Stay informed with free briefings on topics that matter to all Californians. Subscribe to CalMatters today for nonprofit news in your inbox.

After floodwaters from powerful storms inundated two small farmworker towns in January 2023, California set aside $20 million each for communities to rebuild.

Nearly two years later, four-fifths of that aid has yet to be distributed to flood victims in Planada in Merced County, and even less has been distributed in Pajaro in Monterey County.

While county officials and nonprofit workers say the slow pace stems from a deliberative planning process and state rules requiring residency and loss verification of beneficiaries, another round of severe storms in California is causing anxiety for locals who they’ve seen neighborhoods destroyed once before.

Days of rain in January 2023 caused canals and streams to overflow in the two communities, hitting many residents with a triple whammy: displaced from their homes, their belongings destroyed, their field work hours cut. State lawmakers granted the relief funds in the fall of 2023. Counties divided them into different pots to cover property and wage reimbursement, home repairs, business losses and infrastructure improvements to prepare for the next storm.

This month, about $4 million of the $20 million in state aid earmarked for Planada has been spent, most of it in direct payments to families, said Merced County spokesman Mike North . about $1.3 million of its $20 million share: $450,000 in grocery gift cards for residents whose food spoiled during the flood, plus about another $800,000 for people and businesses with larger uncovered losses federal disaster relief or private insurance.

Angela DiNovella, executive director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Monterey — one of two organizations contracted with Monterey County to help Pajaro residents apply for funds — said her organization’s three caseworkers distributed an average of $30,000 a week families.

One of the main challenges, she said, was verifying the eligibility of families who did not have a permanent address or were living in overcrowded conditions, such as when three families share a single apartment. Some people also struggled to document how much they lost, so caseworkers did the painstaking work of reviewing photos and trying to estimate the dollar value of each item.

“The reality is that this is state funding that comes with a lot of requirements,” she said. “Our job is to be creative with families and be there for them, but even that takes time.”

Monterey County set up an assistance center at a community park last spring to help residents call for help, DiNovella said. But Danielle Rivera, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental planning who conducts outreach in the area, said many community members remain confused about the direction of state aid and how to benefit. And some, she said, may have moved before they got help.

“People were displaced by the flooding — they were renting and the landlord said, ‘This unit is out of business.’ Then that household tries to find housing elsewhere and maybe they’ve gone back to Pajaro, maybe they’ve gone to Watsonville, maybe they’ve left the Pajaro Valley entirely,” she said.

Residents of both communities who were undocumented could also qualify for a statewide immigrant assistance program designed to help California flood victims who were ineligible for federal emergency assistance. The $95 million program for victims of the storm provided a fixed grant of $1,500 per qualified adult.

Millions in additional aid from philanthropic groups, private insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have also poured into Pajaro since the floods, county officials said — though residents’ ability to access that aid varied depending on whether they were owners or legal US residents.

In Planada, North said the county has almost completed distributing funds to replace lost vehicles, personal property and business assets and is moving forward to help with home repairs. The work “takes longer because it depends on some detailed inspections for issues like mold, foundation damage, asbestos testing and may require structural engineering in some cases,” he said via email.

Infrastructure projects are also moving forward, North said, albeit more slowly. The county replaced a backup generator for the local community service district that failed during the flooding and is ordering a study on how to prevent future flooding.

Half of Pajaro’s $20 million is earmarked for infrastructure and emergency preparedness projects, and Monterey County spokesman Nick Pasculli said the county has solicited bids for about half of the projects.

DiNovella, whose organization also worked with families displaced by the 2020 wildfires in the Santa Cruz Mountains, said communities often take years to recover from disasters, and the pace of aid in Pajaro, while slow, is unfortunately on par with that. course. The latest batch of aid, although delayed, will give families a boost during the slow winter season when many farm workers are barely getting by, she said.

One resident of Pajaro who received help from the state is Jesús Padilla, who has lived in the town for 25 years, working in the strawberry and blackberry harvests. When the floods hit, he and his family had time to get their three children’s birth certificates and flee. They lost everything – furniture, clothes, kitchen utensils.

Now, he worries most about the physical and mental health of his family. Every time it rains, his children ask him, “If it rains more, where will we go?”

His family had already replaced many of their belongings, but the state grant Catholic Charities helped them get reimbursed for some of their expenses. He has friends who are still waiting for help.

He tells them to be patient – ​​“Looks like the process is working. Just slowly.”