WNC approved for over $124 million in federal recovery funding for Helene

Western North Carolina has been approved for more than $124 million in recovery funding for damage caused by Hurricane Helene almost one year ago.

Secretary Kristi Noem announced earlier this week that the state would receive $28 million in federal funding. This funding helps cover items like road repairs, critical infrastructure restoration, debris removal, and other emergency actions taken to protect life and property following the storm. 

FEMA reimburses the costs through its Public Assistance program, which funds state and local governments’ response and recovery work.

Noem announced on Aug. 21 that the state would receive $96 million in recovery funding.

Government officials said that to date, more than $655 million has been provided to the state for road repair, debris removal, critical infrastructure repair, and more. Since Jan. 20, more than $350 million in public assistance reimbursements have been approved to support the recovery efforts in North Carolina.

Renew nc completes repairs on first home in wnc

Gov. Josh Stein also announced on Wednesday that Renew NC, North Carolina’s long-term disaster recovery initiative, finished making storm-related repairs to the first home approved for assistance through the Renew NC Single-Family Housing Program (SFHP).

Matalene Waters was the first applicant approved for assistance through the SFHP,

Renew NC is funded by a federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

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.

Low-to-moderate income homeowners from the following eligible counties are eligible: 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.

North Carolina is the first state affected by Hurricane Helene to start its home renovation and reconstruction program, and the fastest state in more than a decade – since Hurricane Sandy – to begin rebuilding homes after a major hurricane using HUD CDBG-DR funding. 

“Rebuilding safe and sustainable housing is crucial to helping western North Carolina get back on its feet,” said Stein in a press release. “Completing our first home is an important milestone in the Hurricane Helene recovery process. I applaud my team for moving at record speed. Let’s keep swinging hammers and getting more families back home.”

The program, administered through the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Revitalization, has received over 1,900 applications.

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 or call 1-888-791-0207. More information about Renew NC programs can be found at the Division of Community Revitalization’s website, CommerceRecovery.nc.gov. 

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