California Disaster Relief for Immigrants

Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are home to 126,000 undocumented residents – 10% of our population.  The 805 UndocuFund was launched in 2018 with the belief that during the critical recovery period following a natural disaster, undocumented residents should not be excluded from emergency relief funding made available to all other residents.  Since its launch and through three years of recovery from wildfires, deadly mudslides, and the ongoing global pandemic, 805 Undocufund has provided disaster relief assistance to thousands of families.  This has been possible by the tremendous and unwavering support of our community including the generosity of the GlobalGiving team.

805 UndocuFund continues to operate as a collective partnership between grassroots organizations who are known and trusted widely among undocumented residents: Future Leaders of America (FLA), Mixteco Indigenous Community Organizing Project (MICOP), and Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE).  The Ventura County Community Foundation provides ongoing fundraising and fund administration service. 

In response to the Thomas, Hill, and Woolsey wildfires of 2017-2018, over $2.5 million was distributed to 1,685 households.  These funds supported families’ housing and home repair costs, food, essential household supplies, health care, and post-traumatic counseling.  In March 2020, 805 UndocuFund was reactivated in response to COVID-19, though it immediately became clear that pandemic response would bring a greatly increased impact on the whole community and a greatly increased level of need. 

Undocumented residents were once again excluded from the safety nets offered to all others, though they predominantly work in sectors that have been hit the hardest by closures, including service, hospitality, child and elder care, and day labor.  Those who lost wages because of closures are not able to apply for state or federal unemployment insurance.  Conversely, those who work in food production and distribution are essential and cannot work from home, risking exposure while challenged to find appropriate childcare while schools and after-school centers are closed.  In the months since COVID-19 began, 805 UndocuFund has granted $2.5 million in direct assistance to 7,897 undocumented individuals in over 2,300 households, with an additional $2.5 million raised and poised for disbursement in the first quarter of 2021.

Of those who signed up for assistance in 2020, 65% were laid off due to pandemic social distancing orders; 39% had worked in the hospitality sector and were either laid off or faced severely reduced working hours as the sector contracted. Lost jobs and lost wages have put families under tremendous strain, particularly in their ability to make rent each month. Housing insecurity and homelessness are a challenge under normal circumstances in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties with their relatively high costs of living, and 805 UndocuFund has helped families to stay housed. Food and medical support join housing as the top needs stated by those who applied for assistance. Thanks to the support of over 1,000 donors, households have each received an average of $1,080.

Lessons Learned and Adaptations

Due to the sheer duration of this pandemic and the operational challenges presented by social distancing requirements, 805 UndocuFund has adapted and learned new ways to meet the needs of the community. 

Chief among our lessons-learned is establishment of sustainable staffing. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 805 UndocuFund relied heavily on hundreds of volunteers to process applications. With the Thomas Fire and Woolsey Fire, the 805 UndocuFund hosted dozens of application clinics to aid applicants in filling out the application. However, due to COVID-19, this was a challenge. The availability of volunteers has been unpredictable and that, coupled with the exponential demand for support from more than 7,000 families, has demonstrated a need for more reliable staffing infrastructure. We learned that the 805 UndocuFund needed a strong core of committed staff to complete processing applications. To address this challenge, case management support shifted from volunteers to paid staff and VCCF provided core support funding to increase paid staff capacity. 

When case managers could no longer meet with applicants in person, we found that we had to shift to a secure online platform that presented a steep learning curve for staff and applicants alike.  Once established, this system has enabled faster and more efficient application processing and will remain in use post-pandemic.  Faster processing has become essential as, due to the pandemic’s immense economic fallout leading to insecure employment and housing, many applicants are unable to keep up on cell phone payments and/or are changing addresses frequently.  The rapid receipt and processing of applications, and disbursement of aid, is all the more critical to help keep applicants housed and with phone access and to prevent case workers burnout from having to expend considerable time and effort to find applicants at changed addresses and phone numbers.

Case managers and caregivers themselves have been overwhelmed at times by the scale and protracted timeline of need for care.  The development of a paid and highly trained core staff has helped greatly.  Through specific grants, case managers have been able to attend Trauma Informed Care workshops for those in the caregiving field were convened.  Many who attended expressed huge gratitude and appreciation for the recognition of how traumatic events of the past few years have taken such a toll on their emotional well-being, and they appreciated the training they received through the Emotional Life Skills series.  These convenings have helped build a greater sense of community among attendees, creating a peer network support that will live well into the future. 

Among other adaptations from these first years of operation, we found that 805 UndocuFund was well-received from community members yet a small vocal minority continued to harass staff and threaten to hack the registration system and expose undocumented families. In response, FLA upgraded its security to encrypt data and maintain confidentiality between participants and the 805 UndocuFund.  Relatedly, FLA sought opportunities to have positive media coverage and thereby change the narratives on undocumented immigrants locally. The 805 UndocuFund had 20+ features in local newspapers, radios and television news segment that allowed individuals to understand the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country.

What’s Ahead for 805 UndocuFund

Having a core team of paid and experienced staff has become a permanent part of the Fund’s future plans.  Digital media for outreach, and the online case management system have proven incredibly valuable though case managers and applicants alike welcome the post-pandemic potential for in-person meetings and workshops. 

From the COVID-19 experience has come the decision to make the 805 UndocuFund into an independent nonprofit organization with its own 501(c)3 determination. Since 2018 the model of partnership between three established, immigrant-serving organizations worked well for Thomas Fire and Hill/Woolsey Fire recovery. However, with long-term recovery from multiple wildfires now overlain with a global pandemic, the scale of services asked of the 805 UndocuFund has grown significantly. After thoughtful and strategic discussions with our collaborative partners, the Ventura County Community Foundation has volunteered to raise funds to create a full-time executive director position and to help work strategically with our partners as we establish the independent 501(c)3 organization. VCCF will also continue to help with fundraising support, taking no administrative fee. 

100% of funds raised for the 805 UndocuFund are granted directly to families in need.  The fund’s director is supported through separate, dedicated funding and VCCF is not charging any administrative fees related to fund management. VCCF has also separately provided administrative funding to Future Leaders of America, with a more recent grant of $56,000 to retain three full-time case managers and provide additional staffing support.

Closing Reflections

Ventura and Santa Barbara counties have been recovering from multiple, consecutive years of record-breaking natural disasters, and the leaders and staff of 805 UndocuFund have acted heroically to provide community members with critical, direct assistance as quickly as possible.  With COVID-19 it has become clear that the past model of activation in response to individual events should be restructured in order to best serve our undocumented community members as the frequency and impact of natural disasters only intensifies.  The already-vulnerable community of undocumented residents, are most likely to lose employment and health care and have the weakest access to social, medical, and economic safety nets.

VCCF is endowed with a unique perspective within the region, seeing opportunities for collaboration between seemingly disparate organizations that might not otherwise be readily apparent.  When a mindset of competition emerges between community-based organizations (as can arise during times of scarcity and crisis), VCCF is prepared to use our resources to foster and facilitate collaboration and partnership - this is essential as it protects the victims and survivors of these tragedies.  It also dramatically improves equity of aid and access.  We have found that there is strength in the specialized, even niche services of our local organizations, and we strive to support their unique offerings while also fostering collaboration as disaster response and preparedness makes such a mindset essential.

GlobalGiving  provided timely and generous contributions for the individuals and families whose documentation status would otherwise inhibit their ability to access the assistance that is essential during this pandemic to remain housed, clothed, and fed.  We at the Ventura County Community Foundation and the 805 UndocuFund are immeasurably grateful to GlobalGiving.  In the words of one of our many community members who have benefitted from this support:

Maria,employed as a housekeeper in Santa Barbara

“When I came over here it was hard because I had to come alone. I am a single mother…I had to leave my 6 yr old daughter. I had to work really hard when I came to the US. I ended up working 2 jobs so I can bring my daughter to the US. Two years later I was able to bring my daughter, she came when she was 8 years old. She is now attending city college. She recently started school and I'm really proud of her. I tell her- that is how you are going to repay me by becoming a professional. The sacrifices I made won’t go in vain. The little and the lot that I have I give to her. We didn't expect this pandemic to happen. No one saw this coming or was prepared for it. Currently I’m still alone without a partner but working hard for my daughter and I to move forward. I was out of work for 4 months and rent with other bills were piling up. I'm thankful for all the places that gave out food. Things are starting to get better now, little by little. I tell my daughter to keep studying so that we won't find ourselves in another situation like this. I'm really grateful for this country. For the Americans that help us out, that see the necessity and reach out. I'm really grateful for organizations like 805 as they are helping out the community that I'm part of that really is in need of help. The governor gave us 500 which helped. 805 stepped in and gave me more than double of that which helped out tremendously. Thank you so much for the help you are giving, you're helping out the community that really needs it. Let's help one another. God willing we will pass through this. We are here working for a better future for our children. We are equal. We are all worth the same. Thank you again for the big help 805, it is a blessing that you are giving us.”