November 4, 2021 3:20 a.m.

Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced that the state of Oregon will receive $422 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help communities recover from the extreme damages caused by the 2020 wildfires.

Merkley said, “Oregon cannot fully recover from the 2020 Labor Day wildfires without addressing underserved communities who have had difficulty rebuilding from natural disasters – especially after these fires flattened entire neighborhoods and towns”. He said the funding will help every community – “…regardless of race, income or zip code – take critical steps to rebuild their home, their communities, and their lives after experiencing such devastating loss”.

Wyden said, “The 2020 Labor Day wildfires cut a destructive path statewide, and the path back to a full recovery for Oregonians working to rebuild their lives from this disaster requires significant federal resources”. Wyden said he is gratified the federal grant is heading to Oregon “…to support communities working to rebound from these blazes by responding to the tremendous need for assistance in every nook and cranny of our state”.

A release said the funds come from a larger $2 billion Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery that HUD is allocating through the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act, which was signed into law on September 30th.

The CBDG-DR allocation will be Oregon’s first ever, following a push by Merkley and Wyden to include wildfire recovery in the disaster relief funding that has traditionally covered natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.