TOPEKA
Re’Nae Pherigo hasn’t slept in about 36 hours. The next time she closes her eyes it might be because she’s passed out from hunger and dehydration.
Pherigo, 29, a former EMT, left her three children, husband and home in Wellington, Kansas, at 4 a.m. Monday to begin a hunger strike outside the state’s unemployment office in Topeka.
She’s one of hundreds of Kansans who have struggled to receive unemployment benefits from the state’s beleaguered labor department. Her vigil, she said, is for her own family but also an attempt to help others.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Pherigo and her husband have drained their savings, their 401-Ks and money set aside for their children’s education. They’ve sold everything of worth aside from the personal items that mean too much.
Until Monday, her life for most of the last year has consisted of waking and using three phones to make repeated calls to the Department of Labor until she either breaks down or her husband urges her to stop. She spends the afternoon looking for work.
“I’m out, I’m depleted and I’m out of time,” Pherigo said.
Her hunger strike, she said, is a “last ditch effort.” One she feels prepared for because of her time as a Wellington EMT and as a corrections worker.
Aside from a small sip of water with medication, she plans to drink nothing until she and her husband receive their benefits. She said she will eat nothing until she gets a sense that other Kansans, who she’s been in touch with on social media, are also getting help.
She’s called dispatch and police in Topeka to tell them what she is doing. A tag on her backpack is meant to let EMT’s know where to find her medical information if she loses consciousness.
For her own safety, Pherigo said she doesn’t plan to sleep. Her long shifts as an EMT have prepared her for that.
It didn’t take long for Pherigo to get the agency’s attention. Within an hour of arriving, she said, the agency’s deputy Secretary asked for her personal information so he could check on her claim.
Two hours in, she showed a mix of hope, fear and determination. Standing outside the department, she allowed tears to roll down her face and onto her facemask while she talked about her husband and children.
“Tragedy is just not something that discriminates,” she said. “Right now going back to EMS is just not a possibility so I guess essentially this is my way of still saving people.”
In a news conference, Monday, Gov. Laura Kelly said she couldn’t comment on individual claims but said with federal aid available again, issues are being resolved.
“I’m doing everything in my power to fix things now and ensure that never again will Kansans experience these obstacles to help,” she said.
Department struggles
The Kansas Department of Labor has been in turmoil since unemployment claims first began to spike in March.
For the past year, it has struggled to stay on top of the record number of claims and administer federal programs. Kansans like Pherigo have reported calling the department dozens and hundreds of times a day but never getting through.
The agency has also reported a huge volume of fraudulent claims.
After a lag in payments from the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, caused by political turmoil in Washington last year, the agency started paying out federal benefits again last week.
As of last week, the department’s call center was receiving more than 350,000 calls a day with a backlog of more than 12,000 people in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program.
The problems for employees and claimants have been made worse by the agency’s 1970s-era IT system.
A scroll through Facebook pages and comments on the department’s own posts show a fever pitch of frustration and desperation.
People share stories of losing their homes, selling their belongings and struggling to feed their children while they wait on benefits. Posts beg for help or for information.
Pherigo said she understands what it means to have your hands tied. She sympathizes with the officials at the labor department but said there needs to be more transparency about what’s going on and, at a minimum, Kansans should be able to talk to someone about their benefits.
“I know that they have had a lot of struggles, but why have we not called in bigger and badder resources,” Pherigo said.
In a letter to the department she says they have “miserably failed” thousands of Kansans facing tragedy.
‘Pretty damn scared’
Pherigo has tried not to let herself think of the worst case scenario.
In an ideal situation, Pherigo said the department lets her work as a liaison with Kansans who need help.
But it’s also possible her personal demonstration could end in arrest or that she’ll never go home to her children and simply be “remembered as the girl who offed herself in front of KDOL for nothing.”
“I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty damn scared,” she said.
Before she left, Pherigo was honest with her 8 and 10 year old children. She showed them social media posts explaining people’s struggles and the messages she received since she announced she would take on the hunger strike. She told them that it’s important to stand up for what’s right and against injustice.
“I wanted to practice what I preach,” she said. “We all hope that in a given situation we would stand up for what is right but how often do we really act on it.”
Although she risked never seeing her husband and children again, Pherigo said she didn’t feel she had a choice.
“I will quite literally sit here and die before I go home empty handed,” she said.
This story was originally published February 22, 2021 3:38 PM.
