Nearly a year after the San Diego floods, these neighbors are still not home. Now a new cliff may be looming. – San Diego Union-Tribune

This year’s holiday season will feel very different for some San Diegans who are still trying to rebuild nearly a year after catastrophic flooding that displaced thousands of families.

Some spent Thanksgiving away from their families and had nowhere to meet. Others used the time off to work on reconstruction in the hope of returning home before Christmas.

Others who were lucky enough to have already returned to their homeland are not out of the woods yet.

And as the year draws to a close, Clariza Marin, who helped organize flood recovery efforts, worries that another cliff face could fall to flood victims.

Some have had to rush to rent new homes at higher rents than they could afford – leases that could soon expire. Rent subsidies and other financial assistance from others are running out.

Soon these families will have exhausted their resources and will once again be looking for affordable housing.

“There are so many lessons to learn,” Marin said.

Martha Navarro counts herself as one of the lucky ones. At the end of July, she was able to move back into her Southcrest home with her husband, two sons and dog — but the transition wasn’t easy.

They are among the few families who have returned to their homes on Beta Street, one of the streets hardest hit in January. Many neighbors are still busy rebuilding; Other homes are for sale or have recently been sold.

Her family’s flood insurance helped cover the cost of home repairs, but not the cost of damaged appliances and belongings.

She estimates they’ve already spent $20,000 to $25,000, but are still missing many other essentials that make up a home, like smaller kitchen appliances or cooking utensils. She only bought the essentials – things like pots, pans and a coffee maker.

“It was little things like that that upset me because I don’t try to buy everything again or remember exactly what I had,” she said.

Dozens of other families are facing similar or worse situations, said Marin, who became chief financial officer of the Harvey Family Foundation earlier this year to help with its flood recovery efforts.

Although Marin hopes to return to her regular, full-time job soon, she and the nonprofit’s director, Armon Harvey, say there is still much work to be done to help flood victims.

“We’re doing outreach, door knocking and … we’re still finding more homes that still need help,” Marin said. “There are families with children sleeping on the floor and covered in mold.”

More than 300 families have received financial assistance since the county gave $4.2 million to the San Diego Housing Commission to create a program to help eligible homeowners, landlords and renters repair their homes or to find new ones.

However, there were certain parameters for how the aid could be disbursed. Only people who lived in the city of San Diego and had used the county’s hotel voucher program by May 23 were eligible.

That’s why community groups like the Harvey Family Foundation created their own assistance program, offering help with construction, labor and materials needed for reconstruction, especially to people who didn’t receive county housing assistance.

The foundation has spent $530,000 to help dozens of families – 39 who have completed reconstruction and another 22 whose work is still underway – and has helped facilitate other donations, such as free painting and equipment donations .

At least two dozen families are still waiting for assistance from the program. Marin said the foundation expects 70% of the homes to be completed within the next three weeks.

Each family received up to $25,000 depending on how much work they needed and how much help they received from elsewhere. An additional $10,000 will be set aside for specific homes that are in extreme situations.

The Housing Commission was supposed to provide up to $660,000 to the foundation’s program to support its efforts, but the foundation had only received about $250,000 as of last week.

“To continue supporting housing restoration without interruption, SDHC is transferring $100,000 in SDHC funds to the Harvey Family Foundation as we work with them on the reimbursement process for city funds, which requires documentation such as invoices, estimates, proof of payment, receipts, etc “are required,” said Commission spokesman Scott Marshall.

The remaining approximately $300,000 will not be paid out until the foundation submits financial reports.

Marin fears this will further delay recovery efforts — she says the amount is too large for the nonprofit to cover.

“We’re trying to get through all this red tape and figure it out,” Marin said, adding that they hope to bring as many families home as possible by Christmas.

Since the Housing Commission’s own financial assistance program ended in August, more than $4.5 million has been distributed to 313 families, with another $275,000 scheduled to be distributed Nov. 13 through March, according to the commission’s most recent report.

Nearly all of the 359 households that were eligible through participation in the county’s hotel voucher program have applied, and all but 32 say they have since found stable housing. Another 252 applied but were deemed ineligible.

Of the more than 300 who received aid, more than half opted for lump sum payments of up to $15,100, requiring less paperwork. Most others receive rent subsidies for up to six months.

The Housing Commission program also reimbursed some families for hotel or moving expenses, helped some with security deposits and offered $1,500 in leasing incentives to some landlords.

In a recent update to the City Council on flood recovery efforts, Commission President and CEO Lisa Jones said approximately $900,000 in unused and uncommitted funds would be used to assist flood victims who had applied , but were deemed ineligible because they had not participated in the county’s hotel voucher program.

These households will each receive lump sum payments of up to $5,500.

Down the street from the Navarros’ home, the Southcrest home that Ashley Manzano and four family members once lived in – a home her 89-year-old grandmother has owned for half a century – is one of many that remain vacant.

She and some of her family members participated in the county’s hotel voucher program for a time, but since May, Manzano has been shuttling between friends’ homes – first with one friend in Los Angeles, then with another in Temecula.

“It’s pretty difficult because sometimes time runs out in a home – you stay there a little too long,” Manzano said. “So it was just stressful.”

She says it’s even harder for other family members, especially those with disabilities who need extra support. One with mental health issues now lives on the streets in National City.

Manzano has recently developed health problems of her own that have prevented her from working – including one that has caused her to gradually lose her eyesight.

She asked a friend and an aunt for financial help. She has started selling some of her belongings. She has traveled from couch to couch, two duffel bags filled with everything she owns in tow, knowing full well that she may have to leave at short notice.

The reconstruction of her family is not yet complete.

Originally published: December 9, 2024 at 5:00 am PST