Sonoma County supervisors raise storm disaster aid to $1 million
After more than 1,000 people flooded temporary recovery centers during January’s severe winter storms, Sonoma County supervisors have more than tripled the emergency assistance allocated last month for low-income residents.
On Tuesday, the board approved up to $1 million in disaster aid for qualifying individuals.
More than $600,000 is already spoken for by the 1,080 people who funneled through two hastily established storm recovery centers in Guerneville and Healdsburg and applied for help after wage loss and other weather-related impacts left them struggling economically the week of Jan. 15.
At the time, only $300,000 had been allocated for applicants under a pilot program that was developed and launched in 72 hours, in collaboration with community-based nonprofit partners, even as storms clouds still hovered overhead, said Alegría De La Cruz, director of the Sonoma County Office of Equity.
But the money was quickly outstripped by the number of people and the depth of their need — a result of lost work, food spoilage from extended power failures, evacuation costs, storm damage, school closures and a host of other issues tied to the string of atmospheric rivers that bombarded California from late December to Jan. 17.
De La Cruz and County Emergency Management Director Chris Godley told supervisors that, if limited to the $300,000 initially allocated by County Administrator Sheryl Bratton under board authority, they could fund the first 926 individuals to qualify.
But there would be only enough to pay what De La Cruz called an “undignified amount of assistance” to people who had waited for hours in long lines, hungry, often with children, and often in the cold and rain, sometimes returning a second day to disclose highly personal information.
Another 154 people who applied and qualified though funds were exhausted two days into the effort would go completely without, she said.
De La Cruz and Godley recommended the board approve additional funding — a total $628,750 — so all qualified applicants could receive the recommended allotment, mostly $600. The range was $250 to $800, based on severity of loss, determined by a point system.
But Supervisor Susan Gorin suggested the total be raised to $1 million so that further outreach could be conducted to people in her Sonoma Valley district, as well as southern Sonoma County, who might qualify for assistance.
“You did an amazing job,” she told Godley and De La Cruz, “and not good enough.”
Ultimately, her four board colleagues agreed, saying the money should be available to anyone in the county who meets income eligibility requirements and suffered qualifying storm-related losses. Initial efforts were aimed at disproportionately affected individuals in west and north county — areas most affected by power outages, school and road closures — particularly those ineligible for mainstream disaster aid geared toward property owners with significant storm damage.
Board Chairman Chris Coursey voted with the group only after noting that however much money was set aside, “the need is much greater than the resource.”
“It’s not sustainable, and it’s not going to take care of the need,” he said.
Coursey added that pressure should be put on state and federal governments to develop assistance programs for anyone left without work due to natural disasters, given the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events.
Some community advocates also have been vocal in calling for the wine industry to step up and play a greater role in supporting agricultural workers, many of whom were rained out of the vineyards for several weeks in January just as they expected to begin work in earnest after a lull in November and December.
“This is the second blow farmworkers have felt in the last six to seven weeks,” after a shortened grape harvest that reduced the savings on which most depend to get through the end of the year, said Zeke Guzmán, president of Latinos Unidos del Condado de Sonoma.
Davin Cárdenas, director of organizing for North Bay Jobs With Justice, stood at the rostrum and looked mockingly around as if searching for industry representatives who had fled the room.
“Where did the grape growers go, and where is their support for employees in a time of desperate need?” he asked. “ … They’re absent.”
North Bay Jobs With Justice has been leading a movement to enhance worker protections for farm laborers through county policies that would include extra pay for those required to work in hazardous conditions, such as wildfire smoke. They also are lobbying for disaster insurance for low-wage workers subject to lost income due to wildfires, flooding and the sorts of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions expected to become increasingly frequent and severe as the effects of human-caused climate change intensify.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: