Tuesday marks nine months to the day after an overflowing storm channel flooded San Diego homes, making them unlivable.
Now there’s a call for accountability and transparency about the group charged with finding temporary homes for residents.
San Diego County contracted with Equus Workforce Solutions to organize and provide lodging for people left homeless by the Jan. 22 floods.
But at a Monday news conference, Clariza Marin of the Harvey Family Foundation said Equus failed in its responsibilities.
“We had residents that called and reported that they’d been sent to hotels that had been shut down, complaining of having to repeatedly and repeatedly provide the same information over and over again followed with threats of being evicted if they didn’t immediately comply," Marin said.
Community activist Tasha Williamson said Equus should have never been hired by the county in the first place. She told the story of one woman and her family that were staying at a motel. They ended up in the parking lot. Williamson said that was because of Equus’ incompetence.
“All of her belongings were in the parking lot, with her six children, grandchildren and dogs, (in the parking lot) of the Ramada Inn because Equus failed to re-up their rooms," Williamson said.
"Our communities have serious concerns, serious concerns with the response and the servicing under this contract," Marin said.
District 4 Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe also has concerns. So she’s asking her fellow supervisors to approve an audit of the Equus contract. KPBS asked Montgomery Steppe why she waited until now to request the audit.
“It takes several months for us to do almost anything at the county and in any bureaucracy, but it also would’ve taken several months to get a new contractor on board, so we really felt that we were stuck between a rock and a hard place," she said.
Montgomery Steppe will introduce her call for an audit at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
KPBS reached out to Equus for comment, but did not hear back by deadline.
