08
april
vernonia’s
voice city news
2009
Replacement Housing For Flood Victims Breaks Ground
Community Action Team’s Program Doesn’t Work for One Affected Family
By Scott Laird
As most of us know, every story has two sides. In Vernon-
ia, the Community Action Team (CAT), working with Columbia
County Flood Relief (CCFR), has put together a plan to build
homes for families whose homes were damaged in the flood of
December, 2007. The program is innovative and unique and of-
fers a solution for families who have been left with few options
for fixing their damaged homes. CAT has broken ground and is
preparing for construction of the new homes. But the long wait
and changing information from Federal and local agencies has
left at least one family who are waiting to repair their damaged
home confused and frustrated. An impending deadline to move
out of FEMA-provided housing has caused that same family to
re-evaluate their participation in what originally looked like their
salvation. An opportunity that looked like it provided all the
answers has another side to it.
Over a year after the flood, some families are still not back
in their homes, are still waiting for assistance packages to be put
together, and still don’t know when they will have clear answers to
some of their questions. For those familiar with FEMA recovery
programs, the long timeline is not unexpected. For those who have
been waiting for fourteen months, it’s not moving fast enough.
In our March, 2009, issue, Vernonia’s Voice printed a short
story explaining a grant program called HOME, that was devel-
oped by CAT and is available to assist with the development of
new replacement homes for flood victims. That article triggered
an email from one of the potential participants, Cami Archer, who
expressed concern that there is a misconception in the community
about how the project is arranged. The article “...reads as though
those lots up on the hill are being given to the people who are in
the buyout process,” wrote Archer. “It needs to be addressed so
the community understands that the families having the houses
built still have to pay for it.”
For those unfamiliar with the replacement program, a little
background might be helpful. CAT has purchased five contiguous
lots in Vernonia that are out of the flood plain, with the intention of
using their resources to help families relocate from damaged homes,
without drastically changing their personal financial circumstances.
“Our goal in developing the Corey Hill homes is to help owners
recover to a financial situation similar to the one that preceded the
flood,” said Jim Tierney, Deputy Director of Community Action
Team. “By that, I mean we hope to come as close as possible to
reproducing the family’s equity and/or the monthly housing cost.”
The CAT staff, working through the CCFR, is assisting fami-
lies with the buyout process through FEMA, opening up the op-
portunity for flood victims to move out of harm’s way and into
new homes. One option available for homeowners is the home
replacement program CAT has developed specifically for this situ-
ation. The availability of grant funding and donated labor is help-
ing make the program affordable and attractive to many property
owners wishing to move their families out of the flood zone.
Cami and Nick Archer have been working with CCFR, and
more recently with CAT, to be one of the first families to participate
in this innovative program. Cami Archer is a stay-at-home mom,
with three children, including a four-year-old son and a sixteen-
month-old little girl. Archer’s email to Vernonia’s Voice expressed
her concerns about the misconceptions in the community about the
program, and also raised questions about the program’s operation.
The home buyout process is complicated, and as CCFR has
continued to state throughout, every individual family project is
different based on personal circumstances.
The Archer’s project is one example of how a home buyout
is designed to work. In order to explain this, we have rounded
numbers here for simplicity. The Archers have a mortgage on
their property on which they owe around $90,000, but which has
been valued-- pre-flood conditions-- at $120,000. FEMA funds
would be used to buy out that property based on its pre-flood val-
ue. However, FEMA only pays for 75% of that-- in the Archer’s
case, about $90,000, which would pay off the mortgage they owe.
Increased Cost of Compliance Funds (ICC) from the Archer’s
flood insurer would have been used to demolish their old home.
The Archers would have been required to obtain a new mortgage
for around $100,000-- similar to the original mortgage on their
damaged home.
The cost for the new home project for the Archers was esti-
mated at around $160,000, including the cost for the lot. Donated
labor arranged by CAT and CCFR was to have substantially re-
duced construction costs. Added to the new mortgage was the
almost $40,000 in insurance money the Archers have available
to repair their current home, leaving the Archers about $20,000
short of the cost for their new home. That shortage would have
been made up with funds available through the grant programs
CAT and CCFR have secured. This is a simplified version of the
home buyout and replacement process-- projects are actually more
involved and complicated, but those are the basics. Again, each
individual project has its own complications and issues that need
to be worked out.
Cami Archer understands that the process is complicated
and, above all, time consuming. “The FEMA representative who
we work with monthly for our manufactured home occupancy
told me he has never seen a buyout happen in less than eighteen
months,” said Archer. “So we knew this would take time to put
together,” she said.
But mixed messages and changing information from CCFR
have confused the process for the Archers. “They would tell us one
thing, and get our hopes up, then pull the rug out from under us,”
said Archer.
A deadline of June 8 for all occupants to move out of the
FEMA manufactured homes precipitated the Archers reevaluating
their participation in the buyout program. An extension allowing
occupants to stay longer was being considered, but in the end it was
decided it wasn’t necessary. “The timeline from Flood Relief was
just not consistent with the new homes being built,” said Archer.
“The information keeps
changing, and we felt
like we needed to know
what was going to hap-
pen in June.”
In fact, the Archers
were one of only three
families that FEMA
or CCFR hadn’t found
alternative housing for
in case their new home
wasn’t ready by June 8.
CCFR Flood Director
Dan Brown summed it
up, “We are very frus-
trated by the length of
time this process has
taken. Worse than the
delay has been the shift-
ing sand of program in-
Cami Archer with Miley and Adrian at
terpretations from our
their temporary FEMA provided manu-
public partners.”
factured home.
Cami Archer ex-
pressed her concerns about the program to Vernonia’s Voice in
mid-March. She complained about CAT’s project requirements
and the project management costs included in the home costs by
CAT. “I’m not questioning anyone’s integrity,” said Archer. “I
believe everyone involved is good, and trying to help. We just
decided this wasn’t right for us.”
CAT staff explained that the HOME Program CAT is using
on the project comes from Oregon Housing and Community Ser-
vices. State and Federal regulations require that eligible families
occupy the homes for a set period of years. This requirement is
secured by using a no-payment, zero-interest loan with an annu-
ally decreasing balance. If the homes are sold before the period
expires, the pro-rated balance must be repaid.
The Archers pulled out of the buyout program in late February,
and plan to use the ICC money to raise their home instead of demol-
ishing it, and their insurance money to make repairs. “We feel like
we have more control over our project now,” Archer said.
Tierney explained the project management costs. “CAT has
risk and expense on any of its development projects. Prudently,
our board requires that we include these costs in a project’s budget
before they authorize it.”
Brown said he is disappointed that the Archers have decided
to pull out of the program. “We hope they are not walking away
from the best arrangement for their family. Everyone in our of-
fice is rooting for them.” When asked about the cost to CCFR of
the Archer’s withdrawal, Brown said, “We do have a substantial
investment in this project. However, the important thing is a suc-
cessful recovery for the Archer family.”
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