LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Local, state and federal officials are working alongside each other in the effort to get community members displaced by the Valley fire the housing they need as the recovery process begins.
The 76,067-acre fire, which began on Sept. 12, swept through the communities of Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake and Middletown, displacing around 20,000 residents at its height, when communities near Kelseyville also were evacuated on precaution.
Cal Fire's damage assessments put the total number of structures destroyed at 1,958, which breaks down into 1,280 single-family homes, 27 multi-family structures, 66 commercial properties, and 585 other minor structures such as outbuildings and sheds, with another 93 damaged structures including 41 homes, seven commercial properties and 45 other minor structures.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, said in a press briefing last week that a “patchwork of capability” is in place to meet the needs of survivors – including hotels, rentals, reopening resorts like Konocti Harbor and manufactured housing.
On the local level, the county of Lake is working on a number of solutions, according to Social Services Director Carol Huchingson, who also is acting director of the county's Emergency Operations Center.
She said the Local Assistance Center is taking many requests related to temporary housing. However, the center's intake forms don't get into the specifics of what kinds of housing is being sought. More details emerge as case managers work with applicants to look at their needs.
Much of the local focus has been placed on urgent need, Huchingson said.
As of Wednesday, 22 people were still staying at the shelter set up at Twin Pine Casino, with 85 at the Hidden Valley Lake RV park and baseball field, with 60 of those people staying in tents, Huchingson said.
She said that as of Wednesday another 16 people have been staying at the Lake Mendocino campground, 20 at the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge and two at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lakeport, with the county putting up five families in local motels.
The remainder of those who have been displaced are believed to be staying with friends and family, or have other arrangements, she said.
The concern, Huchingson said, is that it's not clear if those other arrangements will hold for long, and what displaced residents will need as time goes on.
“I think there will be many phases to this housing process,” she said.
One of the county's solutions for temporary housing is the reopening of a portion of Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa in Kelseyville.
The resort closed in 2009, but the county – working with the U.A. Local 38 Plumbers and Pipefitters union of San Francisco, which has owned the resort since 1959 – reached an agreement to open some of the resort's suites, Huchingson said.
She said the resort has made 46 rooms available. “They're not all ready yet but they're staging them.”
As of Wednesday morning, 16 families had moved in, with 12 more families lined up. Huchingson said her staff were determining eligibility through a screening process.
Huchingson said the county has a contract with Konocti Harbor and will pay $1,000 per month per unit for the housing.
“At this point we would assume the county is going to be reimbursed for that under the California Disaster Assistance Act,” she said.
She said the arrangements with the resort were set up before President Barack Obama issued a presidential major disaster declaration on Sept. 22, which activated Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance.
There are other alternatives being pursued as well, such as making RV spaces available to displaced residents, she said.
Huchingson said county staffers are trying to determine if there is enough capacity at current RV parks, or if they need to make other arrangements for people who want to live near their properties or on their land.
“We're trying to get a handle on how many people are really interested in doing that,” she said.
If more space is needed, the county is looking at using a portion of the Hoberg's Resort that was undamaged in the fire and equipping it for a temporary RV park, Huchingson said.
The resort's historic main lodge was leveled by the fire, but another portion of the resort the fire didn't harm is sufficient to house up to 140 RVs, she said. However, infrastructure to house that number of RVs will have to be developed.
As such, a plan has been put together and submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for consideration, Huchingson said.
“We're waiting to see is that is something FEMA would do,” she said.
Dan Nelson, the resort's vice president, told Lake County News in a separate interview that he wanted to help and was making the property available for the RV plan.
Jellystone RV Park in Cobb also is involved in the discussion, as that park has vacancies. It also has long-term residents, and Huchingson said the goal is not to squeeze out those people in the process of finding housing for displaced Cobb residents.
Community Development Director Rick Coel told Lake County News that he's drafted two proposals to take to the Board of Supervisors' meeting on Tuesday asking for certain zoning ordinance requirements to be temporarily deferred to accommodate survivors.
He said the first would allow people who lost homes to place an RV on their properties temporarily if the properties are an acre or larger in size.
“The current regulations only allow RV occupancy during construction of a home, under a valid building permit, with the foundation constructed first,” he said. “This is an obvious problem due to the cleanup of debris still needed, tree hazards, and time needed to design new home plans and so forth.”
He said smaller lots are too dangerous for temporary RV placement due to not having adequate separation from an RV location and debris piles on the same and adjacent lots, “plus we don’t want to impede cleanup efforts which need to go efficiently as possible.”
