Displaced by Marshall fire, thousands scramble to find homes in tight Denver metro housing market
Michael and Deanne Pickel live in a Residence Inn in Broomfield.
Deborah Mordecai slept on her daughter’s couch. Her 24-year-old son lives with a friend.
Cousins welcomed Gladys Forshee to their Loveland home.
And Patrick Kilbride has a niece to thank for allowing him to stay at her home in Ken Caryl.
All were displaced Thursday as the Marshall Fire swept through Superior and Louisville, destroying more than 900 homes and displacing thousands of people. Now the Pickels, Mordecai, Forshee and Kilbride are among the thousands looking for shelter while they figure out how – or if – they will rebuild their homes.
Forshee, 80, planned to look at a condo Monday afternoon. If that doesn’t work out, “I don’t know,” she said of her future apartment. She lost a home her family had owned in Old Town Superior for more than 50 years, and she has no plans to rebuild it.
The depth of the need is profound.
About 991 buildings were destroyed by the fire and another 127 were damaged, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office reported over the weekend. In some cases, as in Superior’s Sagamore subdivision, entire neighborhoods were burned. Officials haven’t said exactly how many people have been displaced by the destruction, but government agencies and a real estate organization are mobilizing as quickly as they can to fill the gap in a community where housing is already tight.
Amanda DiVito Parle and Shannon Schliep started the Marshall Fire Housing Needs and Availability Facebook page on Friday morning. The two friends are both real estate agents at ReMax Alliance; Parle is based in Arvada and Schliep in Aurora.
The site is set up as a meeting place for people with acute housing needs because of the fire and people with space. As of Monday afternoon, the site had more than 1,600 members. Among the dozens of posts were many that offered free seats.
The site was inspired by the historic 2020 East Troublesome fire. Schliep’s in-laws and several friends lost their homes in Grand Lake in this disaster. More than a year later, Schliep says she only knows two people who have been able to rebuild and move back into the community. She knows that some Marshall fire evacuees face a multi-year process.
“One of Big things about the recovery up there was trying to help people get into long-term housing,” Schliep said. “Down here, especially with the market as it is and the limited inventory we have, it’s going to be really, really difficult for people to find more permanent housing.”
A week ago, on Dec. 27, there were only 1,950 single-family homes and 913 condos for sale in the entire Denver metro area, Parle said. It was all available from Longmont in the north to Castle Rock in the south and Evergreen in the west to Parker in the east.
As of Monday, those numbers had dwindled to 1,576 homes and 571 condos available on the region’s multiple-bid service. The rental and purchase housing markets could become even tighter, Parle said.
Helen H Richardson, The Denver Post
An aerial photo shows the destruction from the Marshall Fire on January 2, 2022 in Louisville.
“I think in the beginning rents are going to go up, and those are just short-term rents,” she said. “I think you’re just going to see real desperation on the part of homebuyers.”
On Monday, hundreds of people flocked to an office complex in Lafayette to visit the Boulder County Disaster Assistance Center and a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center. Almost all major home insurance companies have also set up tents and mobile offices in the complex parking lot. People filed insurance claims and signed up for government assistance while also picking up groceries, pet supplies, COVID testing kits and other necessities.
As of Sunday night, more than 450 people had applied for help from FEMA, said Jon Huss, deputy federal coordinating officer for the Marshall Fire. He encouraged everyone affected by the fire to sign up for FEMA assistance, even if they were unsure of their needs.
“There’s going to be a great need for housing in this area,” Huss said.
Federal, state and local agencies are still figuring out exactly what to do to alleviate the housing shortage, he said. When asked if FEMA tags like those used after Hurricane Katrina will be deployed, Huss said it’s too early to know if it’s “an appropriate tool in this community.”
FEMA is offering up to $37,000 per household to help people with repairs and rental assistance, he said.
The US Small Business Administration offers catastrophe loans to businesses and individuals, said Rick Tillery, a spokesman for the agency. These loans are available to homeowners and renters who need to replace homes and personal belongings, including cars, he said.
Helen H Richardson, The Denver Post
Gov. Jared Polis, right, hugs longtime Superior Gladys Forshee, 79, January 3, 2022 outside a FEMA assistance center in Lafayette. Forshee lost her 50+ year old home in historic downtown Superior. She was able to save her dog, Pebbles, before the fire consumed her home.
