As City and County Officials Were Mired in Confusion, Local Nonprofits Led the Flood Relief Response

As floodwaters receded from the streets of southeastern San Diego on Jan. 22, two things began to happen. Several local nonprofits — not trained in disaster response — set up a victim assistance center at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA. At the same time, county and city officials had a series of extreme miscommunications that delayed the opening of a government-run assistance center within city limits for nearly two weeks, according to letters obtained by Voice of San Diego. 

Normally in the wake of a disaster, government officials open what they call a Local Assistance Center near the disaster site. These assistance centers connect survivors with government and non-government resources. A survivor could get anything from a new driver’s license to food or unemployment benefits.  

But after the January floods, the Jackie Robinson Y was up and running far earlier than any government-run assistance center. Survivors who showed up at the Y met with intake coordinators, who pointed them in the direction of a variety of services. Nonprofit leaders organized food delivery, mold remediation, demolition work, damage assessments and motel stays. 

The nonprofit leaders who spearheaded the response to the devastating Jan. 22 floods don’t know anything about flood relief. They are involved in youth sports, education and other nonprofit activities. No local disaster plan had indicated they would be the ones to cobble together a response in the event of emergency. On one hand, their story is one of resourcefulness in the face of chaos and tragedy. On the other, they wonder, ‘Why us?’

Armon Harvey coaches football at Lincoln High School and is involved with multiple nonprofits, including his own, the Harvey Family Foundation. He became a de facto leader during the flood response.

“We have built the infrastructure together to be able to deal with this, when the county and city and them have not been able to do it,” Harvey told me from his makeshift office at the Y on Feb. 1. “You’re allowing the community to do it for you guys. And that should be embarrassing.”

At that point — on Feb. 1 — a government-run assistance center within city limits was still not up and running.

City and county leaders had been talking about the possibility of such an assistance center for days, according to the letters obtained by Voice. The letters show the two agencies were mired in confusion about what entity should perform what role.

County leaders believed city staff should set up their own local assistance center. They offered to send staff and other resources to the city’s center, county leaders said.

Meanwhile, city leaders believed county staff should be in charge of setting up the resource center within city limits.

To make matters worse, quirks in the bureaucratic process also slowed down the city and county’s joint effort.

As early as Jan. 24, city officials say they made verbal requests for a resource center in southeastern San Diego, which flooded much worse than other parts of the county. More than a thousand people were displaced by the floods — the majority of whom lived in southeastern San Diego.

From the county’s perspective, this was wrong for two reasons. First, all official requests for resources from cities need to come through the county’s emergency web portal — a system that has been in place for a decade or more. Second, county officials expected city staff to set up their own assistance center — as city staff did following two wildfires in the 2000’s, according to county officials’ telling. (A city spokeswoman said she couldn’t speak to the process that city officials followed in those earlier wildfires.)

On Jan. 28, six days after the floods, county officials set up their own assistance center in Spring Valley, an unincorporated area that also flooded on Jan. 22.

County officials picked Spring Valley, because they have direct authority over countywide unincorporated areas. They wanted to set up in a place that would be convenient to all flood survivors, some of whom were as far away as Fallbrook, Michael Workman, a county spokesman, said.

On Jan. 30, city officials made their first official request for an assistance center through the county’s emergency portal.

“The City of San Diego is requesting the current Local Assistance Center (LAC) and all if its resources/capabilities be relocated to the City of San Diego’s Mountain View Community Center beginning on 1/31/2024,” city officials wrote in the request. “This official request follows our initial verbal conversation for a LAC to be provided at a location within the City of San Diego, most notably nearest the neighborhoods most affected.”

The language here is important: “for a LAC to be provided.”

City officials wanted the county to set up the assistance center. But county officials clearly didn’t see it that way. They responded with a letter one day later on Jan. 31.

“Historically, the City has led within its jurisdiction by standing up its own local assistance centers (LAC) for its residents (after the 2004 and 2007 wildfires, for example,)” the county’s interim Chief Administrative Officer, Sarah Aghassi, wrote. “As has been shared with City representatives, the County will provide support at a LAC designated and run by the City.”

The county would have been happy to provide all the support staff necessary to help operate a city-run assistance center at any time after the floods, Workman, the county spokesman, said. County officials conveyed this to the city multiple times, he said.

But city officials say they got different information. “Based on previous discussions, we were advised that only a single location would be possible [at one time],” they wrote in their Jan. 30 request.

The city and county’s bureaucratic showdown ultimately cost the flood survivors of Shelltown, Mountain View and Southcrest precious weeks. On Feb. 3, nearly two weeks after the catastrophic floods, an assistance center finally opened at Mountain View Community Center.

It’s not the first time that city and county coordination during a disaster has led to delays. During a deadly hepatitis A outbreak in 2017, county and city officials took weeks to move forward together with even the simplest of tasks.

By Feb. 3, the conglomerate of nonprofits at the Jackie Robinson Y — they called themselves the Southeast Disaster Response Team — had been demanding for days they be relieved of managing the disaster. They were running out of money and energy. They didn’t have the expertise. Wasn’t there a plan for government to do this work?

Justin Lipford is the director of community engagement for the YMCA of San Diego County. Much of his job is raising money. But ever since the floods, he’s been instrumental in the relief work.

“The thing no one will know is what the city’s response would be if this happened in a different community,” Lipford said on Feb. 1, while he was working at the Jackie Robinson Y. “For the residents in southeast, they think that if this happened in Del Mar, there would’ve been a faster response.” 

The neighborhoods most affected by the floods have been marginalized for decades. They became densely populated with Black and Latino people, in part, because of redlining, a practice that meant non-White people could only borrow money to live in certain areas. Their stormwater system, their parks and their schools have been under-invested in for years.

Many flood survivors are unsurprised by government’s response. But they are also angry and their anger is fueled by years of resentment.

On Feb. 12, the unofficial collective calling themselves the Southeast Disaster Response Team held a press conference, within view of the government-run assistance center in Mountain View, on a block that had been badly flooded.

They wanted to let residents and government know that their time leading this operation was coming to a close.

“[We want] an apology for being neglected,” Armon Harvey told the crowd. “[Our] organizations do not have the capacity for such large-scale disasters.”

Clarissa Marin, a resident, also addressed the crowd.

“It’s unfortunate that it took the community coming together, that it took these nonprofits stepping it up,” she said. “But at the end of the day, the responsibility falls on [government] officials. They are the ones responsible for the plan.”

Indeed, the unofficial disaster response team has been pressuring city and county officials to come up with a plan for future disasters. It’s clear they don’t have one yet.

Nicole Darling, a spokeswoman for the city, continued to maintain that it was the county’s role to set up a local assistance center within the city limits.

Workman, the county spokesman, was adamant that the responsibility of setting up an assistance center within city limits falls to the city.