1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineIsrael-Hamas warIndia elections
Society

Poor in New York

May 15, 2021

Sixta works as a house cleaner. Before the pandemic hit, she had four clients; now she has just one. To pay her room rental of $600 a month, she collects bottles every day. Alcohol claimed the life of Sixta's youngest son during the pandemic.

https://p.dw.com/p/3tQX5

Sixta is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived in New York for 34 years. Long ago she and her husband parted ways, leaving Sixta to raise five children on her own here. She collects bottles to get by, though recently she’s earned even less than usual, because she went on a hunger strike for two weeks. Together with other activists, Sixta is calling on the US government to help needy, undocumented immigrants like herself. Aid organization Feeding America estimates that some 50 million people in the US suffer from food insecurity due to the pandemic. In his report, Bastian Hartig documents the growing gap between the rich and the poor in New York. https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity