People whose homes were damaged in the Jan. 22 floods and are still staying in local hotels will get six more weeks before they have to find a new place to live, after county supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a voucher program that was set to end next week.
After hearing painful testimony from dozens of flood victims who’ve been struggling to repair their homes or find new ones, the supervisors unanimously agreed to extend the temporary lodging program through June 21.
Supervisors had previously approved nearly $20 million to fund recovery efforts and create the short-term lodging program, as well as provide food support. The extension will cost another $9 million from the county’s general reserve fund.
Supervisors also approved another $5.1 million in financial assistance to help flood victims transition out of the program and cover housing-related costs, such as moving and storage, application fees and security deposits.
The vote appeared to come as a surprise to many, but supervisors said they were swayed by flood victims’ testimony.
“We acknowledge this has not been perfect, but people have been working day and night,” said Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, whose district suffered much of the damage. “None of us want to see anyone without a home, much less those who have lost everything in a matter of hours.”
But supervisors cautioned against hoping for further extensions on the program, which was created as a temporary bridge until flood victims could register for federal aid and long-term support.
The county Housing Authority has been working to assess each person’s participation in the program to determine what’s needed to get them back in homes.
San Diego, National City and Oceanside also have separate housing authorities that have also been providing support to their residents.
It’s those city partners that some supervisors said flood victims should hold accountable, telling residents to call for help in their recovery efforts.
“What I hope for is a true partnership,” Montgomery Steppe said of her city partners. “A partnership means you come to the table with something for your people. And that has not happened yet.”
A total of 1,940 people across 644 households were still participating in the county lodging program as of last week. Eighty-four percent of those households were from the city of San Diego.
Only 6 percent were in unincorporated areas under county jurisdiction, Supervisor Joel Anderson pointed out. “We don’t control your land use, we don’t fix your gullies, we don’t clean out your gutters.”
He chalked up the relatively small impacts to families from unincorporated areas such as Spring Valley to the county’s investment in improving infrastructure there.
“We’re being good neighbors,” he said. “I assure you before the year is out, we’re going to have fires in my district, and I’m going to want that same help, and it’ll be very disappointing if we have to say, ‘We don’t have any money because we gave it to the city of San Diego — and they failed to fix one thing.’”
Among the public speakers Tuesday was San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who said he recognized the county’s investment in flood recovery.
While flood survivors would ideally be supported “in perpetuity,” he said, he understands that county resources are finite. “It has been heartbreaking to watch folks who did nothing wrong lose everything, and they are continuing to try to pick up those pieces,” Elo-Rivera said.
Of the $5.1 million allocated for financial aid to flood victims transitioning out of the lodging program, $500,000 was given to the county and $4.6 million to those in other cities’ jurisdictions.
The county lodging program officially launched Feb. 12, sheltering 2,600 people in 68 hotels across the region at its peak in March, county staff reported.
The program was initially supposed to provide up to 30 days of lodging for residents displaced by the storm, but the board first extended it after hearing from dozens of flood victims in March.
Again Tuesday, dozens — including residents, small business owners and local leaders — showed up to plead that the county extend it again.
“Time is all we need,” said Southcrest resident Kristina Lemoine, whose neighborhood on Beta Street was among those hit hardest. “Why relocate funds when it doesn’t benefit the owners? We aren’t looking for a rental; we are wanting to fix our houses.”
Several residents who already lost nearly everything they owned said they will truly be homeless when the program ends. Many others tearfully shared how they have failed to find affordable housing and struggled to meet credit or income requirements.
Spring Valley resident Lisa Sheffield is appealing FEMA’s denial of her application for rental assistance and struggling to find a home for her family, including her husband, a disabled veteran, and four dogs.
“None of us want to continue living in a hotel … I want to go home,” Sheffield said, crying. “I have nothing. I just need some kind of help … as we’re transitioning.”
She and others like Della Tucker simply want to be able to provide a secure home for their families.
“I’ve got teenagers — everything was destroyed — and trying to keep my children in a hotel room and give them a normal life has been really hard,” Tucker said. “I just need one thing to be stable for them, just for a moment.”
Nearly 8,000 people from about 2,400 households were affected by the January floods, nearly all in underserved communities where flood insurance coverage is low, according to data collected by the county. The flooding displaced about half of those households and caused $30.8 million in public damage.
Hundreds of county staff were temporarily reassigned to support recovery in the immediate aftermath, and dozens of community and government organizations helped provide shelter, supplies and services. Two disaster recovery centers in Spring Valley and Mountain View served more than 2,000 families.
More than $22.2 million in FEMA funding has been paid out to thousands of people affected to help with housing costs and other essential disaster-related expenses.
More than 12,800 applications were approved for disaster CalFresh in San Diego County, and more than $5.7 million in benefits were distributed to people and families to buy food as of the beginning of April. But that program ended last week.
Eligible participants in the county‘s lodging program also receive seven-day digital vouchers to buy food through UberEats each week. As of Friday, the county had allocated $1.9 million in such vouchers for nearly 2,000 people and had paid community-based organizations serving people meals more than $220,000.
And 536 businesses and organizations had been approved for U.S. Small Business Administration loans totaling $32 million.
County staff expects to present a full operational update on costs related to the January flooding at the board meeting on May 21.
