Neighbors and volunteers helped Pajaro resident Patricia Medrano haul furniture from her flooded home in March 2023. (Tyler Maldonado — Santa Cruz Local file)

Proof of purchase requirements have been a challenge, especially for items bought with cash, said Ray Cancino, executive director of Community Bridges. The nonprofit group is one of several that have partnered with the County of Monterey to distribute the money to residents.

“Unfortunately, with such severe poverty and scarcity mindset, we have had a lot of needed documentation and surveillance to prevent fraud and duplication of benefits,” Cancino wrote in an email. Delays and required documentation are necessary “to ensure and uphold the integrity of the process,” he wrote.

Ten million dollars in direct payments minus $900,000 for administrative costs left $9.1 million for residents and businesses. Of that $9.1 million, $5.4 million is for residents and $3.7 is for businesses. 

• Since distribution started in March, about $1.25 million of the $5.4 million for residents had been distributed as of November. Of that money, about $450,000 was distributed as grocery store gift cards to replace food that spoiled while people were evacuated. 
• Of the $3.7 million set aside for Pajaro businesses, about $600,000 had been distributed as of September. Updated figures on how much has been distributed are due later this month.

Mario Merlos, owner of Merlos Auto Detail in Pajaro, said he struggled to provide proof of purchase for equipment he bought more than a decade ago.

“Many people are already tired of this,” Merlos told Noticias Watsonville, in Spanish. Merlos owns Merlos Auto Detail in Pajaro. 

“I don’t want to deal with it anymore. I don’t want to know anything about this, because it’s been a year of this, ‘Yes, no, you need this, you don’t need this, you don’t need that.’ People are tired,” he said.

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, who represents Pajaro, said he expects the distribution to pick up pace in the next few months as the county runs up against a Dec. 31, 2025 deadline to distribute the money. 

“There’s going to be a lot more money coming on out, and as frustrating as it is, all I can say is try to be patient,” Church said. He said he has tried to speed things up, but advancing government services is “like moving a mountain.”

Mud cakes the floor of a cold storage business in Pajaro in March 2023. (Tyler Maldonado — Santa Cruz Local file)

Cancino said the problem is less about a lack of recovery aid related to this disaster, and more about the poverty that existed long before the river swelled with rain and breached the levee on March 10, 2023.

“The fact that this assistance alone is not resolving the social and economic issues Pajaro community faces is the exact reason why the County of Monterey wisely chose to use half the state funds to make long-term improvements in the community,” Cancino wrote. 

Monterey County supervisors voted in late 2023 to distribute half of a $20 million state grant directly to those affected by the flood and the other half for infrastructure repair, improvements and community programs. The decision followed pressure from residents who pushed back on a county staff recommendation to set aside $6 million for direct payments and $14 million for local projects.

Prior to this state money allocation, about $14 million had already been distributed in direct payments to Pajaro residents through philanthropy and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cancino wrote. 

Read more

• Pajaro flood survivors’ stories come to life in new exhibit – Nov. 1, 2024
• Slow recovery continues after Pajaro flood – Sept. 13, 2023
• Months after Pajaro flood, repair crews race against winter rain – Aug. 23, 2023
• Flooded Pajaro residents detail losses, hope for federal aid – March 29, 2023
• Pajaro flood victims start long road to repairs — March 23, 2023
• Flood victims take refuge in South Santa Cruz County shelters — March 14, 2023
• Long awaited flood control project to start in Watsonville, Pajaro — Jan. 26, 2021

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