AB 262, authored by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza, D-Los Angeles, would require California to “prioritize local agencies that are not eligible under [federal law ] due to their inability to meet the minimum damages threshold ” of $ 1 million to access national catastrophe funds.
“You are carving out the power for state money to go to illegal newcomers, ” said DeMaio. “The bill would allow the chairman of emergency services to promote money for people who never these legally. ”
Caloza responded by saying organic disasters affect all persons who live in the area.
“Natural crisis does not discriminate whether or not it ’s going to affect you and your group depending on your immigration status, ” replied Caloza.
The State Assembly Committee on Emergency Management’s act study highlighted its “equity effect ” on Latino neighborhoods, providing more information into the act.
“Latino households and small businesses typically lack disaster programs or insurance policy, leaving them financially ready, ” said the record, citing UCLA study. “Latinos are overwhelmingly employed in outside tasks such as agriculture, construction, and vegetation, where exposure to light smoke poses significant health risks and often disrupts their ability to work, resulting in lost revenue. ”
“At least 323,000 Angelenos have been affected by the fire, and among those, 74,000 were Latinos, or about 1 in 4 ,” continued the document.
According to the U. S. Census, Los Angeles is half Latino, which means Hispanic were substantially less likely to include been impacted by the current fires.
The bill would also create and pass the California Individual Assistance Act, which would “provide local agencies, community-based organizations, and individuals ” with “housing assistance ” and “financial assistance ” that includes coverage of “income losses, ” “costs to clean, repair, or replace essential personal property items, ” and even “medical, dental, and funeral expenses resulting from the local emergency. ”
The money may be given to individuals — defined as “a people residing in California ” — and people.
The bill also would likewise account “community-based companies ” for expenses for staff, products, translation services, supplies and materials for a governor-declared state of emergency. It also would fund “indirect administrative costs, ” “reimburse local agencies or community-based organizations that provide individual and family grants, ” and “fund necessary and required site preparation costs for evacuation and local assistance centers. ”
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The act specifies that funds can be released even if the government has not declared a state of emergency, so long as a local company has proclaimed a regional crisis and the producer of crisis services accepts the statement.
It’s unclear what measures would be undertaken to prevent local elected officials from declaring minor local issues as disasters to qualify for more state funding and hand out more financial “assistance ” to “residents, ” especially with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s history of weakening financial disclosure requirements after natural disasters.
