Two years after the Almeda Fire wiped out her past, Vicky Gonzalez spends her days fixating on her future.

Sitting outside her trailer within the Talent Gateway Project Friday morning, the knowledge that the place where she lives isn’t permanent was heavy on her mind.

“From here I don’t know where I’m going,” Gonzalez said.

No one’s said anything to Gonzalez about leaving the 4.3-acre park operated by the nonprofit Rogue Retreat at the corner of Highway 99 and West Valley View Road, but Gonzalez has lost two trailers in the past two years — her FEMA trailer last year and her Phoenix trailer at 135 Fern Valley Road in the fire the year before.

At least 300 Jackson County residents still need shelter two years after the massively destructive Almeda and South Obenchain fires broke Sept. 8, 2020, according to numbers provided by Rogue Retreat and Oregon Housing and Community Services.

And survivors such as Gonzalez lack a clear path forward.

OHCS spokesman James Kwasnik said Friday that 84 fire survivors in Jackson County — about 50 families — are living in Oregon Department of Human Services shelter programs primarily in hotels, and about 80 FEMA housing unit trailers are still being used since the Labor Day 2020 fires.

Gonzalez’ trailer is part of a park that opened last year as a combined effort between the nonprofit Rogue Retreat, Talent Urban Renewal Agency and other community partners to house displaced fire survivors who didn’t qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid, according to earlier news reports.

Gonzalez is one of 159 occupants living in 53 trailers at the Talent Gateway Project, according to numbers provided by Rogue Retreat spokesman Joe Powell.

Gonzalez said she’d worked two jobs to pay for the trailer she’d lived in since 1996 — days at a local assisted-living facility and nights at Harry & David.

“I wanted to be independent,” Gonzalez said.

Now, at age 83, Gonzalez said she’s no longer able to work and she can’t imagine her next step. She lives on a fixed income of roughly $600 per month.

She lost all her possessions in the fire, including cash savings, her daughters’ wedding photos and the cremated remains of three of her children.

“I had lost so much,” Gonzalez said, tempering her loss by reminding herself she’s not the only one who lost much in the fire.

Between tearful moments in the interview Friday, Gonzalez shifted her focus to a somewhat crumpled flier with information about Access’ Center for Community Resilience program for fire survivors.

Gonzalez said she reached out to the nonprofit about two months ago, and was told she would hear from someone in 7 to 10 weeks. She’s unsure how much they can do for her considering her fixed income.

“I’m in bad shape,” Gonzalez said.

Access Director of Support Services Melanie Doshier said the center in downtown Medford near the corner of Sixth and Ivy streets has helped about 700 people who had structural losses in the Almeda fire and helped connect them with about $2 million in assistance.

Despite those efforts, Doshier acknowledged, there’s still fire survivors in need. The key bottleneck, according to Doshier, is housing.

Even before the Almeda and South Obenchain fires destroyed thousands of homes — including more than 1,500 manufactured homes between Phoenix and Talent — Jackson County struggled with low vacancy rates.

“Jackson County was already experiencing a housing shortage,” Doshier said. “The fire only exacerbated the problem that already existed.”

Doshier encourages anyone working with a housing management stabilization case manager to stay with the program and keep working closely with the case manager “so that we can support them into permanent housing that is the best fit for them and their families.”

The Center for Community Resilience’s doors are still open for fire survivors in need of help. Doshier recommends calling ahead for initial consultations at 541-414-0318, emailing ccr@accesshelps.org or visiting accesshelps.org/ccr.

According to Access Housing Director Joe Vollmar, his department has helped 125 wildfire affected households, including assisting 35 households with purchasing a home. Vollmar described those numbers as conservative because early on the nonprofit connected fire-affected households to outside resources without tracking them because of the nonprofit’s limited role.

Vollmar said he’s seen an increase in the number of housing and people being helped by the nonprofit able to move into their homes in the last few months, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“There’s still a lot of people that haven’t navigated back to where they were pre-fire,” Vollmar said.

Vollmar described increases in rebuilt homes and completed manufactured homes, and said the nonprofit is working with other agencies on housing projects to expand low-income housing, such as the proposed New Spirit Village in Medford utilizing 3D printed components and a modular housing project in partnership with the Housing Authority of Jackson County at the former Royal Oaks manufactured home park.

“Any project we can get to get more units on the ground is great, and those projects will be great,” Vollmar said.

Pointing to two unoccupied trailers, Gonzalez said she’s seen two neighbors find permanent housing in Medford within the last two months.

She’s happy for the two sets of neighbors who became her close friends, but it overwhelms her that she’s stuck while they were able to move forward.

“We used to laugh together, we used to cry together and then all of the sudden they moved,” Gonzalez said.

Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.