MARIPOSA COUNTY, Calif. — Nicole Cook planned to visit her mother and stepfather in Mariposa County one weekend. But, she never imagined the home where the couple lived together for 16 years would no longer be standing by the time she could get there.
The Oak Fire sparked on July 22 east of the city of Mariposa, and within 24 hours grew to be the state’s largest fire, burning through a dried-out section of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California. The fire burned nearly 20,000 acres and officials estimate 127 homes were destroyed.
One of those homes belonged to Cook’s parents. The six-bedroom house was built by her stepfather almost 50 years ago. He was proud of it because “it wasn’t a square box,” Cook said, and instead had large domes. One dome contained the kitchen, while the other housed the bedrooms, where Cook, 33, slept during her high school years. Now, the family is talking about rebuilding from the pile of ash one day.
Fire crews have been able to contain the fire almost fully, but many residents are left to comb through what’s left, and to make difficult decisions about what’s next for them.
As California and other parts of the West continue to experience record-breaking heat and wildfires, decades-old houses are burning away in climate-linked disasters, fueling the number of Americans who are becoming “climate migrants” – a term researchers use for people who are displaced by such events.
In places like Mariposa County, the climate disaster is converging with a housing shortage brought on by a historical lack of home-building and affordability concerns that aren’t meeting needs across the state. The issues are creating an increasingly common struggle for California families: Too many are in need of housing that sometimes doesn’t exist in their community. The state estimates at least 2.5 million homes are needed in the next eight years to catch up to demand. The housing challenge has also been felt in other parts of the country dealing with climate disasters.
Photo of Nicole Cook’s parents, David Martella (L) and Liz Martella (R). Photo courtesy of Nicole Cook
For now, Cook’s parents relocated to the neighboring town of Bass Lake to stay with another family member as the couple slowly recovers. Some of Cook’s siblings who were also living at the house are now scattered across the county and also staying with family. They lost important paperwork in the fire. They had no time to rescue their two cats; and they have not been found. Cook’s stepfather is coping with complications from pneumonia he got just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The illness prevented him from working at his cabinet-making business, which he ran out of his home. The couple had fallen behind on utility bills during the pandemic due to the lack of work, and was no longer able to afford to pay for fire insurance on their home.
Cook said the couple was kicked off a previous fire insurance policy by their insurer after the area around their home became too risky for fires. The couple didn’t have the money to buy insurance elsewhere, including a last resort insurance offered by the state. They aren’t alone. According to the California Department of Insurance, the number of people whose fire insurance was not renewed by their insurer increased dramatically after the destructive wildfires of 2017 and 2018.
Cook isn’t sure what her parents will do next. She and others said residents in Mariposa County have struggled to find available homes to rent, in addition to finding affordable prices. Others have had to look to counties outside Mariposa for a place to land. According to the state’s housing agency, average wages for some renters in Mariposa County haven’t kept up with the costs to rent, and it’s estimated renters in the county need to earn nearly three dollars above the state’s minimum wage to afford the average rent.
Cook said her mom would like to return to the property, but it’s currently unsafe due to the chemicals and strong smell of smoke that could affect her husband.
The family set up a fundraising site to cover personal costs while they find some more permanent solutions. A list compiled by local residents shows at least 55 active donation pages for families, along with community fundraisers, in the wake of the fire. As of publication, only eight of the fundraisers showed they’d reached their goal.
“What is there going to be in place for these people?” Cook said. “Because I know for a fact that my parents aren’t the only ones in this situation.”
Disaster dilemma: Leave or stay?
Housing instability is a growing concern across the country as more and more climate-linked disasters are displacing Americans. When disasters hit small, rural areas, local governments often are stressed with responding to emergencies with scarce resources or with help of larger state agencies, researchers say. It’s expected that the wildfire risk across the country and much of the West will grow to threaten roughly 79.8 million homes by by 2050.
In recent years, the major fires in California have been deadly and have destroyed thousands of structures after burning millions of acres. As the threats increase, California agencies have implemented a variety of measures, including updating building codes in housing development and improving forest management practices, to combat the threat. Since 2017, the state has lost just over 31,000 homes to wildfires, the California Department of Housing and Community Development told the NewsHour.
California’s fire season typically lasts until October or November. But county officials are already grappling with how to respond to the housing need that currently exists as residents struggle with their own dilemma: Leave or stay?
Residents in Mariposa County will be offered temporary trailers through the state’s health and human services agency where residents can live for up to two years after their home was destroyed, said Lizz Darcy, a spokesperson for the Mariposa County Health and Human Services. She said local nonprofits and housing managers are assisting families with their loss and will help with assigning a trailer if a resident sees that as an option.
