Washington, D.C.’s official tourism, convention, and sports arm has announced that its board of directors has approved a $15 million dollar relief package that will assist local hospitality and tourism workers who have been affected by the novel coronavirus public health crisis, including $5 million designated to go to undocumented workers who have been largely shut out of pandemic relief.
“As this unprecedented global health crisis is severely affecting all of us—our city, our hospitality industry and our residents, it is our duty to act responsibly and do what we can to support our industry,” Events DC president Greg O’Dell said in a statement. “I am grateful for the resiliency of our industry and everyone’s willingness to support each other and stand in solidarity during these difficult times.”
“The programs included in the funding package will be designed to help hospitality, restaurant and hotel workers specifically,” the organization said, “as well as certain operator-related expenses for qualified restaurants and hotels.” In addition to the $5 million for undocumented workers, $5 million for restaurant worker and operator recovery, and $5 million for hotel worker and operator recovery, a separate $3 million will be designated to a marketing effort to eventually bring tourism back to the area.
Brown told The Washington Post that the money came from the organization’s disaster relief rainy day fund. He told The Post, “We saw the financial crisis of 2008, we saw 9/11, so there was a thought that something like this might come down the road, perhaps. We wanted to be prepared.”
While Events DC said that as many as 80,000 people work in Washington, D.C.’s tourism and hospitality industry, workers lacking legal status have been shut out of both federal and, shockingly, local relief. Earlier this week in D.C., provisions “that would have created a mechanism to offer financial assistance akin to unemployment benefits to undocumented and non-traditional workers like street vendors, day laborers and child care workers” didn’t pass the city council, DCist reported.
Meanwhile, in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state’s legislature was considering assistance for undocumented residents in desperate need of pandemic relief, saying “Californians care deeply about undocumented residents in this state.”
Funding from Events DC could presumably help undocumented workers like Arely Andrade, a cancer survivor who hasn’t been able to return to either her restaurant job or food cart job due to the pandemic. Since then, her phone has been shut off. “Andrade and her daughter, Kimberly, stood on the stoop of their home Thursday holding a written plea to the mayor as immigrant advocates took pictures to post online with the hashtag #DontExcludeMe,” The Post reported.
“A large number of our workers in restaurants and hotels are undocumented workers and it’s an important group in our city who are valued members of our communities,” Brown continued to The Post. “And folks are in dire need right now.”