'Survival': Tenants, landlords brace for largest rent strike in decades

Kenia Alcocer is used to sitting down at the kitchen table to crunch her family's monthly budget and figure out how she can make ends meet.

But this month is different. Alcocer, 34, gave birth in January to her second child, a boy named Genaro, whose numerous health issues have added a huge financial strain on her family. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic putting millions of people out of work and increasing financial anxiety across the country, she doesn't think she'll be able to make rent.

"I'm having to choose whether I pay my rent or pay my medical bills or pay other stuff or buy food," she said in a phone interview. "I also have a 5-year-old, my husband got laid off, and so these are the questions that everybody's having to ask themselves."