"Paradise native Jen Goodlin returned to her hometown six months after the 2018 Camp fire with plans to rebuild. Her family bought a lot where they parked a trailer, and eventually they moved into a new four-bedroom house. As younger residents like her are attracted to cheap land and room to rebuild, the demographics of the town have changed significantly from once being dominated by retirees."
"While less than a third of the 10,700 homes destroyed in the Camp fire have been rebuilt, Paradise is still humming with life, the Times reported. Parks are open, construction crews work as taco trucks provide food for workers and residents, and registration for Little League is higher than they were before the 2018 fire. What's more, the new homes are often bigger as returning owners buy up adjacent lots and outsiders move in."
"Renters and low-income residents, however, have a different story. In the Paradise area, many have moved into nearby Chico and other urban areas with more state-backed affordable housing projects away from fire-prone regions. In Santa Rosa, the 2017 Tubbs fire destroyed the Journey's End mobile home park, which provided housing to seniors on fixed incomes. It was later redeveloped into new apartments, but few former residents were able to return."
Eight months after the Palisades and Eaton fires, communities damaged by wildfire are undergoing significant physical and demographic transformation. Paradise, devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire, has drawn younger residents seeking cheap land and space to rebuild, prompting construction of larger homes and shifting a retiree-dominated population. Less than a third of the 10,700 destroyed homes have been rebuilt, yet parks, businesses and recreational programs are active and community life persists. Low-income renters have largely relocated to nearby cities with affordable housing, while mobile home park losses and upscale reconstructions have prevented many former residents from returning and contributed to rising home prices.
Read at therealdeal.com
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