Reyna Aguilar was working as a chef in a restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission neighbourhood when the COVID pandemic struck. The restaurant shut within months, leaving Aguilar worrying about how she would make rent on the studio apartment she had lived in for nearly a decade.
When the government announced it would give rent vouchers, Aguilar, who wears her hair in a loose knot, felt relieved. But her landlord asked for cash instead.
