“Absolutely unacceptable”: FEMA yet to approve any North Carolina homeowners’ request for Helene buyout program

“It’s absolutely unacceptable. My team and I are asking FEMA, ‘What’s the hold up?'” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said of the news.

No applications for homeowner buyouts and disaster mitigation funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been approved since Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina a year ago, Gov. Josh Stein said Monday.

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is a FEMA-funded program that allows property owners to apply for federal buyouts after disasters. It is designed to reduce or eliminate future damages by paying for structural elevations or the buyout of damaged properties. Applications are processed at the county level and then sent to the state and FEMA for approval, where the federal government provides 75% of the funding for applications and the state provides a 25% funding match.

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By Oct. 13, the state had submitted over 300 homeowner applications to FEMA for approval, Stein said. In Buncombe County, at least 350 residents have submitted applications for the program, according to the county’s website.

Yet, no applications submitted to FEMA have been approved.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable. My team and I are asking FEMA, ‘What’s the hold up?'” Stein said during the Oct. 13 Governor’s Advisory Committee​ on WNC Recovery meeting.

Since 2005, FEMA has obligated nearly $327 million to property owners in North Carolina through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, according to the committee. State recovery staff are expecting the “lock-in” for payouts from Helene — meaning the maximum amount contributed to lifting and buying out properties — to be capped at around $1.5 billion, the largest North Carolina payout in the state’s history.

But the lack of approval for the properties has left some “in limbo,” said Matt Calabria, director of the Governor’s Recover Office for Western North Carolina.

“(They) can’t move on with their lives until they get this funding so that they can re-establish themselves in a new home,” Calabria said, calling the lack of approvals for the program a “national trend.”

“We’re hoping that these various projects will start to be approved in the near term,” Calabria said.

FEMA did not respond to Citizen Times request for comment by deadline.

Program application deadline to close by end of month

The application deadline for the Homeowner Mitigation Grant Program is expected to close on Oct. 31, with local governments encouraging interested property owners to apply early to the program to help finalize documentation and improve applications. Homeowners can learn more about the program by visiting www.ncdps.gov/HMGP.

Property owners in Buncombe County can learn more about the program by visiting the county’s website, visiting the Helene Resource Center at 94 Coxe Ave. or calling 828-250-6100.

Reporting by Will Hofmann, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times

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