The flooding that hit SLO County in early January impacted everyone, but one group is ineligible for most federal aid programs—undocumented families.
“They don’t qualify for federal assistance programs because of that requirement that they need to be legally here,” said Mariana Gutierrez with Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO).
CAPSLO recently received a $3,000 grant from SLO County UndocuSupport to help some of those families with no strings attached.
“This allows us to really connect with those individuals that have also been impacted in an immediate response,” Gutierrez said. “Getting the necessary information and then providing that check directly to them.”
UndocuSupport donated a total of $21,000 to local organizations to bridge the gap for undocumented families impacted by the disaster. Rita Casaverde, chair of the organization’s executive committee, explained that UndocuSupport started raising funds to help families during the pandemic.
“In January, we were able to look at the funds that we had in the bank account and decide to do another round of grant giving specifically for storm or disaster support,” Casaverde said. “We distribute them through … organizations that we had already established contact with in the past and that had received funds from us in the past.”
During the storms, Gutierrez said, CAPSLO received around 30 to 40 phone calls requesting aid.
“If there was a need identified, then our staff members would submit the formal request and fiscal will go ahead and send out that check,” Gutierrez said. “It ranged from family to family, so some families received $300 in financial support, [with a] maximum of $500.”
For undocumented families or individuals, there are several barriers when it comes to accessing aid, especially from government or state agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Chelsea Ruiz, UndocuSupport’s program manager, said that in addition to transportation barriers, and a lack of technological literacy and child care, many undocumented field workers have a unique language barrier even though FEMA offers Spanish translation services.
Many speak Mixteco, a indigenous language that’s only spoken, not written, which adds another hurdle for undocumented individuals.
“People have [fear], you know, for good reason, right? Maybe they don’t know— like, ‘Does this government agency share information with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]? I don’t know, I can’t risk it,'” Ruiz said. “So they’ll just kind of opt out, or just kind of do what the landlord says or what their boss says because they don’t know what their rights are. And they can’t afford to stand up for themselves.”
In addition to coordinating efforts and resources with other local organizations, UndocuSupport has been working with the county’s Office of Emergency Services to accommodate undocumented individuals. Ruiz said the county has tried to alleviate barriers to access with the temporary disaster recovery center it set up to help victims of the storms. That center, located in the Veterans Memorial Building in San Luis Obispo, is slated to close on Feb. 14. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
“I feel like they’re doing their very best to, you know, bring all the agencies together—like the hours of operation are till 7 p.m., which is really helpful. And having a good time and providing transportation,” Ruiz said. “I mean, obviously, there’s always room for improvement, right? But my experience has been that the county is trying very hard and doing everything in their power that they know of to make this accessible to as many people as possible.”
Fast fact
• The 2023 California Mid-State Fair, taking place from July 19 to 30 at the Paso Robles Event Center, is now accepting applications for singers and bands that want to perform during the event. Apply by March 31 for a shot at the spotlight this summer at midstatefair.com. Δ
Contact Staff Writer Shwetha Sundarrajan at shwetha@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 9-19, 2023.