Marielle Argueza at Monterey County Weekly, August 3, 2020. Photo by Nic Coury. - With federal leadership sitting on longterm solutions for the pandemic and a new aid package, there is at least some good news on the local level. Santa Cruz Community Ventures, a nonprofit that helps create equitable local economies on the Central Coast, announced that they have distributed $1.7 million in aid for undocumented people through their collaborative project UndocuFund Monterey Bay since April.

In a July 29 statement, SCCV Executive Director Maria T. Cadenas states UndocFund—which partners with various local organizations like Catholic Charities and United Way Santa Cruz County—has aided over 1,300 households. Of those households, 70 percent work in agriculture and 60 percent are families with children.

Unlike recently unemployed workers who are legally authorized to work, undocumented residents may have been paying into economic and social safety nets (using an individual taxpayer identification number), but they have not been part of recent federal or state stimulus packages. They also do not qualify for benefits like unemployment.

You can read the rest of the article here at Monterey County Weekly.