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Homes for Good to redevelop fire-ravaged mobile home site in Blue River

The Lazy Days Mobile Home & RV Park Site, after the Holiday Farm Fire swept through in September 2020.
Photo provided by Homes for Good.
The Lazy Days Mobile Home & RV Park Site, after the Holiday Farm Fire swept through in September 2020.

A new housing complex will be built on the ruins of a mobile home site destroyed by 2020’s Holiday Farm Fire.

The wildfire burned over 173,000 acres in the McKenzie River Corridor, which included the Lazy Days Mobile Home and RV Park near Blue River. 36 spaces for manufactured homes and RVs were lost. But earlier this month, Homes for Good purchased part of that land.

“We can definitely replace the 21 mobile homes that were destroyed,” executive director Jacob Fox told KLCC. “We also want to replace the RV spaces as well.

“We’re currently working with Lane County and the State of Oregon to really understand land use and figure out what’s possible. But the bottom line is, we know we can rebuild at least 21 homes on the site.”

Fox says they aim to use part of a $150 million allocation Oregon Housing and Community Services got from the legislature, as well as possibly $1 million U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley negotiated into a recent appropriations bill. The new units will likely be done in about a year.

Homes for Good offices in downtown Eugene.
Brian Bull
/
KLCC
Homes for Good offices in downtown Eugene.

Fox added that they’ve also purchased five acres near the school campus. He says they’re gauging what the most need is with Blue River locals, in terms of housing support and housing type.

“Maybe affordable rental housing? We also are very interested in affordable home ownership opportunities as well. So we’re really looking across the spectrum.”

Fox said his group is working with Lane County to provide preference for families and individuals displaced by the Holiday Farm Fire, who want to move back to the McKenzie River area.

Nearly 500 homes were destroyed in the 2020 wildfire.

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Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.