Two years after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina communities, some families are still not in their homes.
About 15% of housing projects are completed or under construction through the Renew NC Single-Family Housing program.
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Renew NC was created to help rebuild, repair and replace homes damaged in the historic storm.
The program’s dashboard shows that 7,924 applications were submitted, but most of them are inactive or were deemed ineligible. As of Sept. 25, there are a total of 2,211 active applications with 329 either completed or under construction.
The program’s dashboard shows that applicants must go through several stages of review before even getting to the pre-construction phase. Here’s a breakdown of where projects stand:
- 159 complete
- 170 under construction
- 634 pre-construction
- 329 award determination
- 201 quality control review
- 317 environmental review
- 267 duplication of benefit/damage assessment
- 102 eligibility
- 29 intake review
This is how the state defines pre-construction:
“Before construction can begin, the applicant must sign their grant agreement, after which a general contractor is assigned to the project. The contractor will conduct a walkthrough of the construction site, obtain the necessary permits, arrange for utilities to be turned off, and confirm that residents have been relocated, if required. Once these steps are complete, a Notice to Proceed will be issued, authorizing the start of construction.”
The program prioritizes projects that involve children, seniors over 62 years old, people with disabilities, people earning low to moderate incomes, and homes in the “most impacted and distressed” counties.
“We know the unmet housing need for western North Carolinians recovering from Hurricane Helene is greater than what is currently in the Renew NC pipeline,” Renew NC spokesperson Sean Rowe told WRAL Investigates via email. “All indications are that existing federal funding will not be enough to address the full scope of the single- and multifamily housing needs across western NC.”
Volunteer organizations are working to fill the gaps, repairing and rehabilitating more than 1,100 homes. The state allocated $35 million in additional funding for these efforts, according to Governor Josh Stein’s office.
WRAL Investigates also asked Renew NC:
- Did reviewers find common themes for rejections of applications since there were so many (5,000+)?
- What is the expected completion date or goal for completion for the remaining projects?
- Is the program expecting more money? What happens if the funding does not meet the full scope of work needed?
- Is there a median or average amount of time each project takes?
We are still waiting for responses to those questions.
Lessons learned from Rebuild NC
Progress is proving to be quicker compared to Rebuild NC, the program tasked with using nearly $800 million in taxpayer funds to help uninsured residents rebuild their homes after Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
Delays, red tape and mismanagement left many waiting years for help.
According to the Rebuild NC website, crews completed 4,240 homes. There are still two projects under construction eight years since its inception.
WRAL's Documentary Unit has extensively covered the program's struggles in Aftermath: North Carolina Hurricane Left Behind.
“We want to make sure we’re learning from previous recovery efforts,” Rowe said.
He said Renew NC implemented robust accounting and financial controls, more streamlined housing options, greater transparency around each program and their progress, and stronger partnerships.
Renew NC also operates out of the commerce department, while Rebuild NC operates out of the public safety department.
“We learn lessons every single time about how we respond and how we recover, and we know that in Florence, people did not get back into their homes fast enough. That has been a really concerted effort to get people in their homes quickly and in a resilient way in Western North Carolina,” said Kathie Dello, the assistant secretary for resilience within the state’s environmental quality department.
She was part of a roundtable conversation led by Congresswoman Deborah Ross. Emergency managers, forecasters and resilience experts discussed what needs to change before the next storm.
Dello said they’re working to keep better track of flood-prone areas and consider relocating homes, if needed, when it’s time to rebuild.
Where does Helene funding stand?
Renew NC is funded through a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Commerce is administering $1.4 billion in federal recovery funds supporting housing, infrastructure, and community development, according to the department.
“The federal government hasn't necessarily kept pace with some of the money that they've promised North Carolina,” Dello said.
The state has appropriated more than $3 billion in recovery funding, according to Governor Josh Stein’s office.
“Some of these communities are really quite small and have almost become bankrupt because of the situation,” said Dello. “They've had to bring their budgets basically into the red to recover from the disasters.”
Congresswoman Ross noted that Congress passed the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act. The law creates a disaster fund to allow the HUD to better assist communities.