SAN FRANCISCO – A lawsuit was filed on Sept. 18 in the Northern District of California district court against Alameda County by an African-American woman over a CalFresh recertification application.
Jacqueline Williams of Oakland wrote and filed the lawsuit on her own behalf against several Alameda County entities, including Alameda County Board of Supervisors, Alameda Social Services Agency and the director of the Alameda County Social Services Agency.
She alleges an “ongoing problem with CalFresh and recertification application and worker VDIS for several years.” In 2016, the plaintiff claims that she was accused of welfare fraud, which she denies.
Williams also alleges that she contacted the state concerning “these ongoing problems” and was met with “careless and never response to plaintiff complaint concern the corruption that deal with Cal Fresh applications [sic].”
She reports that she was an alleged victim of abuse of power and that an Alameda County Social Services employer referred to her using a racial slur.
“As a direct proximate result of the acts,” wrote Williams, “plaintiff has suffered and continues to suffer humiliation, embarrassment and damage to plaintiff [sic] reputation.”
She also claims that the stress of her treatment by Alameda County has affected medical conditions, including glaucoma and other medical issues.
Williams included in her complaint a 2015 class action lawsuit against Alameda County that alleged a backlog of the county’s processing of CalFresh (food stamp) benefits and challenged “Alameda County’s widespread failure to timely determine eligibility for CalFresh (food stamp) benefits.” That suit was also filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
According to the 2015 lawsuit, “The ongoing and persistent failure and/or refusal of the named defendants to ensure, on a county-wide basis, the processing of CalFresh applications within the time limits mandated by federal and state law has resulted and continues to result in substantial delays in providing CalFresh benefits to thousands of low-income households in Alameda County critically in need of this assistance to help them feed themselves and their families.”
In addition to her complaints against the county, Williams alleges she has been “waiting for seven months for Cal fresh [sic] recertification application.”
She is seeking civil rights damages, punitive damages and compensatory damages totaling $80,000. She is representing herself.
U.S. District Court Northern District of California case number 3:18-cv-05707