Flood Hope 500 organizers are raising concerns about the city’s policies and calling for changes as residents continue to face recovery challenges.
The group was created by a group of community organizers to help North Side residents with disaster relief after flooding.
Flood Hope 500 organizers Vaun Mayes, Aziz Abdullah, Montreal Cain and JaQai Ali help residents with water pumping, debris removal, mold remediation and provide other flood recovery support.
“We’re always dealing with a situation where the government moves slower than the people,” Abdullah said. “Flood Hope 500 shouldn’t exist.”
With backgrounds working with youths and younger adults, the organizers were able to also include individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 to volunteer and get compensated for their work.
The city should do their job
Abdullah said after the latest flood that Milwaukee lacks innovation and the financial capacity to come up with quick solutions.
“The mayor in New York had the fiscal capacity to hire residents and pay them $30 an hour to stop at neighborhoods and shovel snow,” he said.
When disasters occur, Abdullah thinks the city should be open about its capacity and give its residents the opportunity to help.
Then, work to reallocate funds from sources like the American Rescue Plan Act, funds from property tax levies and more.
“For Flood Hope 500, we catalyzed our own money and resources before anybody ever gave us a dollar,” Abdullah said. “We were just showing up because we knew people needed help.”
Abduallah said he went to Ozaukee County during the August flood to purchase four water pumps, and that a local donor also pitched in to help.
Mayes said there were times when Flood Hope 500 had to complete unfinished work by the city or other organizations.
“You have some residents who may have started with an organization, but then that organization didn’t complete all the work, so we had to go in and pick up where they left off,” Mayes said.
Creating better systems and partnerships
Mayes, also founder of ComForce MKE-Disaster Relief Division, said he feels like the City of Milwaukee hasn’t put much thought into investing in disaster relief, despite the recurrence of severe weather.
“I don’t want them to drop the ball, so I would encourage them to be more inclusive and open to having things in place when it comes to this,” he said. “So we’re not scrambling every time this happens.”
He said there should be a shared system or database developed where flood relief tasks are tracked across all organizations, because it can be hard to determine which homes have been helped or not during the recovery phase.
“You have bigger organizations that are doing their own thing and have their own listing of people that they help,” Mayes said.
Abdullah also said that the city should build more trusted partnerships with organizations that can assist in emergencies.
Abdullah said Flood Hope 500 drew financial support from organizations that saw its collaborations, and also that they were involving youths in efforts. Among them were the Brewers Community Foundation and Mental Health America.
Other financial support comes from Safe & Sound Inc., the fiscal operator that manages the organization’s finances and gives reimbursements.
He said both are an example of how collaborations can draw financial support and quick problem solving.
“The city doesn’t have an agile structure to respond to those mechanisms and measures,” he said.
Can’t afford to help people anymore
Abdullah said he recalls when people used to have more time and stability to help each other. Today, many residents don’t have the support they need, so it becomes harder to help others, he said.
“Volunteering is more of a privilege today,” he said. “The people who are closest to the issue also are experiencing the highest level of disenfranchisement, disengagement and divestment that we’ve seen in modern history.”
Mayes said there are people who mean well and want to help when disasters occur but can’t always do that without compensation.
“If you get people in the mindset to only work when they get paid for it, that kind of does a little bit of a disservice,” Mayes said. “When dealing with certain things like disaster relief, it must be done carefully.”
Getting involved
If you are a youth or young adult interested in becoming a part of Flood Hope 500, click here to register.
According to Mayes, participants can receive $50 for a half day or $100 for a whole day.
Individuals who want to donate can give monetarily or supply industrial garbage bags, water pumps, gloves and other supplies.
Contact Mayes at 262-289-0412 or email comforcemke@gmail.com to arrange a time to drop off supplies.
If you are a North Side resident in need of assistance from Flood Hope 500, click here.
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