St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund

30 homes would be able to rebuild in the short-term. The barriers and challenges that individu- als, the Counties, and builders face are discussed in the challenges section that follows. Fac- ing a situation in which a much larger number of homes were damaged and fully destroyed (approx. 5,300, and 1,949 parcels with destroyed structures, respectively), Sonoma County has also made incredible progress in the rebuild effort. Of 1,949 parcels with lost homes, 1,109 or 57% have "rebuild activity". 62.5% are in the construction process. In both counties, efforts have been made to remove barriers to rebuild, including relaxing certain regulation, reducing permitting fees, and advocating to enact retroactive insurance re- forms. That said, in Sonoma, only 20% of homes have been rebuilt. In Napa, 20 of 650 is only 3% rebuilt. What this indicates is that initiating the permitting process does not equate to holding a permit, and holding a permit does not equate to rebuilding. The permitting process and rebuild process are still lengthy, and sometimes impossible for owners. The difficult side of the rebuild is discussed in the Challenges section. Finally, numerous local Sonoma County leaders qualify the improvement of the existing Department of Emergency Management and the development of the Office of Recovery and Resilency (ORR) and its Recovery and Resiliency Framework as major successes. In the face of some challenges in immediate ability to respond effectively, the County made investments in these agencies to take the lead. In the case of the Department of Emergency Management, investments were made to expand staff leadership, moving Manger to Director level, and to create additional roles that would enhance inter-agency and community communication. Improvements were made to the Warning System, "SoCoAlert" and efforts were and are be- ing made to engage users in this new system. The ORR maintains a focus on resilience and preparedness on the City and County level. The Framework, which focuses on the following five key strategies, was the product of collaborative research and development. • Community preparedness and infrastructure • Housing • Economy • Safety Net Services • Natural Resources In terms of successes in resilience, most agencies consider that planning and preparedness are key to resilience and point to their work in planning. Tactical planning is certainly one aspect of disaster resilience. Enhancing a community's ability to respond to and recover from adversity with readily available resources is another. The Public Health efforts to improve communities' ability to cope emotionally and psychologically are a good example of this sort of resilience. This represents a selection of successes, but there are certainly more. The following section will explore challenges identified in interviews. Challenges Despite the incredible outreach to individuals through EOCs and LACs to fulfill their immedi- ate relief and some recovery needs, there were groups left out. One group that was identified by most interviewees were Spanish speaking immigrants (documented and undocumented

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