SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Spokane County will host community meetings for victims of the Gray and Oregon Road Fires starting this weekend, but many are wondering what the holdup is when it comes to distributing millions in relief for fire victims.
“Spokane County will facilitate at both locations and we’ll go over a brief overview of the grant and some of the requirements and the long term recovery group will be there to answer questions,” said George Dahl, the county’s housing and community development administrator.
The county and the Spokane Region Long Term Recovery Group are still working to connect Gray and Oregon Road fire victims with case managers, and will have two public meetings on Saturday to help them.
“We will have navigators on site that can get that information and then follow up with an appointment,” said Terri Cooper with the Spokane Region Long Term Recovery Group. “We can do that over the phone, we can come to come or they can come to the office and we’ll do all we can to make that as easy as possible.”
The county hopes to start distributing $44 million in federal fire relief to victims. The county says it’s a grant from HUD and works as a line of credit, which will allow them to enter into contracts with home builders who then submit receipts to the county and get reimbursed by the federal government.
“It’ll be a matter of having all your receipts, your insurance settlement, everything you received from FEMA, anything you’ve ever received from any nonprofits along the way or any kind of financial help. All of that has to be documented,” Cooper said.
For now, the county is working to finalize a contract with the long term recovery group next week for $4 million to start some of that work.
“We’re really focused on this contract right now with the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery group. Making sure that we have a program that’s up off the ground assisting folks. Then we’ll be able to evaluate need after that,” Dahl said. “But right now, we just want to have the resources out there in the public.”
Spokane County says some of the federal requirements for fire victims to access some of the relief money will be very strict. It will likely take time before victims can get reimbursed for rebuilding their homes or cleaning up their property.
“I know that there are a lot of folks that have already provided personal information to the long term recovery group or to FEMA right after the disaster, so there’s going to be some duplication of some information that folks will have to give,” said Dahl.
The recovery group says it will have a clearer picture of the requirements for fire victims to qualify for the program next week. Seven victims have already been identified that need help rebuilding their homes.
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