COLUMBUS, Ohio—State officials are looking at purchasing hundreds of recreational vehicles with millions in state money to provide temporary housing for Ohioans who lost their homes to a tornado last month.
The idea comes as state officials say they need to step up to help the 250 or so displaced families living near Indian Lake in Logan County, as they expect that any federal disaster aid for them will take months to be approved, if it comes at all.
The March 14 tornado, which produced wind speeds of up to 155 miles per hour, killed three people, injured more than 20, and destroyed or seriously damaged more than 200 homes in its 31-mile-long path.
Early this month, Senate President Matt Huffman and local leaders were pitched on the idea of buying RV as temporary housing for tornado victims by David Durnell, owner of RV Wholesalers in Lakeview, one of the communities hit by the tornado.
Stories by Jeremy Pelzer
- Cleveland Browns want taxpayers to cover half the cost to build a $2.4B Brook Park dome or $1B renovation
- Matt Huffman, Jason Stephens-controlled group poured money into Ohio House primaries in campaign’s final days
- Ohio colleges, universities increasingly strapped for cash as enrollment plummets: Capitol Letter
Durnell recommended that the state should purchase 250 campers at a cost of $8 million, according to the Bellefontaine Examiner. He laid out several arguments for the proposal, the newspaper reported: that victims would be able to stay on their land, it’s quicker and cheaper than other temporary housing options, it would allow them to skirt Federal Emergency Management Agency fees, and that Indian Lake schools wouldn’t lose money because students relocated somewhere outside of the school district.
Durnell told the officials that his company is currently providing RVs as temporary housing in Hawaii and Turkey, and it previously did the same in Louisiana and Florida for people who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ian in 2022, respectively, the Examiner reported.
The RVs are usually used for about 18 months, Durnell said, after which they’re either repurposed or sold, the Examiner’s story stated.
“This is our community,” Durnell stated, according to the newspaper. “We want to see everyone taken care of. We want to provide as much support to our community as we possibly can.”
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to Durnell for comment.
Huffman, during an episode of his podcast earlier this month, said that state officials could soon ask the Ohio Controlling Board, a panel mostly made up of state lawmakers that makes state spending adjustments, for permission to spend state money on the RVs
“The state would buy them, they’d provide temporary housing, and then, of course, the state would sell them afterward,” said Huffman, a Lima Republican.
Gov. Mike DeWine has asked the Biden Administration to issue a FEMA presidential disaster declaration for the Indian Lake area, which would unlock federal aid. However, Huffman expressed doubt that the White House will approve the request anytime soon.
“It’ll probably take six months, and the answer will probably be ‘no,’” Huffman said.
“The state of Ohio is going to have to deal with this,” he added. “We have the money to deal with it, and hopefully we’ll execute on that here shortly.”
The Ohio Controlling Board on Monday approved nearly $4 million in state disaster relief funds to help Logan and Auglaize counties, as well as nonprofits, pay for Indian Lake tornado response efforts, such as debris removal. However, that funding request from the Ohio Department of Public Safety made no specific mention of using that money to purchase RVs or other temporary housing.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney, in an interview, said administration officials are aware of the RV proposal but that no final decision has yet been made on housing assistance for Indian Lake residents.
“Any vendor who would come forward with an idea of how to help with this program, we’re going to look at it from multiple fronts,” Tierney said. “Is it the right thing to do with taxpayer dollars? ...Is the help that’s being offered what (tornado victims) need or want? These are the things we’d have to look at.”
Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Lawrence County Republican, said in an interview last week that he hadn’t heard a lot of detail about the proposed RV plan, but he indicated that he was open to the idea.
“Whatever the solution is to get that taken care of, to make sure people have shelter, I’m OK with it,” Stephens said. “If it’s an RV, fine.”
However, after this story was initially posted Wednesday, state Rep. Jon Cross, a Findlay Republican whose district includes the Indian Lake area, indicated that leaders are looking at alternative ways to provide temporary housing.
“We are looking for other solutions to be helpful so the state doesn’t get into the RV ownership biz,” Cross posted on X.
Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.