I recently visited communities in southern Oregon still living with the hidden impacts of wildfires like the 2020 Almeda Fire, which destroyed approximately 2,300 homes and displaced thousands of residents. 

The conversations I had with elected officials, community organizers, nonprofit leaders and public-sector partners revealed something donors often miss: rebuilding homes and infrastructure matters, but long-term recovery also depends on meeting unmet needs and the social connections that help people work together to remain in and return to their communities.  

Two lessons stood out: resilience requires a whole-community approach, and recovery must prioritize people, not just infrastructure. 

Collaboration Is Key When Addressing the Hidden Impacts of Wildfires

Wildfire resilience and recovery cannot be built one home, one organization or one sector at a time; they depend on a community’s ability to collaborate. 

Property-level mitigation matters, but lasting progress requires a whole-community approach to address interconnected risks. Stronger connections among public and private organizations, workforce and economic development efforts, researchers and policymakers, and community-led initiatives are not optional; they are core recovery infrastructure. 

It’s About People and Communities

Wildfire recovery must focus on people, not just infrastructure. After a disaster, attention often centers on the number of homes destroyed and the pace of rebuilding. But recovery outcomes also depend on whether residents are treated with dignity, agency and meaningful opportunities to shape what comes next. 

This was especially evident in conversations with residents displaced from manufactured housing communities. Wildfire survivors spoke about the importance of calling their neighborhoods “villages,” emphasizing the social bonds, mutual support and sense of belonging those places provided. Their stories underscored a simple truth: people want more than replacement housing—they want recovery efforts that honor their experiences and preserve community connections. 

Many wildfire recovery needs remain unmet. Three of these needs deserve particular attention from donors: affordable housing, public health and safety, and local economic recovery.

1) Affordable Housing

Access to affordable housing is already a persistent challenge in communities across the country, and disasters deepen existing inequities. People experiencing housing insecurity are often the least visible and the last to have their recovery needs addressed. 

Read the full article about the hidden impacts of wildfires by Cari Cullen at Center for Disaster Philanthropy.