Senators Push To Provide Housing Assistance To Wildfires Survivors

Merkley, Western Senators Push Senate Leadership To Provide Housing Assistance To Communities Impacted by 2020 Wildfires 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), are pushing Senate leaders to deliver critical housing assistance to Americans struggling to find reliable shelter in the wake of catastrophic wildfire damage in western states. This year alone, fires in the west burned over 5.8 million acres, claimed over 30 lives, and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. 

“The current wildfires will further exacerbate an already critical affordable housing shortage impacting western states. Oregon, California, and Washington are short over 1.2 million affordable rental housing units, and have an average of 75% of extremely low income renter households dealing with severe cost burden,” the senators wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby and Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy.

“State resources and funding were already seriously strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now completely depleted by weeks of fighting some of the most dangerous and widespread fires on record. With nowhere else to turn, western states are looking to the Senate to deliver critical housing relief,” the lawmakers continued.

The senators’ request includes $15 billion for Community Development Block Grants, $3 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund, $2 billion in Emergency Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Funding, and $1 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development and Rural Housing Service. The letter also included specific program guidance to ensure the funds would put much-needed housing assistance funding in the hands of people significantly impacted by fire; help incentivize and prioritize affordable housing rebuilding; ramp up lending capacity in fire impacted states; and help repair and rebuild housing, community facilities, and infrastructure projects.

The full text of the letter is available here.