Butte County And Paradise Leaders Ban Living On Camp Fire-Damaged Sites
PARADISE (CBS13) — Hundreds of Paradise residents displaced by the Camp Fire are left without a place to live for the second time in six months after an ordinance approved early Monday morning.
During an emergency meeting, the Paradise town council banned living on properties where there is Camp Fre debris to avoid losing $1.7 billion in federal demolition funding.
"It's a heartbreaking situation. This adds injury to an incredibly traumatic situation," said Councilmember Melissa Shuster.
She says the council understands how this is impacting people.
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"We all lost our homes as well. We are trying to balance public safety with a housing shortage," Shuster said.
The news was just another blow to Paradise residents including Steven Cramer.
"I am just trying to figure out what we are doing," said Cramer.
This wasn't the way life was supposed to go for the Paradise handyman whose Magalia rental burned. Cramer is living in a trailer on his bosses damaged property.
"My Dad just picked up this trailer for me. I don't have no place to go," Cramer said.
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Others, such as Karen Eppenbach, are staying with family out of town.
"This has been quite an ordeal, " she said. "But there is no time frame as to when they are going to come in and do your piece of property. So how long do you wait?
Eppenbach stopped there to get a septic layout prior to demolishing what's left of her property. She applied for a right of entry permit so crews could get to work.
"Right now we are working with FEMA to give preference to those working with 100 who have pulled permits," Shuster said.
Cramer says he hopes Paradise leaders come up with a plan for those who have to wait.
READ: Camp Fire Survivors Spread Out Across US, Share New Locations On Google Map
"If they going to be kicking people out, they better come up with a place to put them," he said looking out his trailer door.
The town council is encouraging all people in this area to get these right of entry permits in by the Feb. 15 deadline by email, regular mail or, better yet, in person.
FEMA has also extended its deadline for transitional shelter assistance to Feb. 15 and announced that more mobile home communities are on the way with somewhere between 400-600 units of RV's and trailers.
"There is already potential places leased out and ready to go and now we are working on other sites to put in mobile home units," said Giovanna Garcia, a FEMA spokeswoman.
FEMA says it is working with contractors to put in infrastructure like electric and septic at these locations for residents.