An East Bay social justice organization is asking the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to spend millions of remaining federal COVID-relief money on food and rental assistance. On Tuesday, supervisors will be asked to give county staff directions about how to spend more than $9.7 million remaining in the county’s COVID-19 FEMA fund.
Organizers from the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy are asking the county to spend $5 million of that on food assistance and $3 million on rental assistance, said Betty Gabaldon, organizing manager at EBASE. She says the need is particularly high in the county’s immigrant communities, given the federal government’s immigration crack down.
“We know that they’re targeting the Latino community right now,” said Gabaldon, who is also founder of Todos Santos Tenants Union in Concord. As a result, people are losing hours at work, losing income and are afraid to go about their normal business, she said.
Gabaldon also said EBASE conducted a survey of 102 people from Concord’s primarily Spanish-speaking Monument Corridor neighborhood and found that 80 percent experience food insecurity and 76 percent reported employment insecurity. “We started with that open-ended question, ‘what has been the impact on you and your family with this current administration,'” Gabaldon said. Sixty-seven percent said they are struggling to afford rent or utilities and 81 percent reported declines in mental and physical health.
County officials said in a report to be presented to the Board of Supervisors that, based on community outreach, people throughout the county have said public safety, education, environmental concerns and affordable housing are among their top priorities. The supervisors are expected to discuss what to do with the money at their 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday.
If it’s a FEMA fund…..it is HANDS OFF. It is Not to be used for this.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (Earthquakes, Fires, Floods, Natural Disasters).
FEMA doesn’t cover alien invasions?
Employers who hire documented immigrants and
legal immigrants have nothing to fear.
.
An where will County get funds if covid cases spike back up
again or another pandemic happens ? ? ? ?
Social Justice Organization is future Socialist politicians group in the early stages . This is a big no!
$9.7 Million?
Is it really all there?
Or has the county let it slip through their fingers into the pockets of the Supervisors and friends?
We know it’s not there and most have been forgiven and are absolved of paying back funds that never should have been “distributed” in the first place because shutting down the economy was the dumbest thing to do! Contra Costa County was one of the most strict and authoritarian counties in CA.
As Anom said, it is FEMA money … but …
If we are going to give it away for food and rental assitance, can we verify immigrant status first? I could get behind giving food and rental assitance to those who are making efforts to move into this country legally. However, if you are not legally in the United States of America, nope – no money/support for you! I am not paying for you to continue to break Federal Immigration Laws.
The statistics on who’s getting MOST of the welfare in this country is distressing. The statistics on who’s having the most children, and doing in on Medicaid funds is staggering. Tables 13 and 19 tell their own story. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr74/nvsr74-02.pdf
Unused Covid funds?
It sounds like taxpayers were overcharged and are due a refund!
Who came up with the idea we should be paying people’s rent & grocery bills with it?
I’m already unfairly taxed & have seen my money go to people who shouldn’t even be here.
Definitely overcharged because there was way overreach regarding the pandemic. There was no real reason to shut down small businesses and create hardship for millions of people who lost their jobs. If anyone had bothered at the beginning of the thing to go to the CDC and look up Coronavius would have learned it is just a form of the common cold. It was a sham and planned years before and even warned through media it was coming.
The best quote worth re-post today is from Bradford Ferguson on X… “If throwing money at problems actually solved them, governments would’ve accidentally fixed everything by now just from sheer volume.If t hrowing money at problems actually solved them, governments would’ve accidentally fixed everything by now just from sheer volume.If throwing money at problems actually solved them, governments would’ve accidentally fixed everything by now just from sheer volume.
One effect of having cookie crumbs in your keyboard… 🙂 You think it isn’t posting… you click too many times before it actually posts…and no edit button.
ha – i thought it was repeated for effect. I think it worked 🙂
At least they are showing the grift out in the open. How about the county investing the money so that it grows and would be available when a real disaster occurs?
AD
“supervisors are expected to discuss what to do with the money at their 9 a.m. meeting”. Well there ya go this is a cluster*** just waiting to happen. The Monument corridor is mentioned and of course that doesn’t need any explaining why they want the money going to that area.
Give it back to taxpayers.
Why do people like Gabaldon believe the taxpayers in this county are obligated to pay for complete support for illegal aliens? They should not be here. Legal immigration helps our country. How many billions of dollars do we have to spend to take care of all the illegal immigrants? A hundred billion maybe more every year? Why do democrats love and support criminals and illegal immigrants and use our hard-earned money to do it?
Gabaldon and EBASE want the money to be given to THEM…so THEY can control its disbursement, and skim a buck or two for their trouble. Monument Welfare Gluttons.
American Citizens were promised Reparations !
No they were not! The people demanding reparations figured if they made enough noise and scream racism that they would easily get them. Reparations will never be paid out to anybody.
Didn’t that money go to gender studies?