Spokane County approves $40,000 to finish eight wildfire recovery homes; Innovia to match funding

The Spokane County Board of Commissioners approved on April 1 a consent-agenda agreement to provide $40,000 through the county’s Housing and Community Development (HCD) department to the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery Group for construction and finishing work on eight homes for victims of the Grama and Oregon Road wildfires.

Commissioners described the award during consent-agenda discussion and said HCD staff located the funds within the county budget and that Innovia Foundation will match the county dollars, bringing the total to $80,000 to complete finishing items and allow the eight homes to be occupied in the near term. "Our long term recovery group is the organization that is helping the victims of the wildfires...They found themselves coming up just a little bit short...we are going to step in, allocate these $40,000," a commissioner said.

The agreement was included in a motion to approve items 5, 6, 7 and 8 on the consent agenda (with certain subitems stricken). The motion carried unanimously; the clerk recorded the vote as "ayes" with no recorded dissents. The county did not record a separate roll-call tally naming each commissioner’s vote during the consent motion; the board indicated unanimous approval.

County staff will execute the HCD agreement with the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery Group; commissioners and staff named the Innovia Foundation as the private matching donor. The agenda description listed the agreement as an HCD execution to support home construction; the meeting transcript did not specify a contract number or an exact disbursement timetable for the $40,000.

Commissioners acknowledged public comment received previously about the project and thanked long-term recovery volunteers and local officials, including Medical Lake’s mayor, for their work on recovery. No amendments to the agreement were proposed at the meeting.