Oregon Housing Community Services, as a whole, and, in particular, the Disaster Recovery and Resilience (DRR) Division, have been working to support a range of housing development activities in the communities hardest-hit by the 2020 Labor Day wildfires and straight-line winds.
Disaster Shelter
The response to the 2020 fires went through several phases beginning with a “shelter” mission. In the first days after the Labor Day fires erupted, in cooperation with Red Cross, Jackson County made the county Expo building available as a congregate shelter site.
However, because COVID-19 was still a pressing public health threat, there was a great urgency to move to non-congregate sheltering. This was accomplished by moving hundreds of displaced fire survivors to hotels.
These various shelter efforts were entirely managed and funded through Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). At its peak in early 2021, the ODHS shelter mission was serving over 700 households. Living in shelter—even if that shelter is more than a bunk in a school gym—is very hard on survivors.
Interim or Intermediate Housing
Given the limited availability of new permanent housing due to the very tight housing market, OHCS, FEMA and local partners all developed interim solutions.
FEMA rehabilitated a number of destroyed manufactured home parks around the state to place FEMA Transportable Temporary Housing Units (THUs or FEMA trailers) under a "direct housing mission." The mission housed hundreds of families and was extended twice, at the state’s request. It shut down in March 2023. Meanwhile, private partners—most notably Rogue Retreat—organized dozens of recreational vehicle donations. These mobile homes were parked at county- and state-owned parks (this effort was supported by DHS through their shelter mission).
In Talent, to serve families with children attending Phoenix-Talent Schools, OHCS funded the development of the Gateway project. Fifty-three households have been housed in recreational vehicles at Gateway since September 2021.
Fortify Holdings purchased and redeveloped multiple hotel properties as one-bedroom and efficiency apartments for fire survivors in Jackson County. As fire survivor families moved from hotel rooms to converted apartments at these properties, responsibility for supporting them moved from DHS (under the “shelter mission”) to OHCS as intermediate housing (with rental assistance, where needed, paid for through the Wildfire Recovery and Resilience Account (WRRA) program). Several hundred fire survivor households continue to receive rental assistance from OHCS partners.
Permanent Housing
Hundreds of homes have been rebuilt without significant public assistance. These have been funded by insurance payments and survivor families making extraordinary financial decisions to fund their own recovery. Many families displaced by the fires were under-insured and low or moderate income. There are very few opportunities to find housing at the low cost that many of these households were paying prior to the disaster ("naturally occurring affordable housing"). OHCS, as the primary funder of affordable housing in Oregon, is supporting a number of new subsidized affordable housing projects to help serve these fire survivors.
With $150 million in state funds dedicated to fire recovery, OHCS is supporting the following new housing developments, which prioritize fire survivors.
Dedicated Housing for Survivors
Jackson County
- Royal Oaks – Phoenix
- 118 modular homes
- OHCS DRR funding: $13.5M (site work) and purchase of modular homes ($23M)
- Developer: Housing Authority of Jackson County
- Talent Mobile Estates – Talent
- 75 manufactured homes
- OHCS DRR funding: $16.1M
- Developer: CASA of Oregon
Lane County
- Lazy Days – Blue River
- 30 manufactured or modular homes
- OHCS DRR funding: $9.9M
- Developer: Homes for Good
Lincoln County
- Depoe Bay Townhomes – Depoe Bay
- 12 townhomes
- OHCS DRR funding: $3M
- Developer: Housing Authority of Lincoln County
- Lincoln County Scattered Sites - Otis and Lincoln City
- 2 ownership homes
- OHCS DRR funding: $690k
- Developer: Habitat for Humanity and NW Coastal Housing
Affordable Housing Developments - Prioritizing Survivors
OHCS has also dedicated resources from multiple programs to support housing recovery in the most impacted counties. These awards increase overall affordable housing supply and also require developers to prioritize fire survivors in initial lease-up or purchase.
In addition to the over 400 homes funded with DRR-specific funding (see above), these resources will support another 641 total new homes. Over 500 will open their doors in 2024.
Jackson County
- Renaissance Flats - Talent
- 72 rental units
- OHCS funding: $7.56M LIFT Rental
- Developer: Commonwealth
- Talent Senior Apartments – Talent
- 22 rental homes
- OHCS funding: $3.7M LIFT Rental
- Developer: AGE+US
- Summit Gardens – Medford
- 34 rental homes
- OHCS funding:; $7.8M General Housing Assistance Program (GHAP), $3.2M in Agricultural Worker Housing Tax Credit and $1.8M in Disaster Recovery Funds
- Developer: North Development Group
- Orchard Meadows & Prescott Gardens – Medford
- 196 rental homes
- $9.5M GHAP and $5M in Federal Disaster Housing Tax Credits
- Developer: Housing Authority of Jackson County
- New Spirit Village – Medford
- 84 homes for purchase
- $4.8M LIFT Homeownership
- Developer: New Spirit Village and Proud Ground
Lane County
- Rose Street
- 6 homes for purchase
- $1.085M LIFT Homeownership
- Developer: McKenzie River CLT
Lincoln County
- Wecoma Place – Lincoln City
- 44 rental homes
- $3.9M GHAP
- Developer: Stewardship Development LLC
Marion County
- Gateway Phase 2 – Salem
- 129 rental homes
- $25.1M LIFT Rental
- Developer: Community Development Partners
- MacLeay CLT – Salem
- 24 homes for purchase
- $2.7M LIFT Homeownership
- Developer: DevNW
Clackamas County
- Estacada Apartments – Estacada
- 36 rental homes
- $9.7M LIFT Rental
- Developer: Home First Development LLC
Additional to state development dollars, during the 2021 Session the Oregon Legislature expanded the eligibility for the
Manufactured Home Replacement Program to include those whose homes had been destroyed by natural disasters. Through this program, OHCS provided gap financing to 35 manufactured homeowners, enabling them to replace their manufactured homes that were destroyed in the 2020 Labor Day Disasters. Some of these homes also received WRRA funding to ensure sufficient funding.