Since the last census, the county has lost more than 1,000 residents. Darcy thinks that while some residents are living with family nearby and others are staying in hotels, she expects others will choose to leave the county altogether after the fire. The Oak Fire hit an area where many elderly residents lived, she said.
READ MORE: As ‘flash floods are getting flashier,’ communities worry about aging infrastructure
“We do know that this one is going to hit differently than some of our other [fires] just because of the vast number of people impacted, and homes, but also small businesses that were based out of the home,” Darcy said. “This is going to look different.”
Choosing between leaving or staying is a decision that follows families confronting the mounting impacts of disaster, said Anne Junod, a research associate for the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center.
Evacuation notices taped to mail boxes as the Oak Fire burns near Darrah in Mariposa County, California. July 25. Photo by David Swanson/Reuters
Junod said the United States is already experiencing the slow and fast effects of climate migration. She said those displaced by climate-related disasters, like floods, wildfires or hurricanes, don’t just face the immediate chaos of the disaster. Junod said there often are psychological impacts associated with losing all ones’ possessions, and the losses can add up financially and emotionally in the long term as residents struggle to regain what they had.
“There’s cascade effects in places where disaster occurs for folks that don’t leave,” Junod said. “When you look at, over time, things like higher insurance rates, rising property taxes or higher housing cost and cost of living – that can have a slower and insidious effect of pushing out folks that were able to stay, maybe. But over time they’re not able to.”
Nationally, the research isn’t all that clear on where people migrate after a disaster, or how long they stay, but researchers have studied the aftermath of disasters like Hurricane Katrina to understand these trends. The Urban Institute is currently studying the trends of climate migration within the United States with findings expected in 2023; it has found, however, that in past California fires, residents moved to a neighboring county and were still living there a year after the disaster. The organization estimates there were roughly 1.6 million Americans displaced by a disaster just in the last year.
Junod said the lack of housing, including the higher costs of housing and slow rollout of government aid, can put people at a disadvantage when they have no other place to go. She said it will take local, state and federal policies and investments to improve housing and infrastructure capacity in the communities that are receiving displaced people. She said the Inflation Reduction Act, recently signed by President Joe Biden, puts large investments, such as reducing wildfire risk in communities, into motion.
“We’re looking at entire communities that are affected or have experienced catastrophic loss, and no individual’s GoFundMe page is going to help rebuild schools, help rebuild local and regional economies, help remediate and harden area natural resources that have been affected,” Junod said. “If we’re not putting in the investment dollars and support for people, I think it’s an indictment on our concern for our community members and our neighbors.”
Mariposa County officials say climate change is on their mind, and they’re attempting efforts to reach out to owners of vacation rentals in order to secure some housing for fire-displaced families as a temporary solution. The county recently built a 42-unit affordable housing complex for low-income people and those who have experienced homelessness for more than a year. Ben Goger, housing specialist for Mariposa County, said he’s working on planning for housing in areas where residents won’t face a greater risk of fire and adding natural barriers to avoid a repeat of fires that nearly destroy entire towns.
Goger said large water tanks are being placed around the county, mainly at fire stations, to increase water reserves in case fires break out.
At last count, the county had 9,826 homes for its population of just over 17,000. But losing over 100 homes in a single wildfire event does impact a county of this size, primarily if people with lower incomes are affected and unable to rebuild and must make the choice to leave the area, Goger said. Wildfires in recent years have led to even greater housing losses in neighboring counties; Fresno County’s Creek Fire, the largest single wildfire in California history, destroyed 853 structures, mostly homes, in 2020.
Goger said as homes burn down in smaller counties like his, efforts remain to attract people and make it safe for them to live while being mindful of the landscape. The county houses Yosemite National Park, which attracts millions of visitors and tourists from around the world to the county each year.
“If you end up losing over 100 houses, it takes quite a bit out,” Goger said. “We are coming to grips with a long history of fire suppression and just our modern-day settlement patterns.”
Housing disruptions amid disasters
This spring, several residents living at the El Portal Trailer Court just outside Yosemite National Park moved out after park officials said a “very poor” electrical system” posed a potential fire hazard. Residents were given 90 days to vacate the premises and remove their belongings. People living at the mobile home park included concession workers, some of whom chose to go live in dormitories offered inside the national park, while others decided they’d live elsewhere or retired.
