Almost three months after a January storm and flash floods killed several people and displaced hundreds of San Diego-area residents, the state is offering one-time Disaster CalFresh benefits to help families recover.
To be eligible for disaster food benefits, people must have lived or worked in storm-impacted areas on Jan. 21, the day record rainfall swelled creeks and rivers, deluging neighborhoods. About 600 people sought emergency shelter.
California’s Department of Social Services said it will provide 30 days of food benefits to families who qualify. A family of four, for instance, could get $973 if they have a monthly income of up to $3,380.
Eligible households also must have lost food or income or incurred such evacuation expenses as hotel or transportation charges.
But time is running out to apply. The application window that opened March 7 closes on March 15. Applicants can call the county’s social services office by calling 877-847-3663 (FOOD) or submit an online pre-registration application.
San Diego County will interview applicants who, if eligible, will receive benefits via an electronic debit card within three days.
County residents can apply regardless of immigration status.
But storm-impacted families already receiving CalFresh do not qualify. They can seek supplemental CalFresh benefits.
When asked why people have only a few days to learn about the program and apply, a state social services spokesperson said California only learned on March 1 that federal emergency funding for individuals would be available.
“The application period was implemented as quickly as possible to ensure that households who experienced adverse effects due to the disaster are able to apply for and receive benefits in a timely manner,” wrote Jason Montiel in an email.
No CalFresh help, but ‘we’re alive’
While hundreds still are trying to recover from the storm, some said they didn’t know about CalFresh disaster benefits, and some said they tried to apply but their earnings exceeded program limits.
Among them is Monserrat Lopez, who had to move from her San Diego neighborhood after the storm. That day, starting at 9 a.m., three inches of rain fell on San Diego in three hours. Some homes flooded, 13,000 homes lost power, and families trudged through streets laden with mud and other debris.
By the time Lopez returned from a friend’s home, her neighbor’s dogs had drowned in the flood and Lopez, a mariachi singer, found her most prized possessions — photos of her son, her guitar and piano — ruined. Clothes, food, and medicine also were gone, she said.
“That day my intuition was telling me not to work from home, so I took my son to school and visited a friend,” said the 29-year-old.
“I could’ve probably died because I have bars on my windows, so there’s no way of escaping through them. And even if I had passed my front door, my neighbor’s storage (shed) was blocking my gate” after water moved it.
It was San Diego’s fourth wettest day since 1850. Police crews handled 112 rescue calls, 182 flood responses, and 60 road closures, while the fire department carried out 148 water and flood rescues.
Now homeless, Lopez and her 8-year-old son slept on friends’ couches for a few days. Then her son’s school told Lopez about Project Rest, a San Diego Unified district program that provides temporary housing for students and families experiencing homelessness. It relocated Lopez and her son to a hotel for a week.
“He went to school one morning and then he no longer has a home,” Lopez said about her son. “I kept echoing to him that what’s important is that we are alive … He misses his drawings; he misses his medals from school awards.”
The day of the storm, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria issued a state of emergency and the county followed soon after. If countywide costs to public facilities reach $15 million and statewide losses reach $72 million, the city said, the federal government would consider a disaster declaration, “triggering financial assistance to reimburse the city for repairs.”
Presidents can declare a Major Disaster Declaration for any natural event that caused damage beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments. Almost a month after the storm, the Biden administration approved California’s request to support individuals and families, allowing San Diego County to request Disaster CalFresh.
State officials said they don’t know how many people will seek the benefits, but Lopez said she tried applying online but saw she has earned too much to qualify.
Disaster claims in San Diego
Gregory Montoya, another San Diego resident sheltering in a hotel, said he hadn’t heard about the CalFresh disaster benefits but plans to apply.
He is among six residents of San Diego’s Southcrest neighborhood who sued the city for damages caused by a 2018 rainstorm. Montoya, 68, argued then that the city’s debris-clogged embankments directed water from Chollas Creek into his home. The lawsuit blamed the city’s lack of drainage controls.
Montoya’s lawyer, Evan Walker, said the city settled in 2022 for more than $200,000, but the deal didn’t require improvements to the drainage system.
“Five years have passed and the drains were never cleaned by the city,’ Montoya said, “even though I’ve sent numerous requests. My property is now damaged. I have an interest in rental properties and they got damaged. Those didn’t have full flood insurance, so I am in a real bind.”
This time Montoya filed a tort complaint, a precursor to a lawsuit, asking the city for $700,000 in damages. If the city does not accept the claim, Montoya could file suit, Walker said. The lawyer also represents about 200 other residents planning similar complaints.
The January rainstorm also displaced people living in 57 affordable housing units in the Rolando Park neighborhood. Sean Elo-Rivera, San Diego’s City Council president, said most of those affected are still in hotels.
“This is one of those situations where multiple things can be true at the same time: the city could have allocated tremendous resources in responding to the floods, and folks’ expectations weren’t met,” he said.
“This is a city of juxtapositions; we have incredible affluence and we have tremendous poverty. The (storm) drew more eyes to those disparities. And the question for us is if we are going to act to reduce those disparities.”
The city said it can’t afford to keep up with stormwater infrastructure maintenance; that fund faces a $1.6 billion deficit. Monthly stormwater fees average 95 cents per home.
Elo-Rivera said the city council is considering a new tax to pay for flood prevention, and he hopes to place a measure on the November ballot, where it would need approval from two-thirds of the voters.
