FEMA and Butte County at odds over Project Roomkey reimbursement

OROVILLE — A reimbursable program put in place by Butte County to help protect at-risk homeless people during the pandemic has created a budgetary rift years later.

Butte County Chief Administrative Officer Andy Pickett announced Tuesday during the Board of Supervisors meeting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency likely won’t be providing the full reimbursement for Project Roomkey after adding limitations.

“Back when there was a huge concern on how best to protect our most vulnerable population at the time, which was the unhoused individuals who either had COVID or were particularly susceptible to having COVID,” Pickett said. “These are folks who are generally over 65 with respiratory conditions and immune or chronic diseases.”

Pickett said that at the time, few people were traveling, leaving hotels and motels without guests. The county worked with FEMA which, according to Pickett, offered to pay for the rooms so that the people could isolate themselves.

“We did so with a promise of FEMA reimbursement,” Pickett said. “Now here’s where the issue comes up. After (the pandemic) was over FEMA retroactively put some limits on how long individuals could stay in those rooms. What they’re saying now is that they could only stay for 20 days and some individuals stayed much longer than that based on different needs. And it was not a condition that was set by FEMA at the time. When we implemented the program with the best information that we had at the time so now it looks like FEMA is going back on their word.”

The county put roughly $3 million into the program with the notion that the money would eventually be paid back. Pickett said the issue spreads far beyond Butte County with other counties throughout California facing the same struggle when trying to be reimbursed.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently went to Washington D.C. to get a handle on the issue.

“I’m hopeful we will be able to recover our funds,” Pickett said.

While the item was informational in nature, Supervisor and Chair Tod Kimmelshue noted the potential loss for the county.

“So at this point, we’re out $3 million,” Kimmelshue said.

Funding for Project Roomkey was approved in 2021 by the board and originally came from the county’s contingency fund. At the time, the board unanimously approved the funding. The project is a statewide effort.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment by the provided deadline.