for a rich city like Milan,’’ Caritas Ambrosiana spokesman Francesco Chiavarini said. “se precarious jobs were lost. And we don’t kw when or if y will be restored.”

Researchers at Milan’s Bocconi University said in a working paper for Organization for Ecomic Cooperation and Development that blue-collar workers without college degrees paid heaviest price for Italy's virus restrictions. Half reported a drop in ir salaries, compared with just 20% of top earners, and many did t have luxury of working remotely.

“What we are seeing is a substantial increase in inequality,’’ Bocconi University researcher Vincenzo Galasso said.

Those without solid job contracts are most exposed in pandemic that has alrey killed over 68,000 people in Italy, highest death toll in Europe.

Simone discovered too late that her cafeteria contract described her as an occasional worker, meaning she h basis to request government support to replace lost income. Her cleaning jobs were off books altoger, and she has recovered only two of dozen she held before pandemic.

Even when workers qualify for Italy’s public-private short-term layoff scheme, money has arrived late and is generally inequate to cover a family's basic expenses, Chiavarini said. Basic cover is 400 euros ($490) a month, yet monthly rents in a city like Milan start around 600 euros ($735).

Food security is emerging as a key issue as pandemic enters winter.

Progetto Arca, which runs shelters and provides or social services in Milan, started operating a food truck last month after seeing that homeless people who h filled ir stomachs with restaurant and bar handouts were going hungry during partial fall lockdown when many establishments h closed.

And isn’t just homeless coming by food truck. On a recent night, a well-dressed man in a quilted jacket and dress trousers waited off to side until line h dissipated. He identified himself as a lawyer but declined furr comment and asked t to be photographed as he took away two hot meals and two bags of food for next day, one for his companion waiting at home.

So far, government moratoriums on evictions and firing of contracted workers have helped keep a cap on what charity workers see as an emerging poverty crisis.

“When se are lifted, we will see real price that we need to pay for this pandemic,’’ Chiavarini said. “We celebrate Milan as capital of invation, but beneath se skyscrapers of which we are so proud, re is a hidden world where people are living in conditions of real precariousness. “

(Im: AP)