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Boston is concerned about what’s going to happen over the coming months. Not everybody is going to be ready or able to find housing, she said, and some likely will turn to their cars or RVs because they have nowhere else to go. “That’s the worst-case scenario. That is absolutely not what the county wants to see happen to any of these folks,” she said. While FEMA is the primary lead on housing those individuals, Boston said, the county began doing targeted outreach to the remaining occupants ahead of the original May closure deadline, sending out physical mailers and making phone calls. Her team, which provides disaster case management services via a contract with AmeriCorps (which expires June 30), noted that significant barriers to securing affordable housing include insufficient income and lack of credit history. Many have been holding out for a PG&E settlement payout, she added. Occupants are allowed to purchase their units, but that option is fraught with challenges. 10
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For starters, the homes will be sold at fair market value, a likely insurmountable obstacle for those with little means. Additionally, units do not meet wildland-urban interface fire safety standards, according to Butte County Deputy Administrative Officer Casey Hatcher. This means they can be treated only as temporary housing in 95 percent of the burn scar. Come mid-September, whatever housing units are not sold to occupants—or donated to governmental entities or volunteer organizations— will be auctioned off.
‘Very disheartening’ In Gridley, Spencer at the Butte Wildfires Distribution Center is still
serving some of the same Camp Fire survivors who have been coming since the immediate aftermath of the disaster. She has grown close with them over the years. Spencer fears that her friends and neighbors will become homeless in the coming months as FEMA prepares to close its development. The housing market has been competitive in Gridley, she said. Homes are being completed, but they go fast. Meanwhile, rents have skyrocketed. Spencer referenced a family that can no longer afford today’s rental prices despite having maintained their employment throughout multiple disasters (the fire and then the pandemic). They went from paying $800 a month in
“I’m tired. All I want to do is go home. I’m thankful for everything I’ve got, but I’m one who is slipping through the cracks.” —Dianna Franklyn, FEMA Camp Fire housing resident
Left: Lynne Spencer holds a box of fresh food and produce at the Butte Wildfires Distribution Center in downtown Gridley, where fire survivors have sought basic necessities since November 2018.
Above: Cecelia Huffman lived in Paradise more than 30 years before losing everything in the Camp Fire. She regularly visits the Butte Wildfires Distribution Center and says she’d go hungry without it’s vital services.
PHOTO BY ASHIAH SCHARAGA
PHOTO BY ASHIAH SCHARAGA
Paradise to being quoted double that amount for similar units. This is the case for a lot of people she has met, Spencer said. “That’s when it hurts in your heart, when you realize they may not have a home in a few months,” she said. Spencer said that the center will stay open as long as there is a need. For now, it’s scheduled to continue operating through July, at which point her team will re-evaluate. “We don’t want to leave them hanging,” she said. For Cecelia Huffman, a regular at the distribution center, the services there have been vital, particularly the food, which has kept her from going hungry on her limited income. She recently secured housing, but it was far from easy. Huffman, who is 65 and disabled, lived in a FEMA community for nearly a year and a half. During that time, she constantly searched for an affordable place to live. Though approved for Section 8 housing, she was unable to find anything before her voucher expired, she said. Among the barriers: poor rental history, limited income and high monthly credit card bills. “Property owners didn’t like my numbers,” she said. “Everything has
counted against us survivors on getting out, and there’s so many people applying for the same places. It’s not easy for sure, and at times it’s very disheartening.” Eventually, Huffman received rental assistance and moving help from the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) and Northern Valley Catholic Social Service. She now resides in a CHIP senior housing development in Gridley. If it wasn’t for the help of those organizations, Huffman said, she’d still be in the FEMA development. “It wasn’t by choice that I was there,” she told the CN&R. Huffman is still adjusting to her new home. She said it’s difficult to feel a sense of peace and stability after living in transition for so long. Plus, Paradise was her home for 34 years and where she raised her kids. She misses her town, but also feels that it’ll never be the same for her. “I feel thankful. There’s a lot of people who didn’t get near the help I got,” she said. “I’m just happy to have a place. It feels like this is temΩ porary. But you never know.” MORE
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