SAN DIEGO — It's been two weeks since floods damaged homes in much of southeast San Diego.
Since then, families said they have united to help each other but many feel they are ignored and there’s been a delay or lack of resources.
The Alvarez sisters along with their pets climbed to the roof of their Shelltown duplex on Cottonwood Street to escape the rising flood waters on Jan. 22.
“There’s no time to think we couldn’t do is just act, let’s act,” said Patty Alvarez.
She wishes local leaders would have the same urgency.
“It’s now, not tomorrow. It’s the same way we had to react. We couldn’t wait. And just put yourself in our shoes,” said Patty.
Her sister said they’ve had to rely on non-profits for help and want the city to step up.
“Show up, show up with a plan. The big thing, a plan, direction resources. Make yourself present,” said Maria Alvarez.
Living in cars since the storm
Down the street on Birch in Southcrest, Martin Aguilar, says he and his family including their teenage son lived in their car for the first week before receiving a five-day hotel voucher.
“We stayed in our cars because we didn’t have a place to stay, nobody was stepping up for us to come,” said the father.
The house he rents backs up the flood channel that overflowed and damaged his entire home.
“I’m afraid even to go into the house,” said Aguilar.
He says in the short amount of time he did spend in the house after the storm he was exposed to mold. “
“I got like an infection in my chest that has started getting worse. I need to go to the doctor but I haven’t gone,” said Aguilar.
On Monday, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and southeast San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno sent a joint news release to CBS 8 touting its efforts it has made in the aftermath. It mentioned comprehensive outreach, clearing of the channel, hotel vouchers, housing assistance, emergency food needs and city crews on the ground in the affected areas.
CBS 8 followed up with the mayor’s office to expand on the news release and the neighbor concerns.
City response
A spokesperson said since the January 22 storm, Mayoral and Council staff and the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) have done daily canvassing in affected areas.
They have walked more than 30 streets in seven heavily impacted neighborhoods and visited 800 homes. It also says they have had more than 1,000 constituent conversations and 17 bilingual informational flyers and distributed nearly 12,000 pieces of literature and more than 24 informative social media posts.
Some neighbors disagree and say the response was delayed or short sighted.
“We had to take it upon ourselves and our family or community that showed up to help each other out,” said Maria Alvarez.
Now with another storm soaking the area, families demand to be heard.
“It's traumatizing. There's no words to explain all the emotions," she said.
Many families affected by the storm are planning a demonstration at Chicano Park on Wednesday at 10 a.m. They are demanding accountability, meaningful representation in decision making in the aftermath of the storm, managing funds for critical infrastructure, immediate access to essential services, long-term solutions and equitable investment in underserved communities.
The mayor’s office also included further details about it’s response to the storm.
Staff from the Mayor’s Office, City Council and operations staff have been on the ground since the day of the storm – as soon as the floodwaters had receded enough that it was safe to go in.
Mayor Staff, City Council Staff, City staff and the City's Fire-Rescue Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has walked door to door to the homes on the streets marked in red on the attached maps. The maps were created based informed by on-the-ground documentation of which homes and businesses were impacted by the storm.
The Mayor has had a dedicated Community Engagement staff member stationed in each of the impacted neighborhoods since the day of the storm. The Community Engagement staff member in Southcrest has also been available to the residents via text/phone at all hours.
The Mayor's office created four resource hubs at the Southcrest Teen Center, Mountain View/Beckwourth Library, Encanto Recreation Center, and College-Rolando library to launch canvassing staff to the impacted neighborhoods and to accept and distribute donated items. The list of donated items was curated based on the needs articulated by residents to Mayoral and City Council staff.
Additionally, the Mayor's office facilitated MTS buses last Monday and Tuesday specifically for residents in Southcrest to access the Local Assistance Center in Spring Valley – a fact that was directly promoted to the residents on the 3600 block of Birch.
Many individuals expressed a desire to have a Local Assistance Center closer to them, so the City stood one up beginning on Saturday, February 3 and facilitated free transportation to the LAC by partnering with the United Taxi Workers for residents impacted by the storm.
Between the County's Local Assistance Center and the City's Local Assistance Center, over 700 households who reside in the City of San Diego visited the Local Assistance Center to receive services.
The City has partnered with the San Diego Housing Commission for an emergency hotel placement program. They gave triaged 256 households for emergency housing needs and placed 117 households (including their pets) into local hotels. Forty-one households have moved into the Ramada Inn property on Midway, and 98 households have been connected to other resources.