LAKEPORT, Calif. – With fall bringing rain and cooler temperatures to Lake County, the effort to address Valley fire-related housing issues continued this week, as county officials adopted new rules for temporary housing placement and worked to get survivors at a campground moved to another facility.
The situation and continuing cleanup prompted the Board of Supervisors to extend a health emergency declared by Dr. Karen Tait, the county's public health officer, on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Community Development Director Rick Coel asked the board to rescind an urgency ordinance for placing RVs on lots in the fire area that the board had passed last month.
He said the ordinance was no longer needed because the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the California Office of Emergency Services and the county are all now consistently applying a set of minimum health and safety standards for site consideration and placement of temporary housing.
Those standards do not include a minimum property size minimum, but do require that there be adequate area for placement so as not to interfere with debris cleanup or the reconstruction of a permanent residence, that there be no hazards – including dead or dying trees – in the unit's proximity and no landslide risks, and that there be a potable water supply and a functioning septic system or sewer connection, according to Coel's memo to the board.
“This has been an evolving process over the last month,” he told the board on Tuesday.
Coel said he and his staff had begun drafting the rules for placing temporary dwellings before Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order last month that suspended for three years rules certain state and local regulations relating to placement of RVs and manufactured homes as temporary dwellings. At that point, Coel said they had no idea that an executive order was in the making.
“The necessity that was driving that was that there just was no communication at the time between us and FEMA,” he said.
However, since then, the California Department of Housing and Community Development has stepped in and acted as a liaison between the county and FEMA, Coel said.
The state Department of Housing and Community Development has assisted with developing criteria for temporary housing, and Coel said the county's new proposed policy follows the safety-based criteria for FEMA manufactured homes.
As of this week, only three of those FEMA homes have been installed in Lake County, but Coel believes there ultimately will be quite a few more, as numerous property owners and tenants have qualified. He said FEMA is still going through the vetting process on a case-by-case basis.
He said he wanted to make sure that the criteria the county is using to approve placement of RVs is consistent with what FEMA is doing.
As such, he asked for the interim ordinance to be rescinded and for the county to instead follow the new, specific policies he presented in his memo.
“It will allow the county staff to be a lot more adaptive with minor revisions and changes in process,” he said, explaining that the goal is to get people into temporary dwellings – whether individual or group sites.
Board Chair Anthony Farrington asked if the change in policy would alleviate issues about minimum lot sizes that had raised concerns. Coel said yes.
“We feel these criteria minimize risk to the county,” Coel said, explaining that his department has to issue the permits for such sites, including those for FEMA units. He said he wants to make sure everyone is treated the same.
Supervisor Rob Brown said that, absent a plan from FEMA, the county had to step up and do what was best for Valley fire survivors during the winter. “This is the solution for that.”
While it's not optimal, the county is being flexible, he said. “There's no way to plan for something like this,” Brown added, explaining the county is doing everything it can.
Supervisor Jim Steele said Coel was considering all of the criteria before FEMA or the state, and came close to what FEMA later proposed. “It's very good work.”
The Tuesday discussion highlighted local officials' concerns about working with FEMA.
Brown in particular criticized the agency for not being forthcoming in its communications, explaining that the county doesn't know who the agency is helping. He said it has been frustrating, although some of those issues may be getting worked out after a meeting last week.
Although communications are improving, he said they still need to get better.
He asked community members who aren't getting FEMA help to report it to the board so they can assist.
Asked about the communication issues cited by Brown, FEMA spokesman Steven Solomon said the agency has been working very closely with county officials on the recovery, noting the relationship has always been polite, professional and meaningful.
Solomon said information about individual registrations becomes part of the federal record, and is considered private and confidential, and so can't be released to the county.
“We continue to work very closely with county officials in making sure that everyone who is registered is informed of all the federal assistance that is available to eligible survivors,” Solomon said.
Efforts under way to find places for survivors
One of the sticking points between the county and FEMA that has arisen over the past several weeks is a plan the county had wanted to pursue for a temporary RV park at Hoberg's Resort.
While the resort's historic main lodge was destroyed in the fire, much of the rest of the property is undamaged by the fire. With the owner willing to let the property be used as a temporary park for up to three years, Coel and board members have held that it remains the best and safest option for community members to be able to locate as they prepare to begin rebuilding.
However, FEMA hasn't agreed.
Solomon told Lake County News that the agency's stance on the Hoberg's site is that there are hazardous materials that would need to be removed and damaged infrastructure that would need to be repaired.
There also are cultural resource sites in and around the resort that he said are of interest to several tribes.
“We're continuing to look at every possible solution,” he said.
In particular, Solomon said FEMA has identified two sites in Lake County that already are up and running as parks and have room for up to 40 pads each for manufactured housing units: Lake Village Estates in Clearlake Oaks and Clearlake Resort in Clearlake.
Solomon said Thursday that FEMA had by that point received approximately 2,492 registrations in Lake County.
Of that number, he said FEMA has provided rental assistance to more than 700 county residents.
Eligible survivors are either given cash assistance or payments are made directly to landlords, or they receive a manufactured housing unit, he said.
Regarding the units, Solomon explained, “They're more than a trailer and different than an RV in that they're fully furnished, from beds to silverware, with all appliances.”
He said more than 100 of the units are staged in the Sacramento area.
So far, three of the units have been placed and are occupied in Calaveras County, Solomon said. Three have been placed in Lake County, but have not been “licensed” – or permitted – and so are not yet occupied.
Coel told Lake County News that he's heard several more of the units will be delivered to Lake County next week.
His department has to do the permitting for the units, which he said is a process with a quick turnaround. However, for the manufactured housing units, “The property constraints are a real challenge. FEMA can’t place these in 100 year flood zonings, so that further limits the locations for placement of individual units.”
Coel's Tuesday report to the board had included a memo that explained that most of the fire-damaged properties in Cobb and Anderson Springs cannot currently meet the minimum health and safety criteria that the county, the state and FEMA are implementing for temporary housing placement. As such, other other alternatives are being explored due to the lack of FEMA group sites being developed.
In other housing news related to the Valley fire, officials are still working to find alternate accommodations for about 80 people staying at the Hidden Valley Lake campground.
The county and the Hidden Valley Lake Association had an agreement in place until late last month allowing for fire survivors to stay there for free, as Lake County News has reported.
Deputy Social Services Director Jennifer Fitts explained that the agreement had to end, as it was interfering with FEMA benefits for some fire survivors.
The association has continued, however, to allow survivors to stay there for free, and reported that it is working to assist the impacted families.
Fitts said she had staff at the campground on Thursday afternoon, delivering information on available rentals, getting additional contact information and just checking in with families in general.
She said county staffers have continued to try to urge families staying there to move to available rooms at Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa in Kelseyville.
“We haven’t been very successful though,” she said. “Most have children in school in Middletown and also work in the area. They have told us Konocti is too far away.”
Konocti Harbor has opened more rooms, and 12 are now available, Fitts said. The county is paying for the rooms.
Fitts said she also is following up on a report that a number of fire survivors are living in RVs in Nice.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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