Search: Mendocino County

Overworked child protective service workers are unable to follow up on reports of abuse and neglect in a timely manner. Public works employees are unable to keep up with important infrastructural work like filling potholes. Eligibility workers are too short-staffed to keep pace with the volume of applications for food stamps and other safety-net services desperately needed in a county with a poverty rate of over 14%. These are the costs to the residents of Mendocino County of the County’s staffing crisis.

Dec. 20, 2021: “I can think of a half a dozen employees that the County has offered jobs to here on the coast, but they had to turn down the offer, because they couldn’t find anywhere to live,” reported one Mendocino County employee in a survey. “The average apartment rents for about $1200 to $1300 per month. The rental agency requires your income to be three times the rent. I make around $35 per hour, and I can’t even afford that. How is someone who makes minimum wage or is a single parent supposed to find a place to live?” laments another survey respondent.

In May of 2020, the country and most of the world were shocked as we witnessed the untimely loss of George Floyd’s life at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. As the pain and outrage of another state-sanctioned murder sparked movements and marches across the globe, Troyle Tognoli, the Mendocino County Chapter Vice President, was activated to call on her peers and organize her community to bring awareness and change through the Black Lives Matter movement.

California’s affordable housing crisis is a complex problem, and one that touches us all—residents, employers, businesses, and beyond. Recent wildfires haven’t helped, as our housing stock has been further depleted by natural disasters. Many of our north coast communities are feeling the effects of this crisis, including our members in Mendocino County who recently decided to get together and look for solutions.
 

When a freezer that was used to store the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a Northern California hospital broke down in early January, hospital officials realized they only had about two hours to administer the more than 800 doses that were stored inside. Our Mendocino County members immediately jumped into action, assisting in the rapid deployment of vaccines to their community. In just two hours, workers were able to get 200 badly needed doses administered.