Over a year after Helene, Governor Stein Finally Announces Housing Program For Low To Moderate Income Families
Today, Governor Josh Stein announced that North Carolina is now accepting applications for a new disaster recovery program to repair or rebuild small rental properties impacted by Hurricane Helene. The Small Rental Rehabilitation Program is the second Renew NC recovery initiative to be offered by the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Revitalization.
This program provides funding to owners of one to four rental units per property that were damaged by Helene. Property owners must agree to provide “affordable” rent rates for a 10-year period following construction. The programs comes over a year after Helene struck North Carolina, and several months after the General Assembly and Congress appropriated funds to address the storm. The goal is to expand the rental housing supply to low and moderate income families.
“This program will deliver critical relief for the rental housing supply in western North Carolina,” said Division of Community Revitalization Deputy Secretary and native western North Carolinian Stephanie McGarrah. “While recovery is a long process, we remain committed to moving with urgency and care to restore affordable rental units for our western North Carolina communities.”
Owners of rental properties located in these eligible counties can apply: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg (28214 ZIP code only), Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey.
Potential applicants seeking more information about the Renew NC Small Rental Rehabilitation Program can visit www.renewnc.org or call 1-888-791-0207. Program staff can help determine if they qualify for assistance. Applications can be submitted online, over the phone with a case manager, or through the app.
The Renew NC programs are funded through a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant 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, $57.4 million is allocated to the Renew NC Small Rental Rehabilitation Program.
In stark contrast to the failure seen in Cooper’s response to Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, due to the leadership of the Republican General Assembly, North Carolina led the nation as the first affected state to launch a home rebuilding and renovation program – the fastest in more than a decade to begin post-hurricane reconstruction using HUD CDBG-DR funding.
