Oregon Got a Massive Federal Recovery Grant After 2020 Wildfires. Most of the Money Remains Unspent.

This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state.

Nearly four years after Congress approved a mammoth disaster relief grant to help Oregonians recover from the destructive 2020 wildfires, records show that more than 90% of the money remains unspent, even as hundreds of families await relief.

“It has been incredibly frustrating for the communities that were affected,” says state Rep. Pam Marsh (D-Ashland). Fire consumed more than 2,600 homes in Jackson County, most of them in Marsh’s district. Hundreds of families in Jackson and other fire-afflicted counties remain homeless or marginally housed from the 2020 blazes.

Marsh, chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, says she has been in frequent contact with Oregon Housing an