Jan. 10—It’ll be some time before Spokane County can cash a $44 million federal check from the Biden-Harris Administration to aid in the rebuilding of Medical Lake and Elk following the devastating 2023 wildfires.
What’s needed is more assessment of data and direct feedback from people in the area who were affected, according to HUD’s Community Planning and Development Representative Stefania Appia. The process could take months or years because of the rigorous process state and federal officials must follow.
The funding was part of a $12 billion Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery package, distributed across 24 states by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency announced in a press release last year. Spokane County Commissioners were presented with the $44 million check by members of HUD during a press conference Friday to use in housing development, infrastructure restoration, economic support and fire resiliency. It was the only county in Washington to receive the grant.
A main goal of the newly allocated funding is to assist those who are underinsured or not insured at all, Appia said at the press conference, which is a way to “close the gaps” that other funding may not have been able to fill.
The two fires, which ravaged parts of Spokane County in August 2023, were among the worst in Washington state history. They razed more than 21,000 acres and more than 300 homes. People from Medical Lake are still without houses, according to the town’s Mayor, Terri Cooper. Among them are 34 people who have been sleeping in RVs for nearly two years, waiting for assistance, she said.
“The Gray fire and the Oregon Road fire … it devastated the communities of Medical Lake and all of those living in the rural area in the north part of the county. This is life altering. It is something that nobody prepares for,” Commissioner Al French said Friday. “The one thing that I’ve said multiple times — what I love about Spokane and Spokane County is that we are a giving community, and we are there to help our neighbors.”
According to Appia, there are milestones in the grant process that rely on Spokane County to assess the needs in its community through data collection and feedback. It was done before, she said, but for the grant to be distributed, it has to be done again.
“The county, at this point, will need to reevaluate those needs, engage with the community, engage with the tribal populations that were affected by this fire, and then develop their action plan,” Appia said.
The plan must go through 30 days of public comment for the county to determine what housing, infrastructure and economic projects they’ll support, although there is no set date for the meeting yet. Once the county finalizes its plan, it will be submitted to HUD for review to determine that feedback was addressed and data collection is accurate, Appia said.
Because federal funding cannot be duplicated, the grant is merely meant to fill holes that were not fixed using federal and state dollars. For example, Appia added, if someone is quoted at $400,000 to rebuild their home and their insurance covers $300,000, federal funding will cover the last $100,000.
The county will also complete a mitigation assessment, or an assessment that identifies and analyzes all significant current and future disaster risks.
Once everything is completed, the funds will start rolling into Spokane County.
Commissioner Josh Kerns, who represents the communities affected by the Oregon Road Fire, said it’s hard to place a timeline on when people will start seeing the effects of the HUD funding package because a lot of the previous residents had different experiences. For example, he said, some people spent weeks clearing debris from their properties. Others reached out to contractors immediately to discuss a rebuilding plan. Some took a very long time to even be able to reach out to anyone, he said.
“When you go through such a dramatic experience like that, everybody’s going to move at a different speed on what they’re ready to do,” Kerns said. “That’s why it is difficult to put a timeline on sort of that process, because we need to make sure that we’re being as accommodating and moving at a speed that is comfortable for those impacted families.”
It can be tough to rigorously assess a community that hasn’t lived in the area for almost two years, Cooper acknowledged during the conference. Filling out paperwork, answering questions and working with community leaders is something the citizens of Medical Lake and Elk have done many times before.
“It is difficult, and we understand that,” Cooper said. “… But we really want to know what the needs are, and we need a full deep dive again on where everybody’s at.”
Cooper said Elk and Medical Lake have eight houses ready for the finishing touches so far, due to assistance from federal, county and state funds, donors and volunteers. Silently, everyone has been working for a year and a half , she said. The work is not finished yet.
“Nobody has this depth of recovery already. While those days just seem so long to people in crisis, in a year and a half we have seen an incredible amount of recovery,” she said. “I think this $44 million is going to go a long way. I expect it to be absolutely resilient, and it will only continue.”