Wildfire Recovery State Funding Expenditure Report (2021-23 Biennium)
During the 2021 session, the Oregon Legislature allocated $150.4 million, as part of House Bill 5006, to Oregon Housing and Community Services to assist fire survivors and their communities with recovery from the 2020 Labor Day fires. The appropriation included $100.4 million of General Fund and $50 million of Lottery-backed bond revenues. These funds were spent or committed to wildfire recovery efforts and housing developments before the end of the 2021-23 state biennium, helping over 1,100 survivor households thus far—and will ultimately support building 421 new homes in wildfire-affected regions.
As of June 30, 2023, OHCS has spent $95.3 million in what had been appropriated as General Fund and $9.2 million in Lottery Bond proceeds, for a total of $104.5 million spent.
As construction projects typically span beyond the biennium, OHCS had previously requested that $27.1 million of General Fund dollars be converted to Other Funds for housing development projects that were started but had not yet reached completion at the end of the biennium.
OHCS staff has provided Lane, Marion, and Lincoln counties suballocations, all of which are under contract, and funds have been disbursed to the counties. These funds, a total of $19 million across the three counties, are being granted for land acquisition, infrastructure development, and other recovery activities. Counties have a deep understanding of the needs of their communities and can move more nimbly to respond to new opportunities in recovery. Additionally, these suballocations were made to ensure rough geographic equity of resources. Adding funds to these agreements is the agency’s fallback plan if further project savings are realized late in the biennium.
Funds Expended and Committed as of June 30, 2023
Category
|
Amount
|
Disbursed/Expended
| $104.0M
|
Under Contract (but not expended)
| $ 12.4M
|
Expended/Under Contract/Committed Subtotal
| $116.4M
|
Project Reservations*
| $ 34.0M
|
*Project reservations are reserved for specific projects under development that are not yet under contract and remaining administrative costs.
Allocated Funding (including Project Reservations) by Use
|
Amount
|
WRRA
| $35.3M
|
Permanent housing project development (inc. modular purchases)
| $ 4.4M
|
Interim housing project development
| $81.6M
|
Land acquisition
| $10.6M
|
Admin (staff, indirect charges, etc.)
| $ 6.2M
|
County flexible suballocations
| $19.1M
|
Wildfire Recovery and Resilience Accounts (WRRA): Funds used by community action agencies and others to assist wildfire survivors directly. Roughly a third of the funding is for rent and assistance with temporary housing, while the rest is for repair or replacement of permanent housing and associated costs. WRRA has helped 1,146 survivor families with rent assistance, move-in costs, and/or grants to contribute to home rebuilds and replacements. The program has helped 867 households find permanent housing.
County Flexible Suballocations: Eligible uses overlap with the other categories listed; given the flexibility provided, we cannot yet directly allocate to the ultimate use. Eligible uses of funds include land acquisition, infrastructure, and recovery operations staffing. The targets for suballocations were based on proportion of housing lost and funding commitments already made. Jackson County project commitments were already in line with geographic targets and thus did not receive a suballocation.
Geographic Breakdown
To ensure rough geographic equity among the impacted counties, OHCS considered the proportion of the roughly 4,500 homes lost across the state in each county. (Over 4,300 units were lost to the 2020 Labor Day fires. Another 100+ homes were lost to the Bootleg Fire in 2021.) Particular care is being applied to the balance of funds being spent in the four counties/fires with the greatest housing losses: Jackson, Lane, Lincoln, and Linn/Marion, which accounted for over 95% of total housing losses in the 2020 Labor Day fires. (For geographic equity tracking, OHCS is grouping the losses in Linn and Marion counties.)
County
| % Homes Lost
| Funding Target
| Allocated Funding (including WRRA and specific development projects)
|
Clackamas
| 1.4%
| $ 2.0M
| $ 0.3M
|
Douglas
| 3.1%
| $ 4.5M
| $ 1.5M
|
Jackson*
| 55.8%
| $ 81.1M
| $ 88.0M
|
Klamath
| 2.5%
| $ 3.6M
| $ 0.8M
|
Lane
| 13.7%
| $ 19.9M
| $ 21.9M
|
Lincoln
| 8%
| $ 11.6M
| $ 12.2M
|
Linn/Marion
| 15.6%
| $ 22.7M
| $ 20.7M
|
Subtotal
| 100%
| $145.4M
| $145.4M
|
Admin and statewide costs
| $7.9M
|
|
|
*This figure may overstate the total allocation for Jackson County projects. Royal Oaks received manufactured home preservation funding that may reduce the DRR contribution to the project.
Allocations for the four most severely impacted counties are being tracked more closely because additional new housing projects are being developed there that impact how much funding has been allocated to their recovery. Allocations for the smaller counties have been driven more by their ability to spend WRRA allocations.