Volunteers with Hope Crisis Response Network help clean up the muck in resident’s homes.
By: Jillian Robertson
“Pajaro was a really good project,” said Kevin Cox, CEO of Hope Crisis Response Network (HCRN).
In the city of Pajaro, California, HCRN managed the cleanup after the floods, deploying teams from United Methodists, Team Rubicon and others. Compared to other agencies they’ve partnered with in the past where “we were just a conduit,” the American Red Cross relationship was a true partnership characterized by mutual trust.
First, they formed Hope City Resource Village, a place to collaborate with partners and register families for cleanup.
Then the real work began.
They cleaned up approximately 187 homes and did repairs on 40 to 60 of them. This involved hauling debris curbside, home repair work, and managing cleanup and removal of “flows of mud” that had inundated homes.
Unfortunately, they did not see a lot of homeowners with flood insurance, leaving them largely to deal with the flood damage on their own. “It takes money to do repairs,” said Cox. The grant from the Red Cross covered everything from mud cleanup to repair to mold remediation.
Cox himself worked at the disaster site every Thursday through Sunday for three months. He’s proud the project finished on time and on budget. He attributes this to all the people who worked on the project, including partners, volunteers, and the homeowners themselves.
“Pajaro couldn’t have gone any better. The closest we get to a perfect project,” said Cox.
The Challenge
Disaster clean-up supplies available for residents affected by the disaster provided by HCRN and the Red Cross.
The challenges the community of Pajaro faced were steep. “I’ve never seen a community with so many unpermitted houses.” When those structures were damaged, they couldn’t make permitted repairs on them because they were not up to code. But they still found solutions and workarounds to help them.
One story stood out to Cox. A family that checked themselves out of the Red Cross shelter and went home, even though their home had been rendered uninhabitable by the flood. They had two kids under the age of 10 living in a mold-infested house.
Once he was made aware of the situation, Cox and his team put them back in the shelter, did the mold repair on the house, and then brought the family home.
Over and over, Cox reiterated the importance of putting people back in homes that were “safe, sanitary, and secure,” a metric that often went beyond simple cosmetic repairs.
“With old houses, once you open the walls, you often find more damage,” explained Cox. This was the case for many of the houses in Pajaro. The wooden studs that framed the walls needed to be treated with bleach then mold-resistant primer to remove mold that had grown on them and protect against future growth.
The Trailer Park
In one trailer park, the Hope Crisis Response team worked on all 22 trailers.
Every single trailer, Cox said, was from the 1960s and 1970s. The area had flooded before and, in many trailers, the floors had rotted through. Some families were living in trailers with their kids that were infested with rats. Once they realized the severity of the situation, they paused repairs to the interiors of the trailers and switched to sealing the floors to keep the rats out.
“Crawling under the trailers was not fun,” Cox said. “And a lot of work.” But he’s thankful he was always able to get the volunteers to meet needs like these. Partners like United Methodists came every weekend. “It was such a great team.” This, Cox reiterated, “is the strength of partnerships.”
Due to their age and general disrepair, many of the trailers were already in rough shape before the storm. The team went “above and beyond” to ensure families were living in safe and secure homes before they left. They did such a good job that some of the families started asking for more repairs, above and beyond the damage from the disaster. “One wanted me to build them a deck,” Cox said, laughing.
Rebuilding is underway.
Simple repairs turned into more complex jobs. In some homes where the flooding seemed less severe, the refrigerator and the bottoms of the cabinets had been damaged. This required replacing both entirely. Over and over, a small job spawned a bigger one.
In one unpermitted structure, the floor joists weren’t secure and the electrical wasn’t approved. Cox and his team worried that together, these constituted a fire risk. They tore out the walls to inspect the electrical and sure enough, found a short, which they then repaired. No matter the labor required, “We didn’t take shortcuts on any of the homes,” said Cox proudly.
“Many families were in a much better position after the floods than before.”
The Partnership
Hope Crisis Response Network has been partnering with the Red Cross for many years. If it wasn’t for the Red Cross, they wouldn’t have the funding to complete projects like these or have been able to help so many families. “We are very fortunate, very blessed,” Cox said.
“We’re so fortunate to have a relationship that’s trustworthy, where we can depend on each other.” They “only ask for what’s needed” and the Red Cross meet the needs.
The scale of the response meant it was highly visible to the community at large. Local nonprofits in the area stepped up, with food deliveries, presents for the affected families over the holidays, and more.
“It made everyone more aware of the needs in Pajaro.” And now other organizations can continue to help.
Cox described the motivation behind HCRN as “a call to serve.” They have responded to 71 disasters in the last 8 years, they said. “The individuals in need are what keep us coming back.”
As for the partnership with the Red Cross, Cox sees it this way: “Every home we touch, you touch.”
Their role is taking care of families, donors, staff, and partners.
“It’s not about us, it’s about what we can do together.”
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