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Las Vegas tenants fearful in waning days of eviction moratorium

Yanneth Romero can’t help feeling like she failed her family.

She worked as a housekeeper on the Strip. Her husband, Octavio, worked for the same resort company as a cook.

But when the town shuttered March 13 out of virus concerns, the family was left with no income to afford their modest North Las Vegas house. And with three children, even the basic of food would become a challenge.

She was furloughed, and though the resort she worked at has reopened, it’s not at full capacity, and she hasn’t been called back. Octavio also remains out of work. 

Yanneth, 27, receives unemployment benefits, but Octavio’s claim is still snarled in the state’s system. The Culinary Union chips in some help, but it’s simply not enough to make ends meet.

On Thursday, she was able to clear four months of back rent through assistance from Nevada Partners, a local agency. But eviction looms in her mind — and the mind of thousands of other Las Vegas families hit hard by the pandemic.

If allowed to expire, Gov. Steve Sisolak’s directive extending the moratorium on eviction for nonpayment of rent is up on Oct. 15. 

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In North Las Vegas, Yanneth Romero is still stressed. Even with some help, she simply doesn’t have the income she once had.

She’s lived in her home for three years as her family grew; her two youngest children are toddlers. When her in-laws needed help — her father-in-law is an out-of-work construction worker, her mother-in-law is disabled — after losing their own home in Los Angeles, she took them in.

In a voice sad and weary for a young mother, she says she can still give her children a smile.

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