Community Through Hope says the city of Chula Vista agreed to help them in 2018 and didn't, but when people asking for food grew from 5,000 to 50,000 during the pandemic, the city announced it would give it $30,000.
The city, however, did not give the money to Community Through Hope, instead of giving it to the police and saying that the Chula Vista police had spent $135,000 in overtime working the lines of hungry people who lined up looking for help from that group.
It was the only time in about four years that the city would give that organization the support it had promised to provide.
Rose Vasquez of Community Through Hope said that instead of helping her, the city imposed surprise inventories on her and required her to share its facilities with other organizations.
This complaint is in a public radio KPBS investigation regarding the null aid of the city of Chula Vista to civil organizations.
Two reporters from KPBS sought the city's version for this story, but officials declined to respond.
Rubén Torres, director of the cultural organization Love Thy Neighbor for underserved youth, told KPBS that in 2019 the city of Chula Vista offered him a building to turn into a cultural center.
The day the city summoned Torres to deliver the building, they could not find the keys to open it, they told him that the Fire Department had them, and that was it. After that, they did not deliver the facilities in the following three years.
In addition, the city invited Torres to have the young people who helped his organization put cafeteria carts in the public libraries of Chula Vista. Love Thy Neighbor spent thousands of dollars buying the coaches, which have remained in storage ever since because the city never issued permits for them to sell coffee.
According to Torres, every time he tried to re-establish the relationship with the city, it was like hitting a wall.
