LOS ANGELES — Since Tuesday, Diana Cruz has juggled her stay-at-home job as an government assistant with the care of her youngsters after the Los Angeles college strike pressured their courses to be canceled for 3 days.

Ms. Cruz earns $36,000 a 12 months and is elevating her two daughters and teenage son in a two-bedroom condo in Los Angeles, the place she splits the $1,700 lease along with her mom.

Just a few miles away, Yolanda Mims Reed makes about $24 an hour as a part-time particular training assistant at Hamilton Excessive College. She dietary supplements her revenue by caring for an older lady and by doing hair.

Mother and father like Ms. Cruz could also be flustered by the strike, however few are indignant with the strikers like Ms. Reed.

The dad and mom see their lives mirrored within the struggles of the bus drivers, cafeteria staff and classroom aides strolling the picket strains — working-class residents who tackle a number of jobs to outlive in Southern California.

“In case you’re not making huge six-figure salaries, then, yeah, it’s onerous,” Ms. Cruz, 33, mentioned. “How will you not assist their trigger?”

The strike has sharply illustrated the financial divide in fashionable Los Angeles, the place low-wage staff can barely scrap collectively lease whereas prosperous professionals blocks away are keen to pay $13 for a coconut smoothie. On this case, the college district’s working-class dad and mom and faculty staff are on the identical facet of the divide.

The Los Angeles Unified College District, the nation’s second-largest, depends on tens of hundreds of workers members who’re struggling to maintain up with rising prices in a state that lacks sufficient housing. A lot of the households they serve are in the identical boat, with 89 % of the district’s households qualifying as economically deprived, in response to district knowledge.

Housing is the most important expense for folks residing within the Los Angeles space, in response to the newest Bureau of Labor Statistics knowledge. Residents commit 38 % of their yearly spending to housing, in contrast with the nationwide common of roughly 34 %, in response to the company.

“The excessive value of residing in Los Angeles permeates each facet of life and infrequently forces low-income residents into unattainable decisions between primary wants like housing, security, well being care and meals,” mentioned Kyla Thomas, a sociologist on the College of Southern California Dornsife Middle for Financial and Social Analysis. “Many in L.A. stay getting ready to disaster.”

LABarometer, a survey that the Dornsife Middle conducts to trace social situations and attitudes within the area, discovered that about 60 % of native tenants had been “rent-burdened,” that means that they spend greater than 30 % of their family revenue on housing.

Griselda Perez, 51, mentioned that her household stretched to afford their $2,000 lease for a two-bedroom condo within the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Her eldest son, 20, shares a room together with his two youthful brothers, 11 and 9, who attend district colleges. Each day, she mentioned, the household feels the squeeze of gentrification, as extra folks with larger incomes transfer east from downtown.

Ms. Perez mentioned she tried to elucidate the strike to her sons by likening their state of affairs — they can’t afford birthday events and journeys to Disneyland — to the challenges confronted by the individuals who work at their colleges.

“After I see the cafeteria staff, after I see the woman on the entrance door, after I see the woman working on the mum or dad middle, we speak mother to mother,” she mentioned. “The struggles that they’ve are the identical struggles that now we have.”

The walkout continued on Wednesday with picket strains at colleges and campus services, together with at district headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. College assist staff have been joined by the district’s 35,000 academics within the work stoppage. The strike is predicted to finish on Thursday.

The Native 99 department of the Service Workers Worldwide Union, which represents 30,000 assist staff in Los Angeles Unified, mentioned that half of its members who responded to a 2022 inside survey mentioned they labored a second job.

The union additionally mentioned that its members earned a mean of $25,000 a 12 months — a determine that Los Angeles Unified officers mentioned included each part- and full-time staff. The complete-time wage common was unclear.

The union famous that 64 % of its members had been Latino and 20 % had been Black. The households they serve are likewise overwhelmingly Latino, some 74 %, an outgrowth of broad migration and inhabitants tendencies.

Austin Beutner, who served because the district’s superintendent in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, mentioned {that a} overwhelming majority of fogeys understood the plight of the Native 99 members as a result of they lived in the identical neighborhoods. He mentioned the half-dozen college principals he spoke to on Tuesday mentioned they had been seeing overwhelming assist from dad and mom for the workers members.

“The intersection of faculty workers and the group is tight and shut,” Mr. Beutner mentioned. “They’re the group. So a lot of them have members of the family in colleges or neighbors in colleges.”

Native 99 has leaned on that assist and tried to border its contract battle as a struggle for low-wage staff throughout Los Angeles. And parental backing — for now — might assist the union on the negotiating desk.

Staff are in search of a 30 % general elevate, in addition to an extra $2-an-hour improve for the lowest-paid staff. The union’s members have been working and not using a contract since 2020.

Alberto M. Carvalho, the present district superintendent, acknowledged “historic inequities” that staff had confronted, in a press release on Tuesday.

“I perceive our staff’ frustration that has been brewing, not only for a pair years however most likely for many years,” Mr. Carvalho mentioned.

College districts can not elevate revenues as rapidly as private-sector companies would possibly by way of worth will increase throughout an inflationary interval. The Los Angeles district depends on funds which can be decided on the state degree, and, after years of development, California is projected to face a deficit within the coming fiscal 12 months. The college district additionally continues to lose college students every year, which suggests it receives much less cash as a result of funding relies on enrollment.

The district has countered with a 23 % wage improve, unfold throughout a number of years, and a 3 % onetime bonus. Mr. Carvalho mentioned that the newest proposal sought to deal with the union’s wants “whereas additionally remaining fiscally accountable and retaining the district in a financially steady place.”

At a time when public assist for organized labor is excessive, strikes by academics and training staff have change into more and more frequent. Confronted with fast inflation and the prospect of upper pay within the personal sector, public staff have been feeling a necessity for drastic change.

“Everyone else will get raises. What about us?” Jovita Padilla, a 40-year-old bus driver, mentioned on Tuesday.

In a high-poverty district like Los Angeles Unified, college closures not solely lower off class instruction but additionally essential college meals. The district affords free breakfast and lunch for all of them, no matter revenue, and plenty of youngsters depend on these meals in the course of the college week. With negotiations at a standstill, the district arrange supervision websites the place working dad and mom might drop off youngsters, in addition to areas the place households might decide up three days’ value of breakfasts and lunches.

Gabriela Cruz, a district mum or dad who shouldn’t be associated to Diana Cruz, dropped by one of many distribution websites this week and picked up a field of meals, which she mentioned was an enormous assist. “My children have to eat on a regular basis, and the free meals is sweet for us as a result of we spend rather a lot on groceries,” she mentioned.

Ms. Cruz, 44, mentioned working as a receptionist at an actual property workplace on the primary day of the strike was not straightforward. She needed to take her younger daughter and son to work.

“The reality is that it was troublesome to work,” she mentioned.

Her household of 5 is dependent upon her part-time job that pays her $15 an hour. She works 30 hours per week. Her husband works full time in a restaurant and is paid the minimal wage.

“All the things is so costly,” she mentioned.

Reporting was contributed by Shawn Hubler from Sacramento, and Corina Knoll and Ana Facio-Krajcer from Los Angeles. Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.