Sen. Ron Wyden visits FEMA site in Jackson County, holds virtual town hall

Jackson County, OR — Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden was in Jackson County on Saturday to speak to displaced residents at FEMA's temporary housing site in White City, and hold a virtual town hall with county residents about their concerns. FEMA's housing site, known as Willow Estates, holds 23 manufactured homes. There are still well over 100 fire-affected families in the Rogue Valley without FEMA housing,

"Being here today and talking to folks who just got clobbered by the big fires just reinforces for me that painfully, there are still two Oregons," Wyden said.

On Friday, Wyden unveiled a plan to prevent the next catastrophic wildfire as the Southern Oregon inches toward fire season once again. The $40 billion package would largely go towards mitigation tactics like controlled burns.

"As I indicated with the fires at the outset, at the time I thought we were in the first quarter. I can tell you now, I don't think we're close to halftime yet," Wyden said.

In addition to efforts in Jackson County, earlier this week Wyden announced $4.5 million in emergency funding for Josephine County out of the CARES Act.

"If we don't have a roof over our heads, and the people I know feel the same way, everything else goes by the boards," Wyden said. "We're better than that. This is emergency help."

Talent Mayor Darby Ayers-Flood also visited the FEMA site in White City on Saturday alongside Wyden. The city of Talent still awaits any FEMA housing.

"The real challenge is gonna be transitioning folks from this temporary emergency housing into permanent housing without driving them out of our communities. This is the time for us to start looking forward," Flood said. Residents can stay in FEMA housing for up to 18 months before finding a more permanent solution.

Wyden's visit to White City preceded his sixth town hall event over the past two weeks. Residents of fire-affected areas could raise their concerns directly with the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Saturday it was the Rogue Valley's turn.

Jackson County residents were able to ask the senator a variety of questions. To no surprise, the topic that dominated was the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and Southern Oregon's economic response.

Also of particular interest was the status of emergency assistance from FEMA following the Almeda Fire.

FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Dolph Diemont, who is overseeing wildfire recovery operations in the state, was present at the town hall, and addressed concerns from some residents about the number of people who have been denied emergency aid by the agency, many of whom are low-income. Over 50% of people who applied for federal assistance were denied.

"We really want to help everybody that needs help. Thats our mission. Helping people before, during and after disasters," Diemont said. "We have a serious issue with fraud that has been increasing in all of our disasters lately."

Of the more than 24,000 people applied for federal disaster assistance in Oregon this past wildfire season, roughly 9,000 of those applications were considered fraudulent, and made by people outside the state who were entirely unaffected.

As chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Wyden is also currently working to draft new coronavirus stimulus that would send $1400 checks to qualifying Americans.