It's been almost a month since hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been out of work because of the shutdown.
Now, Audrey Murray-Wright is faced with a hard reality. While her bills are piling up, her income is shrinking.
“That's why I work two jobs, so I can pay my bills,” she says.
Because of the shutdown, Murray-Wright is furloughed from her full-time job at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. If the shutdown goes on past January 31, she'll also be furloughed from her second job as a contract worker at the state department.
“I just don't know what I’m gonna do,” she says. “I just don't know. I don't want to lose my home. You see my home. I worked for. I struggled. I worked two job to get everything I got here.
Adding more stress: Murray-Wright has two teenage boys. She recently became a single mother when her husband died from a heart attack less than a year ago.
“I'm going to food banks, trying to get food to make sure I can feed my children, to make sure I can keep a roof over their head,” she says. “My children don't deserve that. They just lost their father.”
With no end to the shutdown in sight, the mother feels not only helpless, but hopeless.
“I'm just trying to stay strong, but this is a struggle for me right now, worrying.”
