Western North Carolinians whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Helene and are seeking assistance in rebuilding have until Dec. 31 to apply for the state’s Renew NC Single-Family Housing Program (SFPH).
Renew NC, the state’s long-term disaster recovery effort, is administered through the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Revitalization (DCR) to support the repair, reconstruction, or replacement of homes damaged by the hurricane, using funds from a federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“The Renew NC Single Family Housing Program is a vital resource for families working to recover and rebuild their homes from the devastation Hurricane Helene brought to western North Carolina,” Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said in a press release. “We encourage all eligible residents to apply now to take advantage of this opportunity.”
SFHP prioritizes low-to-moderate-income (LMI) families in 28 counties including: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg (only from zip code 28214), Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey.
There are three Renew NC intake centers in Asheville, Boone, and Marion, each with case managers who can provide assistance to individuals who speak English and Spanish. Additionally, thanks to agreements with local partner organizations, an additional 11 pop-up intake centers are now open across multiple counties, including Ashe, Alleghany, Haywood, Henderson, Mitchell, and Wilkes.
So far, the program has received over 4,000 applications.
Currently, more than half of those submissions are in intake review, a stage in the process during which Renew NC case managers verify that all required materials have been submitted and each application is complete. An additional 370 applications have passed the intake stage and are being evaluated to determine if the applicants meet all eligibility requirements for the program.
After eligibility review, a series of additional steps follows, including detailed damage assessments, environmental reviews, and a review of any recovery benefits the applicants may have received from other programs. This review ensures there is no duplication of benefits to a given applicant. Approximately 800 additional applications stand in these stages of review.
Once a given case qualifies for the program, Renew NC issues an award determination letter to the applicant, a proposal detailing the specific scope and value of the recovery project. Applicants can then choose to either accept the proposed award or appeal it for reconsideration. Should the applicant accept the award, they sign a grant agreement, and Renew NC then assigns a general contractor to the applicant’s project. Before construction begins, the contractor conducts a walk-through of the homesite, secures all required permits, and confirms that arrangements are in place for the resident to relocate during the construction phase, if necessary.
Stein announced in August that Renew NC had finished making storm-related repairs to the first home approved for assistance through SFHP.
Matalene Waters was the first applicant approved for assistance.
Of the total $1.4 billion in CDBG-DR funding that was allocated to the state for western North Carolina recovery needs, $807 million is allocated to the Renew NC Single-Family Housing Program.
The program is the first of a series of recovery initiatives to be offered by the North Carolina Commerce Department’s Division of Community Revitalization under the program name Renew NC.
A public dashboard tracking the progress of the applications is now available at the RenewNC.org website.
Later this year, two additional Renew NC Housing programs will be offered to address multi-family housing and workforce housing for ownership. Infrastructure and Economic Revitalization programs will also be launched in the coming months.
Homeowners can check their eligibility and apply for housing repair or reconstruction at www.renewnc.org, call 1-888-791-0207, or visit an in-person location. More information about Renew NC programs can be found at the Division of Community Revitalization’s website, CommerceRecovery.nc.gov.
The Renew NC app is also available for download on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Nonprofit organizations given more state funding to complete work in wnc
The governor also complimented nonprofit organizations for stepping up to help those affected by Hurricane Helene over a year ago, at a time when there is bureaucracy slowing things down at the federal level.
“This month we awarded more than $9 million in grants that the legislature had appropriated to 14 nonprofit organizations that are active in recovery work,” Stein said at an Oct. 20 press conference. “These dollars will help them keep up the good work they’re already doing, whether it’s replacing roofs, installing septic systems, or fixing electrical wiring. The $9 million is in addition to the $6 million that we had already awarded the Habitat for Humanity and Baptists on Mission back in January, $6 million that has helped those two organizations repair more than 500 homes.”
He also played a video message from Rachel Deery, grants director of All Hands All Hearts, a Washington, DC based volunteer organization that helps with disaster recovery, who received a $435,000 grant and is currently helping in western North Carolina.
She said to date, nearly 10,000 North Carolinians have received assistance through their organization with things like the distribution of essential food and supplies, hazardous tree removal, and the mucking and gutting of mud filled homes
“The grant that we’re talking about today enables All Hands and Hearts to keep up the momentum as we transition to long term hurricane repair work,” Deery said. “Specifically, it enables our experienced staff to hire licensed contractors when the homes our teams are repairing also require complex repairs such as roofs, septic, HVAC systems, and plumbing and electrical work. In short, this grant is critical to ensuring that a full range of quality resilient repairs is within reach for 25 to 30 households experiencing vulnerability.”
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