The extra $600 a week had been an immense help to Henderson Belle, a 58-year-old in Jamaica, New York, who was furloughed from his job at an airport Starbucks in late April. The CARES Act funds helped him cover expenses—including rent, food, and an auto-loan payment—for himself and his 31-year-old daughter, who is disabled.

But now that the supplemental assistance has been cut off, he’s not sure he’ll be able to make ends meet this month and beyond. “It is very hard and scary,” Belle, a member of Unite Here Local 100, a union representing food-service workers in the New York City area, told me. “I know there’s going to be some things [in my budget] that I’m going to be stuck on.” He’d like to return to his Starbucks job, but he doesn’t know if or when he’ll be able to do that, so he might start looking for other employment soon. The next few months are uncertain for him. “That is why I put God in front, and God will make a way,” he said.

Many Americans are now, like Belle, bracing for financial shortfalls and potentially huge consequences. “Absent federal policy, we’re going to see more housing instability as well as food insecurity, probably some utility shutoffs,” Mattingly said. “I’m frankly terrified.”