Newsom to deploy CA National Guard after millions at risk of delayed food assistance in shutdown

Now in its third week, the ongoing federal government shutdown will likely delay food benefits for millions of Californians — prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to set aside $80 million in state support and deploy the California National Guard to assist food banks.

The governor unveiled the move today, days after the California Department of Social Services began notifying counties to prepare for the possibility that federally-funded food benefits, known as CalFresh in California, could be disrupted. Without federal intervention or the shutdown ending by Thursday, about 5.5 million low-income Californians enrolled in the program would likely not receive assistance for November — including nearly 3.5 million children and senior citizens.

• Newsom, in a statement: “(President Donald) Trump’s failure isn’t abstract — it’s literally taking food out of people’s mouths. This is serious, this is urgent — and requires immediate action.”

California issues about $1.1 billion in CalFresh benefits every month. Though benefits for October have already been distributed, those who applied to the program between Oct. 16 through Oct. 31 would not receive assistance for the second-half of the month, as well as November. 

Recipients of California’s separate food benefits program for eligible noncitizens who can’t receive federal aid, known as the California Food Assistance Program, should also expect delays.

• Angela Shing, former director of Santa Clara County’s department of employment and benefit services, which oversees CalFresh for the county: “The majority of people who are on benefits, generally speaking, are the elderly and children. Most people who are on benefits are working, and working more than one job. A lot of people don’t realize that. With a shutdown like this, it comes down to choices like, ‘Can I pay the rent? Or can I scrap together putting food on the table?’”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the federal benefit program, did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, it sent a copy of a memo it issued to state agencies on Oct. 10, notifying them of insufficient funds for November.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on social media that the lack of appropriated funds was due to Democrats “putting free health care for illegal aliens and their political agenda ahead of food security for American families.” 

Rollins is referring to Republicans’ claims that Democratic congressional leaders are responsible for the shutdown because they want free health coverage for immigrants without legal status. This is false. Democrats are calling for the rollback of Medicaid cuts included in Trump’s spending bill, and the extension of subsidies used by most Affordable Care Act enrollees.

In 2023, nearly a quarter of California households experienced some food insecurity, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. In San Diego County — which has the highest military population in the state — local food banks are adding pop-up food banks due to the shutdown to help combat food insecurity among the county’s armed service members and federal employees.

Uproar surrounding a Southern California project that would create a bus-only corridor linking Burbank to Glendale is intensifying following the passage of a pro-housing bill Newsom signed earlier this month, writes CalMatters’ Ben Christopher.

Since 2017 when the idea was first floated, some local residents fought the North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project. But a new wrinkle arose after the passing of Senate Bill 79, which encourages new apartment projects around major transit stops. Because of the planned corridor, the measure could trigger a zoning overhaul along the route.

This possibility underscores how local governments that oppose new development could exploit ambiguities in the new law. To avoid rezoning, for example, the project could be tossed altogether, meaning eliminating the corridor and putting the bus back into the flow of car traffic. 

Susan O’Carroll, a Burbank resident who is a critic of the bus project, said the bus will “destroy the single family neighborhoods on either side” of the route. But Marc Vukcevich, the state policy director for Streets For All, which co-sponsored the housing bill, said it could take decades for a neighborhood to undergo rezoning or redevelopment, if it happens at all.

• Vukcevich: “I think the general public will understand that housing is not the end of the world and that development happens on a really long time frame.”

Read more here.

A UC San Diego scholarship fund originally founded to increase graduation rates for Black students now must accept white applicants after students and a right-leaning nonprofit sued the university, writes CalMatters’ Adam Echelman.

Founded more than 40 years ago, the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund — now known as the Goins Alumni Scholarship Fund — was originally created to “expand educational opportunities for high achieving, civic-minded African American students,” the fund’s website said in September.

In July, the Pacific Legal Foundation — representing a group of students and the nonprofit Californians for Equal Rights Foundation — sued the university. One of the students, Kai Peters, said he was denied access to the scholarship because he isn’t Black. 

In its lawsuit, the Pacific Legal Foundation evoked the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which bans government agencies from using private entities to discriminate. The foundation alleged that UC San Diego was using a private organization to carry out the scholarship — which is equivalent to the “nefarious behavior” government agencies committed during Jim Crow, said Joshua Thompson, an attorney for the foundation.

• Thompson: “I don’t see the irony. The idea is that we don’t want government actors out forcing their discrimination.”

Read more here.

A California law bans immigration enforcement at courthouses. But agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement still detain people there, anyway. CalMatters’ Nigel Duara and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on why critics of this practice say it makes communities less safe as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.