In his report to the board for Tuesday's meeting, Coel said there is a shortage of local rental housing and existing recreational vehicle park capacity in Lake County.
“Allowing a limited number of property owners to live on their larger parcels, when conditions are deemed safe, will reduce demand of local RV parks, thereby making more spaces available for residents of small lots that cannot currently place their RVs on those lots due to the number of safety concerns,” he wrote.
Coel said the second interim urgency ordinance is a request to defer the use permit requirement applicable to RV parks to allow for a few temporary RV parks for transitional housing in locations that are not close to town. This would allow people to live in their communities in an RV even if their lot cannot support doing so.
“We want to at least remove the local regulatory barrier to help facilitate this, and have identified several sites with willing property owners to develop temporary RV parks,” he said.
His report for Tuesday's meeting notes that approximately 45 percent of the students in the Middletown Unified School District lost their homes and many have yet to return to school. He also noted that cleanup is not likely to be completed by Christmas.
Coel said his staff has contacted the California Department of Housing and Community Development – which oversees mobilehome and RV parks – and that agency indicated that it was having similar discussions about the matter on Thursday.
Huchingson said the county has been working on understanding what FEMA can do in its separate capacity.
FEMA process explained
FEMA spokesman Steven Solomon said all levels of government are cooperating on the response. “We're partners and we're working on it together.”
Solomon explained that all assistance begins locally – with community groups, the county and organizations like the Red Cross.
FEMA is on the ground to assist the state of California in responding to the county's needs, he said.
Solomon said there are a number of ways FEMA can help.
First, fire survivors must register for services, he said. They have 60 days from the date of the federal disaster declaration to seek assistance – putting the deadline at Nov. 23.
By that November deadline, Solomon said FEMA was anticipating about 2,000 registrations would come in for both Lake and Calaveras counties for the Valley and Butte fires, respectively.
“In just a few days we've exceeded that number,” he said.
As of Thursday, the number of Valley and Butte fire registrants had reached 2,328, Solomon said.
To register, call 1-800-621-3362 (those who have a speech disability or hearing loss and use TTY, should call 1-800-462-7585 directly; for those who use 711 or Video Relay Service, call 1-800-621-3362); or apply online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or via smartphone at m.fema.gov.
People also can register in person at the Disaster Recovery Center in Middletown, 21256 Washington St., which has hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., or to the new Disaster Recovery Center that opens at noon on Friday in Clearlake, 14848 Olympic Drive.
That center's hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday; and and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. next week, Monday through Friday, Solomon said.
Solomon said FEMA is working to address some misinformation put out into the community over the radio.
For one, “We do not charge a fee to register, or any fees for that matter,” he said.
Neither is FEMA assistance taxable, and it doesn't affect Social Security payments, Solomon said.
Once registered, individuals will need to provide FEMA with several pieces of information to confirm their eligibility.
Those key items include Social Security number, the address of the damaged home or apartment, proof of having lived at that address at the time of the disaster, insurance coverage information, a current telephone number, an address where they can receive mail, and a bank account routing number if they want assistance conveyed in direct deposit. Otherwise, Solomon said FEMA will write them checks.
Solomon said FEMA needs applicants' insurance information and a statement from insurance companies because, he explained. “We don't duplicate insurance coverage.”
Rather, FEMA is meant to assist the uninsured and the underinsured, and applicants won't know what they're eligible for until they file a claim with their insurance companies and register with FEMA so that it can be sorted out, Solomon explained.
Solomon said there are 20 FEMA inspectors in the field who are scheduling times to go out to impacted properties as part of determining eligibility.
Solomon said that for those individuals who are determined to be eligible for temporary housing, there are two forms of assistance – financial and direct.
He said financial is in the form of a check or direct deposit for lodging or rental assistance, while direct assistance is not a cash grant. Rather, it's in the form of temporary housing such as a mobile home or travel trailer, or a rental payment made directly to the applicant's landlord or to a hotel.
Asked about how long it takes to process claims, Solomon said, “Each case is unique and you can't really put a time to it, or even a range.”
As for how long FEMA expects to have a presence in Lake County to assist with the recovery, Solomon said there also isn't a set date, that it's based on getting the job done.
“FEMA will be here as long as it takes to insure that every eligible survivor gets access to the information they need in order to receive the federal assistance that they're entitled to,” he said.
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