LOS ANGELES -- The ongoing Hollywood writers' strike is not only affecting big studios in the American entertainment mecca, but also small local businesses who have relied on the industry for decades.

The strike began on May 2 when the Writers Guild in Hollywood halted their work after the studios failed to produce a new contract that would ensure job security in the face of the increased reliance on artificial intelligence.

As a result of the strike, many local businesses are experiencing economic hardships that have seen some shrink their workforce.
Among them is family owned prop house, History for Hire. From "Titanic" to "The Karate Kid", a long list of Hollywood movies has come to life by using props provided by the family business Pam Elyea and her husband have owned for nearly 40 years.
Normally, they would have anywhere from 100 to 150 clients in any given month.

But things have come to a grinding halt ever since nearly 15,000 writers from the Writers Guild of America went on a strike, leaving numerous TV shows and productions delayed or postponed indefinitely.

Elyea says they have already had to lay off 20 percent of their staff. And for the others, the uncertainty around the duration of the strike is a major concern.
It is a common concern among the thousands of production workers, who have been left without work in a city with increasingly higher cost of living.

And for Elyea and her husband, expenses keep building up.
Hollywood's previous writers' strike 15 years ago stopped productions for 100 days, taking out nearly two billion U.S. dollars from the local economy.