STAYTON, Ore. — Wildfire survivors in Oregon are at all stages in the recovery process. Some have moved, fixed or rebuilt their homes, while others are still having a tough time.
But Marion County officials are trying to help. On Friday, Marion County officials announced they got the green light from the Gates City Council to build 16 tiny homes where the Oak Park Motel used to stand.
Gates Mayor Ron Carmickle said the additional housing will be helpful for people who have been through so much and are working hard to recover.
“I don’t think people can really begin to understand what it does to somebody when they lose everything they had overnight,” said Carmickle. “Just put them at such a disadvantage in every manner that you can even imagine.”
Advocates say affordable and low-income housing is one of the most urgent needs in the Santiam Canyon for people who lost their home in the Beachie Creek Fire of 2020.
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“The units are already being created, if you will through international housing concepts, which is a company based here in Salem,” said Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell.
Bethell said the tiny homes will be affordable and low-income housing that will accept vouchers from the Marion County Housing Authority, which will manage the property. Both the Housing Authority and Santiam Service Integration Team are expected to work together to select people for the tiny home village. People will be able to stay for three to five years as they work toward finding permanent housing. Bethell’s hope is that wildfire survivors will be able to move in by September 2022.
“A bulk of the challenge that we foresee will be the supply chain,” Bethell said.
There are other plans in the works as well. Bethell said the county plans to build another 16 cabin-style tiny homes at North Santiam State Park. She said they would be one floor and the cabins would be ADA accessible. The plan is that after they’re used to help fire survivors, they can be used for recreation. Bethell did not have a timeline for the cabin project.
“That one will take longer to execute,” said Bethell. “We have to go through environmental studies wetland studies, a variety of different government components in order to do that.”
Bethell said she also knows of a developer who received a grant to build 54 affordable homes in Stayton and Mill City. If the state helps foot the bill to build infrastructure, Bethell said the number of homes could increase to around 100.
“If that project executes on time, moving date for those would be the fall to winter of 2023,” Bethell said.
She said the $422-million that Oregon Housing and Community Services received from the federal government specifically for wildfire recovery, is going to be very helpful because it allows for greater flexibility in how money is spent when it comes to what individual communities need.
There are hurdles to account for — and Melissa Baurer, who oversees the Santiam Service Integration Team, which helps fire survivors, said the sooner more housing is built, the better.
“We need housing options now,” said Baurer.
She said there are 16 emergency FEMA trailers located in Mill City and people living in them will have to start paying rent on April 1st.
“We’ve heard like numbers of around $2,000 a month,” Baurer said. “They're not going to be able to pay that.”
Baurer said some survivors are still dealing with the trauma of the fire, others are having trouble with insurance payouts or loans. Others can’t work — and if they can, a lot of their money is going toward an expensive rebuild. Ultimately those staying in FEMA trailers will have to be out by Sept. 15 of this year.
“Then we have the Mill City RV park is that's a separate RV park that's ran by the city and the deadline for households to be transitioned from there [is] March 31,” said Baurer.
She said the need for help in the Santiam Canyon is still there. Baurer said her case managers are helping about 300 families, made up of homeowners and renters. Approximately another 50 are on a waitlist.
In the last month, more people have been asking for financial help.
“We thought, especially this far in, that we would stop seeing people that needed our services. And in the last month, we've had an uptick and people just coming and registering for help. Most of them are homeowners who have who have decided, you know, I've gone as far as I can and now I need some I need some support,” said Baurer.
There are bright spots though, as people slowly find homes. So far, Baurer said 30 household have been able to relocate or rebuild their homes.
Both Baurer and Bethell pointed out barriers to building new affordable housing in the canyon. A major one is infrastructure: in a number of areas, infrastructure was badly damaged or ruined. The cost of materials like lumber is also a hurdle, as well as supply chain issues.
On top of that, it can be more expensive to build in the Santiam Canyon because a lot of people no longer live or work there, so companies have to pay employees for the added drive time and fuel. The bill can add up quickly and when things are more expensive to build, it’s also more expensive to buy for wildfire survivors.
Bethell said the vast majority of wildfire survivors that officials and advocates are trying to help are low-income. She said there are currently 11 people or families still living in hotels.
Baurer said, simply put, wildfire survivors want their voices heard on solutions that are meant to help them, and they need money to help rebuild their homes and lives. She said community organizations have been an important part of helping wildfire survivors recover.
“Recently Community Action Agency here in Salem, their Arches Project, has joined our team out here,” said Baurer.
She said they’ve been working on a wildfire resilience and recovery fund. In just two months, Baurer said, there’s been great impact.
“They've allocated $180,000 to homeowners and renters up in the canyon and they have a significant amount of funds to be able to give out. But they're working very closely with our team and making sure that those funds are going towards permanent housing stability. So that is just incredible and that's what our survivors need. They need more funds that like that, that don't have a lot of strings attached, that they can use and put directly towards the cost of their rebuild,” said Baurer.