The pandemic converted Wendy Hamilton from a hairdresser into full-time homeschool teacher — and she plans to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.
Despite Gov. Brian Kemp’s recent move to allow salons and certain other businesses to start reopening, she won’t be returning to her regular job any time soon.
“It’s just not a risk that I’m willing to take,” Hamilton, 45, said this last week.
Hamilton is just one of the millions of workers and residents in Georgia weighing the risks of returning to work or patronizing one of the narrow segment of businesses that Kemp allowed to reopen on Friday.
Salons, barber shops, nail salons, tattoo parlors, and bowling alleys were permitted to reopen after being temporarily shuttered to help try and stem the coronavirus’ spread.
The move, which drew sharp disapproval even from President Donald Trump, was announced by Kemp early last week. The governor said his actions are aimed at helping restart Georgia's flailing economy, even as confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to mount.
Some elected officials have supported Kemp's decision but many others have publicly panned it, including mayors and county-level leaders from Albany to Atlanta to Augusta.
But the governor is pressing on and Georgia will take a bigger step on Monday, when movie theaters will be allowed to open and restaurants can resume dine-in service if they take certain health precautions laid out by the state. That leaves residents and business owners to face another round of what some say are potentially life and death decisions.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution talked with Georgia business owners, workers and would-be patrons to understand the factors they’re considering as the state takes its uneasy first steps out of lockdown.
Predictably, reactions and plans were mixed.
Some eligible businesses chose to reopen their doors Friday; many more did not. Some restaurants are eagerly awaiting the chance to resume more regular operations on Monday; many more have said it’s too soon to take the governor up on his offer.
And like Hamilton, the hairdresser and mother of one, some workers said they don’t feel safe.
Hamilton is an independent contractor and still paying rent for her space at a small boutique salon in Avondale Estates, even though she hasn’t worked since mid-March.
While her husband is able to work from home, she doesn’t get paycheck if she doesn’t leave the house. And like many in her situation, trying to collect unemployment has been difficult and, thus far, unfruitful.
But she said there’s no way she and her colleagues could maintain sufficient social distancing among themselves, much less with clients, if they went back to work. She said allowing high-touch industries like hers to reopen is “insane.”
And even if she wanted to go back, she’d be in another tough spot. She doesn’t have child care for her elementary school-aged daughter.
“The last thing I’m going to do right now is bring somebody into my home,” she said.
Summer Butler is in a similar position.
The proprietor of Deka Lash, an eyelash extension studio near Cumberland Mall in Cobb County, she’s among the many Georgia business owners having to balance economic and health concerns for both herself and her employees.
Butler said she’s taking a financial beating but won’t be reopening any time soon.
She said she can't keep her workers — who have a job that puts them inches away from a client's face — out of harm's way. She said that the extra protective gear and cleaning supplies recommended aren't easily found, even if she wanted to reopen.
Four of her employees are collecting unemployment and are supportive of her decision to remain closed.
One employee, who hasn’t gotten unemployment, was willing to come back to work to pay the bills, Butler said.
Butler, a mother of four, has herself picked up odd jobs like working for the grocery service Instacart to make up some of her lost income. But the fact that her husband owns a small gym, another business slowed dramatically by the pandemic, only makes things tougher. She’s already depleted her business banking account.
Still, though: “I’m just going to have to do what allows me to sleep at night.”
Craig Peterson feels differently. He’s among the crowd that has decried policies like stay-at-home orders and business restrictions as unnecessary government overreach that hurt individuals trying to make a living in this country.
Peterson said the partial shutdown Kemp ordered in early April would’ve meant dire straits for the equine therapy farm he helps run in Snellville, had it not been for donations from supporters. Folks who are scared of being infected with COVID-19 aren’t being forced to resume life as normal as new types of businesses reopen, he said.
“We are all responsible adults and know how to social distance and keep our hands clean all on our own, while still being able to work and make a living,” Peterson said. “All on our own without the need of a lockdown.”
Similar sentiments were expressed this week in rural Monroe County, where local leaders were the first to formally urge Kemp to begin easing restrictions.
“Initially, the shutdown was necessary, but for how long can we handle it?” said Christie Lambert. She and her husband plan to reopen their ice cream shop in the county seat of Forsyth, about an hour’s drive south of Atlanta, on Monday.
“Kemp isn’t forcing anyone to open,” Lambert said. “He’s giving people the option — and it should be a personal decision.”
Emily Little, meanwhile, is among the thousands of Georgia workers who feel like they have no choice but to return to work. The 31-year-old mother of three will resume tending bar at a popular Cobb County chain restaurant on Monday.
She’s not happy about it, but she needs the money and is worried refusing to report back to work would jeopardize her unemployment claim that would cover the past several weeks. She’s skeptical about the feasibility of restaurants actually taking the necessary steps to ensure everyone’s safety.
“Risking my health and that of my family so somebody can enjoy the ambiance of a booth instead of their couch while they eat chicken tenders and [drink] Bud Light hardly seems essential,” Little said.
— Staff writer Greg Bluestein contributed to this article.
