North Carolina opens applications for Tropical Storm Helene home repair and rebuild program

North Carolina has opened up applications for its home repair and reconstruction program after Helene devastated western North Carolina in 2024.

North Carolina has opened up applications for its home repair and reconstruction program aimed at single-family homeowners in 29 counties affected by Tropical Storm Helene, Gov. Josh Stein announced this week.

The $807 million program, part of a state recovery program dubbed Renew NC, is funded by a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grant the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the state in January.

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The program, as required by HUD, will prioritize low-to-moderate income households earning 80% or less than the area median income, but the program is open to homeowners earning up to 120% of AMI. In the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, the median income for a four-person household is $93,100, according to HUD.

“There is a lot of work to do, and the Renew NC Housing program is the next step in helping recovery in Western North Carolina,” Stein said in a June 16 statement.

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The state is slated to receive a total of $1.4 billion from HUD, which will fund two additional long-term housing programs — one for multifamily and another for workforce housing. The city of Asheville will also receive $225 million.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce Division of Community Revitalization is overseeing Renew NC and has contracted with the Mississippi-based consulting firm Horne LLP to manage rebuilding efforts in the region. The cost of the three-year contract is $81.4 million.

Case management intake offices in Buncombe and Watauga counties are slated to open soon. An intake office in Marion, in McDowell County, opened June 16.

Matt Calabria, director of the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, told the Citizen Times during a visit to the Marion office that he anticipates construction projects to begin by the end of summer.

“We’re going to be moving as quickly as we can to help get folks back on their feet,” Calabria said. “People had virtually every aspect of their life impacted by the hurricane — their jobs, their businesses, their travel — but one of the most important elements of that is their homes.”

Calabria expects “thousands” of households will qualify. According to the Division of Community Revitalization, Helene damaged 31,782 owner-occupied single-family homes and 6,505 rental properties, per data it received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to the three intake centers, Renew NC will send team members to community events and go door-to-door to boost outreach. Centers will be staffed by local residents, who Calabria said understand the circumstances many in their communities are facing in the aftermath of Helene. Case managers will work with qualified applicants throughout the repair and rebuilding process.

“It’s so important that we connect with folks and that we approach everything we do with empathy and a sense of the needs that people are feeling,” Calabria said.

“We want to remove every possible barrier between a resident and the support that they need,” he added.

Need help?

Homeowners seeking more information about the Renew NC Housing program can visit www.renewnc.org or call 888-791-0207.

Reporting by Jacob Biba, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times

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