Hundreds of Spokane residents who lost homes during recent fires have applied for the $10,000 grants offered by retired hotelier Walt Worthy, who set up the funds in memory of his late wife, Karen.
Worthy's friend Jim Frank, founder of housing development firm Greenstone Corp., said Worthy has been pleased with the participation and that only about 20% of those eligible have not yet applied for the funds, called the Karen Worthy Memorial Wildfire Grants, which are designed to serve as a bridge between immediate needs and insurance payments for individuals and families who lost homes Aug. 1 during the Old Trails, Autumn Lane and Fairview fires.
"It's all going pretty smoothly," Frank said.
He earlier said that some family situations are more complicated than others, making it more difficult to verify occupancy.
"People are extremely grateful for the money. It comes at a time when they really need it," Frank said.
Worthy announced the gifts on Aug. 27 at Balboa Elementary, where Karen Worthy worked for 20 years before leaving to help Walt with his construction work that eventually led to owning and managing hotels, including the Historic Davenport, the Davenport Grand and Davenport Tower hotels in downtown Spokane.
Karen Worthy died last November. She was 81.
"Walt is very happy. He has been gratified by the response and gratified by the messages he's received," Frank said. "He feels grateful that it's doing what he wanted it to do and grateful that it's recognizing the work that Karen did in that neighborhood."
The funds are being distributed through a partnership that includes the Innovia Foundation, Washington Trust Bank and the Spokane Region Long Term Recovery Group.
Shelly O'Quinn, CEO of Innovia, said homeowners immediately began reaching out after the announcement last month.
"Within eight hours of going live, we had 400 applications," O'Quinn said. "By that next Tuesday, we had over 600 applications in the system."
As of Monday, some 696 people had applied to receive the funds. O'Quinn noted, however, that not all of those who applied are eligible to receive the $10,000 payments.
"Some of them were not legitimate. As we have gone through verifications, we are sending checks out the door," she said.
Some $2.5 million worth of grants have been awarded.
"That number will go over $3 million by the end of the week," O'Quinn said. "I would say it's been going amazingly well. It's been a fantastic partnership with the community."
The volunteers take the applications and vet them against known information, such as county records and utility bills to verify what they can.
"It takes an entire team," O'Quinn said. "The hard ones are going to take a few more weeks to go through. I know it's taken a little bit of time."
As some of those renters or owners who lost their homes learn that neighbors are receiving checks, the delays do not mean that they need to reapply for the grants, she said.
"We are starting to see a resurgence of people thinking they need to apply again," she said. "They don't."
Sometimes volunteers find a different name on records and they are trying their best to make sure the funds go to the those who qualify, she said.
"There are several applications that are not legitimate. Some who applied didn't qualify," O'Quinn said. "Some had damage to their home but it didn't burn down. We can shift them to other resources."
Frank said the deadline for homeowners or renters to apply is Oct. 18.
As the program approaches that date, volunteers will shift from verifying applications to seeking out those who qualify but have not yet applied, he said.
"It's sometimes hard to find people. You may have an address but you don't necessarily know who was living in the house," Frank said. "Even when we have a name of someone who owns the property, a lot of times the phone numbers are old. Sometimes we have to talk to neighbors to find out if they know who was living in a home."
Despite those efforts, Frank said he's encouraged by the number of people who have indicated they intend to rebuild.
"A lot of them, when you talk to them, they lost more than their homes. They lost their entire lives," he said. "They want their community of neighbors and friends that were part of their lives — they want that back. It's really an interesting dynamic to see."
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