State-funded recovery program helped nearly 1,200 households hit by Labor Day 2020 wildfires

 SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The state Wildfire Recovery and Resilience Account program supported hundreds of wildfire-affected households to find temporary housing or to recover fully from the massive devastation of the 2020 Labor Day Wildfires and Straight-line Winds, according to a new report published by Oregon Housing and Community Services.

OHCS said used $35.3 million of the $150 million made available by the Oregon Legislature through House Bill 5006 to begin implementing WRRA in the fall of 2021 and continued through summer 2023. 

The report documents the assistance distributed through WRRA:

• The program supported 1,146 households with at least one type of support, such as rent assistance, home reconstruction, repair or replacement, flexible funding to replace lost or damaged household goods, or removal of hazard trees on a participant’s property.
• WRRA supported 450 households with intermediate or temporary housing and supported 867 households with their full recovery from the wildfires.
• Over 65% of the households supported by the WRRA program were low- or moderate-income.

“WRRA was developed to provide assistance to fire survivors most in need as quickly as possible through a network of local organizations to provide shelter services, interim housing and to help families complete their recovery whenever possible,” said Lauren Dressen, chief recovery officer of the OHCS Disaster Recovery and Resilience Division. “Thanks to a tremendous amount of work by our local partners, over a thousand families were served, including hundreds who were able to achieve full recovery.”

WRRA was one of the primary strategies pursued by OHCS to assist with fire recovery quickly. The others were to provide dedicated fire recovery funds to subsidize permanent affordable housing developments; award grants to local governments to fund recovery activities; and prioritize fire recovery within existing housing development funding programs. Over 1,000 additional units of affordable housing have been, or will be, built in fire-impacted communities as a result of these efforts.

To read the full report and learn more about WRRA, visit the OHCS website.