The Colorado Apartment Association created a rental housing directory for fire victims over the weekend. Available at caahq.org/available-apartments-for-displaced-families, the directory contains pages of results, all of which are ready to move in, according to a press release Saturday.
“Our rental housing market is tight and it can be difficult for displaced people to find housing quickly,” Drew Hamrick, the association’s general counsel, said in a statement. “We hope that (this directory) can make a big difference for Marshall Fire victims by helping them identify the units available in their communities today.”
The results on the website cover the metropolitan area. The Boulder Area Rental Housing Association has its own website with housing available closer to the fire zone. These listings are online at barhaonline.org/available-properties-for-displaced-tenants. The Boulder Association has been working with local real estate agents and groups like the Red Cross, the University of Colorado Boulder and the Boulder Chamber of Commerce to inform those in need, according to Saturday’s new release.
The pimples fled so quickly Thursday that they walked with just the clothes on their backs. On Monday, Michael Pickel’s donated blue jeans were tied around his waist with a bungee cord as he met with insurance agents at the FEMA center.
The night they were evacuated, the couple found a room at a Residence Inn in Denver. But they wanted to be closer to Michael Pickel’s job at a Walmart, so they moved to a Residence Inn in Broomfield.
The insurance company will cover the costs for the time being. But Deanne Pickel said she knew it wasn’t a long-term solution — for her or for the insurance company. Her insurance policy covers temporary accommodation for up to 24 months, she said.
“They said they would help us find something that was reasonably close to our work,” said Michael Pickel. But he feared that “half-close” would be miles away, forcing a long commute while they rebuild their home in Old Town Superior.
“We hope we don’t end up in Denver,” Deanne Pickel said with a sense of dread.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Micheal Pickel unpacks some items in his hotel room at a Residence Inn in Broomfield on January 3, 2022 after their home was destroyed by the Marshall Fire.
The Colorado Association of Realtors Foundation is raising money that can be used to help ease the burden on fire victims, said Amy McDermott, the charity’s executive director. The foundation plans to allocate between $25,000 and $50,000 from its endowment fund and combine this with funds raised from real estate agents, brokers, other individuals and businesses, and the broader Colorado Association of Realtors to offer multiple avenues of assistance.
Some of the money will go to grants to local organizations that help victims find housing, and some will go directly to people who’ve lost their homes to fund things like mortgage and rent assistance, McDermott said. She expects to provide more details on the application process for this grant at coloradorealtors.com/about-car/foundation by the end of the week.
“All is to mobilize pretty quickly, which is fantastic,” McDermott said.
Mordecai shared pictures of her home on her cellphone. It still stands while their neighbors’ homes are pits of ash and burned metal.
“I’m so blessed,” she said.
Helen H Richardson, The Denver Post
Deb Mordecai (right) chats with neighbors Mark Evans (left) and Leslie Hveem (center) outside Mordecai’s home in Louisville on January 3, 2022.
Although the house has been declared sound and she and her 24-year-old son were able to go inside to get belongings, the ash, smoke and water damage makes it uninhabitable. The house also has no electricity or water.
She said almost every house that remained intact has ash inside and smells of smoke. Her daughter’s Louisville townhouse is habitable, but there’s a thin film of ash everywhere, she said.
“There is no one you will speak to who does not have that,” Mordecai said.
Your insurance company will pay for temporary housing until an assessor and fire sanitation specialist determine what it takes to make it safe to live in.
She was looking for a hotel room for Monday evening because sleeping on sofas was becoming a nuisance. She picked up her son from a friend because “we need to decompress her household. It’s a bit too much.”
Kilbride found a vacant room in a niece’s house in Ken Caryl. But now his commute to work at McGuckin Hardware in Boulder is more than 70 miles round-trip. He plans to stay with friends in Boulder until he finds a more long-term solution while he waits to rebuild. But he’s not sure what that will be.
As for his home in Old Town Superior, Kilbride is considering selling one of the two lots he owns and building a tiny house. Before the fire, he lived in a 1,400-square-foot home with his dog Roscoe and cat Dusty. Both pets died in the fire.
“You never get enough money back from these people to rebuild,” he said. “You usually demote, you know?”