In pandemic-induced renter’s market, some Bay Area residents still struggle with rent

The Bay Area might now be a buyer’s market for apartments, but not for renters like Cecilia Orellana. She has not worked since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and now owes over $13,000 of unpaid rent.

Orellana immigrated from El Salvador in 2001 and her family now  lives in the Woodland Park Apartments in East Palo Alto  —  a working-class, majority Latinx community. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment for $2,850 a month with five family members: her husband, sister, son and two nephews.