More than 1,500 homeowners are still waiting for a state program to repair or rebuild houses damaged in hurricanes Matthew and Florence. The program says it could soon run out of money if more funding isn't allocated.
The Rebuild NC Program was designed to help homeowners who didn't have insurance and didn't qualify for other assistance. But more than six years after the hurricanes ravaged eastern North Carolina, the program has faced repeated delays and red tape.
It has completed nearly 2,800 homes as of last month, but more than 1,500 others are still in the process.
Last month, Gov. Roy Cooper's budget director, Kristin Walker, called on state lawmakers to allocate more than $175 million as part of their funding package for the much more recent Helene disaster. "We also know that we need that money very soon," she said.
But Republican legislative leaders blamed Cooper for mismanaging the program's budget. They ultimately passed a fraction of the money requested: $30 million as part of a $644 million Helene recovery bill approved in late October.
"For years, Gov. Cooper has shrugged off what has become the most botched long-term hurricane response in the country," said Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson and chair of a legislative committee on hurricane recovery. "It's a stain on our state and it keeps me up at night thinking about what may come as we start to recover from Hurricane Helene."
Jackson says the Rebuild program needs new leadership. Laura Hogshead has led the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency since 2018, and she's remained in the role despite repeated delays and problems with the program, as well as frequent criticism from the legislature.
Asked about the latest funding shortfall, agency spokeswoman Janet Kelly-Scholle said in email that the need for more funding stems from inadequate federal funding and rising construction costs.
"In 2018, the state requested federal CDBG-DR funding of $1.1 billion for housing and received only $542 million in CDBG-DR funds for Hurricane Florence," she said. "Since that time, the Homeowner Recovery Program has helped 2,788 families return to rebuilt, resilient housing. Recognizing that the Congressional appropriation was well short of the need, and that the program weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, rising construction costs, labor shortages, and other challenges, the program requires an additional $175 million in state appropriations to complete the program."
She said that while the $30 million approved last month will help, unless the legislature provides additional money soon, hundreds of homeowners in the program will have their projects put on hold. The Rebuild program is currently finishing projects "at a pace of 115 homes per month on average" and is on track to finish next year.
Senate leader Phil Berger says he doesn't buy the explanation that federal funding limitations are to blame.
"The slowness there of the federal government is granted, but I'm not sure that the process we have at the state level is anything to be real proud of at this point," he told reporters recently.
Berger notes that the state will likely need a similar program to help the thousands of homeowners impacted by Helene, but major improvements will be needed.
"We've got to make sure that as far as the state-level response, that there is a much better process, procedure, and it's done with more rapidity," he said. "Because other states have dealt with Florence and Matthew, and they've closed their shops down having completed it, and yet we're still here six and eight years later, with folks not having the resources that had been promised and had been available."
Cooper's administration said in October that Helene's housing damage could cost an estimated $14.7 billion to repair, and about 93% of affected homeowners didn't have flood insurance. He recommended that the legislature allocate an initial $325 million for a homeowner recovery program, but that wasn't included in the latest disaster relief bill.
Walker warned against waiting on the federal government to approve housing recovery money, which typically doesn't come through until 18 months after a storm.
"One of the lessons learned is that waiting on the federal government and having a program that is entirely too federal fund-reliant means there are delays that are simply unacceptable to homeowners on the ground and those waiting to have their homes rebuilt," she said.