But residents like Luke Harbin, who was living with his mom at one of the El Portal mobile homes, had trouble finding housing when he left. He couldn’t live in the housing offered by Yosemite since he did not work at the national park. A Yosemite spokesperson declined to be interviewed, but said through a statement to the NewsHour that the El Portal property wouldn’t be used as long-term housing until its electrical system was repaired.
Harbin and his former neighbors protested the move by Yosemite park officials to shut down the mobile home property because many were struggling to find a place to go, and even though the residents paid rent, some told the NewsHour that they didn’t notice significant repairs to the electrical lines while they lived there. He said residents only had communication with Yosemite National Park through letters the officials sent out, making it difficult to get their concerns across. Yosemite, however, had planned to convert the area into a public campground with construction beginning sometime in 2024, according to an October letter park officials sent to residents.
A former resident of the trailer park died shortly after moving out, and her neighbors and son blamed the stress of moving for her death. An autopsy reported in a local newspaper stated she died of “hypertensive cardiovascular disease.”
Harbin said he lived out of his car for about a month, and searching for housing was stressful, since the only options were either too expensive or they were short-term vacation rentals.
WATCH: Coastal Louisiana struggles with housing crisis after Hurricane Ida
Terri Nishimura, an El Portal resident who is retired, said when she moved in the 1990s, she was told that living at the mobile home park was not a permanent deal. However, residents purchased the mobile homes and said they put money into fixing them while they lived there, but they said there was no compensation after the mobile home park closed; Yosemite gave residents the option to surrender the homes as a donation, according to an additional letter sent to residents.
Nishimura said if residents had been given at least a year to find a home, and be able to sell off items and earn money back, it would have helped them. She’s thankful she found a home in Mariposa, but said her husband, who still works at the Park, makes a 60-mile round trip now.
“We’re all at retirement age. This is impacting the rest of our lives, the ability to live out the remainder of our years,” Nishimura said.
She recalls the time living at the mobile home park being a “beautiful place,” but knew it could come to an end at any point. She did not expect it would be so sudden, and so difficult on her neighbors.
“I could sit at my picnic table and watch the river go by. It was outstanding. It was a precious place, and we appreciated it all the more because we knew that we couldn’t stay here,” Nishimura said. “It was just a little time in heaven.”
Residents want to preserve their community
The disruption experienced by residents from El Portal trailer court came before the Oak Fire and a separate earlier wildfire that broke out, but is similar to what many longtime residents are now experiencing in the aftermath and a changing environment around Mariposa County. Kristen Oswald, who helped organize the fundraising directory for the families affected by the fire, said she would like to see families and residents who have lived in Mariposa County for a long time be supported more, especially as they face an increasingly difficult time with high housing costs and destroyed homes.
A house in Mariposa County, California, as the Oak Fire burns. Photo taken July 23. Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters
Oswald is an acupuncturist and offers her treatment as a form of health care in a county where doctors and clinics are in short supply. She said the climate and social impacts to the Mariposa County environment are felt in the people she treats; many come to her with trauma, stress and anxiety that is sometimes derived from the outdoor lifestyle many live.
After going away to study the Chinese medicine practice, she returned to find Mariposa County had changed. Finding housing was difficult even for her, she said, and now she is seeing homes she was familiar with leveled to the ground. She’s afraid because the county is less wealthy than other mountain areas like Lake Tahoe and wine country communities in California, that the concern of residents here won’t get as much attention.
READ MORE: Vacation towns limit short-term rentals amid housing crisis
Oswald said she and a group of others in the community plan to write to owners of vacation rentals in order to encourage them to turn houses back to non-vacation homes and preserve the community for residents and natives raised in the county.
Goger, the county housing specialist, said since 2014, roughly 500 homes in the county were turned into short-term rentals; there are roughly 740 such rentals registered across the county. Oswald said she had heard how vacation rentals have changed other small towns, but she didn’t expect to see it in her own community.
“When I was growing up here, obviously it wasn’t like this. Like, this has always been a community built on families and working class and folks who work for the Park Service or the Forest Service, and blue collar jobs,” Oswald said. “I was shocked. I came home in 2020 right after I graduated medical school, and I couldn’t believe it.”
The fire underscored the need Oswald sees to address the crisis faced by many who are now without homes. Oswald is a renter and a business owner. She said if the fire had come for her home, she would have no choice but to leave.
“I’m going to be taking my business and the resources that I offer to the community, especially in medicine, and I would have to go elsewhere. To me, this is a crisis,” she said.
August 25, 2022 at 05:01AM
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/as-fires-rip-through-california-and-the-west-some-find-it-hard-to-stay-in-their-communities
As fires rip through California and the West, some find it hard to stay in their communities - PBS NewsHour
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment