Heidi Huynh runs a small shop in Portland鈥檚 Jade District where she usually sells pre-paid mobile plans. But these days, you might find her customers behind the counter, sitting at the store鈥檚 computer, getting Huynh鈥檚 help filing for unemployment benefits.
Many of her customers only speak Vietnamese. But the online unemployment application is only in English.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e stressed out because they need money. They lost a job,鈥� Huynh said. 鈥淭hey just want something to help.鈥�
In Oregon, the only way to apply for regular unemployment benefits online is in English. Interpreters are supposed to be available by phone, but the lines are so jammed they are virtually impenetrable. That鈥檚 hard on people also experiencing poverty, who don鈥檛 have the cell phone minutes to spend hours on hold.
Huynh鈥檚 staff complains that she is running a temple instead of a shop, giving away services for free. She wishes there were more help for people with limited English proficiency.
The coronavirus pandemic has driven U.S. unemployment to its highest rate since the Great Depression. The Oregon Employment Department has struggled to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of laid-off workers, while grappling with outdated technology, hiring hundreds of staff and ramping up new federal programs.
Those struggles have overshadowed the experiences of Oregonians who have also lost their livelihoods but may lack the English skills to apply for help online. With phone lines blocked, their difficulty accessing the unemployment system raises fundamental questions about equal access to benefits, regardless of language or national origin.
鈥淭he unemployment insurance system is overwhelmed and difficult for everyone right now, but low-income people who speak languages other than English face extra and often insurmountable barriers just to apply for this critical safety net program,鈥� said attorney Beth Englander of the Oregon Law Center in a statement to OPB.
Oregon has two systems to provide unemployment benefits. There鈥檚 the traditional unemployment insurance system, in which people apply for benefits by phone or online in English. There鈥檚 also the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA, which provides benefits to people who usually can鈥檛 get them: the self-employed, contract and gig workers. PUA applications are available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Russian.
On May 11, the on how to ensure their unemployment programs comply with civil rights laws and regulations. It requires states 鈥渢o translate written, oral, or electronic 鈥榲ital information,鈥欌�� including applications for unemployment benefits.
, but the Oregon Employment Department doesn鈥檛 provide a way to apply for regular unemployment benefits online in Spanish.
Laid-off workers on the employment department鈥檚 website will see another button that looks promising. It鈥檚 labeled 鈥淎bra un Nuevo Reclamo.鈥� But clicking that won鈥檛 initiate a claim. Instead, it leads to a general phone number that is inevitably busy.
鈥淚f they are just calling a general number and there鈥檚 no automated way that directs people to another phone line, or somebody who speaks Spanish, that鈥檚 a huge concern,鈥� said Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project.
Emsellem pointed to segregated phone lines as a way to ensure that people can access benefits in languages other than English.
鈥淔ederal civil rights laws don鈥檛 go out the window no matter the crisis situation,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his gets back to the issue of being adequately prepared for a recession - so that when recessions hit, these kinds of access issues don鈥檛 undermine the ability of people to collect their unemployment checks.鈥�
Gail Krumenauer, the employment department鈥檚 interim communications director, acknowledged that routing Spanish-language claimants to a phone number was 鈥渘ot ideal.鈥�
She said technical constraints in the oregon.gov family of websites prevent the department from deploying online claims systems in multiple languages.
To help compensate for that, the state built which it intends to translate into a dozen languages. It鈥檚 meant to be a more dynamic platform, with videos and FAQs about navigating unemployment applications. So a customer in Heidi Huynh鈥檚 shop could theoretically watch a on the new website to learn how to fill out unemployment forms, in English, on the old.
Meanwhile, Victor Leo鈥檚 phone has been ringing non-stop. The social worker spends long hours in his Jade District office, translating unemployment applications into Cantonese for worried clients. The governor鈥檚 ban on dine-in restaurant service hit his community hard, because it鈥檚 common for whole families to work in the restaurant industry.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know how they鈥檙e going to survive,鈥� he said. 鈥淏eing a new immigrant, you don鈥檛 have a lot of money and then all of a sudden the whole family has no income.鈥�
He said people are relieved to learn they can apply for benefits. With Leo鈥檚 help they submit their applications, often to get stuck in the same line as thousands of their English-speaking neighbors.
Copyright 2020 Oregon Public Broadcasting
