Survivors of Southern Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day wildfires will get an extra six months of Federal Emergency Management Agency housing support.
FEMA guidelines call for housing assistance for up to 18 months after a declared disaster, which would have given the survivors of the 2020 fires until mid-March to find new homes.
But FEMA spokesperson Paul Corah said finding permanent housing is slow-going in an area that has very low housing inventory, as KTVL-TV reported.
Typically, extensions are given in three-month increments, but the severity of the damage in the Rogue Valley prompted officials to grant people an extra six months. Of 190 families that were housed by FEMA in Jackson County, 154 are still in this temporary housing.
People in FEMA housing in Marion, Lane, Lincoln and Linn counties were given similar extensions.
Residents so far have been able to stay in the FEMA units while paying only utilities, but those who stay beyond April 1 will be charged rent, on a sliding scale.
“FEMA’s working with the survivors about what that scale is. The minimum is $50,” Corah said.
Corah said FEMA also has a sales program, allowing residents to purchase the units.
The Oregon wildfire season in 2020 destroyed more than 4,000 homes, killed nine people and tore through 1.1 million acres. Almost all the damage occurred over a dramatic 72-hour period. It was a wake-up call for the Pacific Northwest as climate change brings bigger and more destructive blazes.