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Most of the people displaced by the Almeda Drive wildfire were low-income older residents who lived in one of a dozen mobile-home parks along the Oregon 99/I-5 corridor. Efforts to help them have been hampered by a tight job market, limited housing and the restrictions of the pandemic.
For the past year, older adults in Oregon read the Oregon Health Authority Covid reports daily including death counts that disproportionately impacted people 50-plus. And as the vaccine became available, the tension increased because of a rocky rollout and not enough vaccine for those who desperately wanted – and needed it. In our state, 91% of the deaths were from people 50 and older.
From Eastern Oregon to the Southern Oregon Coast, AARP Challenge Grants have helped Oregon communities with small projects to make communities big and small more livable. AARP has donated funds to 11 Oregon communities since the grant project began in 2017.
AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers will implement sanitary and social distancing precautions, use technology such as video chats and other strategies to keep clients as safe as possible during the pandemic.