Residents in the Rancho Palos Verdes have been living in fear that one day their homes might slide down the edge of the slope. Just when they thought they were going to be receiving funds to help, it got ripped away.

Corinne Gerrard, 85, lives on a slippery slope and uses a walking stick and a cane to find and fill fissures around her house. Gerrard says areas around her home have to be filled twice a day.

In Rancho Palos Verdes, a handful of landslides have been moving homes for years and recent wet winters have made things worse.

"Morning chores are get up, get the shovels out, get the wheelbarrows out and start filling the fissures," Gerrard said.

In August 2023, Rancho Palos Verdes was awarded a $23 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to slow down the Portuguese Bend landslide.

But in April 2025, FEMA abruptly canceled the nearly $5 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program nationwide, saying in a press release it was "wasteful" and "ineffective."

CBS Los Angeles has reached out to the White House for a response to the funding cut and is waiting for a response. 

It was a bold shift from what Mr. Trump said on his campaign trail in September last year at the Trump National Golf Course.

"I want to express my support to all of the families affected by the landslides of Rancho Palos Verdes," Mr. Trump said last September.

John Colich is a long-time Trump supporter whose construction company built the road outside Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, along with some other projects.

"We, he hasn't done very good on that promise.  I like some of those other issues that he's taken care of, but, of course, I wish he would support the neighborhood," Colich said.

Even though Colich feels the president hasn't held up his end of this promise, it hasn't changed his support for him.

Colich has brought in about 10,000 cubic yards of dirt to shore up his property that sits in the canceled grant zone.

John Cruikshank was the Rancho Palos Verde mayor when then-candidate Mr. Trump made that campaign promise.

"We have about 600 homes, several thousand residents have been affected," Cruikshank said at the time.

The former mayor, who's a civil engineer, says the federal grant would've been a force multiplier, providing more equipment to the water extraction systems the city has been funding on its own with measurable success.

"The land at its worst was moving about 50 feet per year and now it's currently about 20 feet per year in the worst areas," Cruikshank said. "Some of the areas aren't moving at all anymore."

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program was originally created in 2018 during Mr. Trump's first term to help vulnerable communities with natural disasters like hurricanes and floods.

CBS News analysis of FEMA data found 86 grants were previously awarded in California, worth $1.14 billion for projects like retrofitting and fire prevention. Nearly 95% of them have been canceled.

Dave Bradley, the current mayor, says his city isn't being singled out because BRIC grants have been canceled across the country, while the federal government has its hands full.

He says the canceled grants will have a ripple effect on the president's golf course.

"It's one of the primary routes that people use to get to the golf course so if PV Drive South was impassable, I would expect it would have a negative effect," Bradley said.

In less than two years, the city has dipped into its reserves, spending nearly $50 million on repaving this stretch of road, sometimes twice a day, just a couple of miles from Mr. Trump's golf course.

"If I could speak to President Trump today, I would say, 'Sir, when you were out here and you saw the landslide a year ago, I hope you remember what you saw because we really are in need here,'" Bradley said.

Both the mayor and the former mayor are registered Republicans who are cautiously optimistic that Washington will step in to help.  

Gerrard's house sits outside of the BRIC project zone, which originally included 200 homes. The land movement has about doubled since the grant was awarded.

Cruikshank says 650 homes are currently in the landslide.

Gerrard says she has sunk thigh-deep into the dirt several times as she tries to save her beloved home.

"That's the reason I carry a backpack because my phone is here," Gerrard said. "If anything happened to me, I could call a neighbor and say 'help.'"

Bracing for a distress call, while a community is already crying for help.

The Department of Homeland Security sent CBS News Los Angeles a statement.

"Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, DHS and FEMA have delivered robust aid since January to L.A. County, home to Rancho Palos Verdes, with $132 million in individual assistance, over 500 dedicated staff, shelter for 2,800+ households, and $3 billion in SBA low-interest disaster loans," the statement read.