Two funding problems regarding Hurricane Helene recovery were laid bare Thursday morning to a group of North Carolina lawmakers.
First, the state program tasked with rebuilding thousands of homes damaged in the storm using money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development does not have enough funding. Second, a lack of funding for temporary housing for people having their homes repaired is causing some to decline help and causing construction delays for others.
HUD gave North Carolina $1.4 billion through a Community Development Block Grant after the storm. The state plans to use $860 million of that for owner-occupied home repairs. The state agency managing the money, Renew NC, is reviewing almost 8,000 applications for home repairs.
Stephanie McGarrah, the head of Renew NC, told the Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery that without more funding from HUD or the state the program would fail to serve all eligible applicants.
“We will stop serving people if we don't have enough money. We will serve what we can serve,” McGarrah said in response to a question from Sen. Ralph Hise Thursday morning. “ Our budget is finite. And we have told folks in the later stages of the applications …t hat we aren't sure we'll be able to get to them.”
HUD requires the block grant program to prioritize helping people who are making 60% or less of the area median income. They also prioritize people with disabilities, elderly people and families with a child in the home.
So far, Renew NC has approved 2,500 applicants for the home repair program, with almost 1,000 that still need review. The average repair cost, so far, is $276,000. That number is expected to rise as more complex repairs and total home reconstructions are completed.
As of April 2, 30 homes have been repaired or completely rebuilt.
Gov. Josh Stein has requested another $13.5 billion for storm recovery from Congress. The ask – which some Republican lawmakers have called duplicative – includes $8 billion for the HUD program. It’s unclear if Congress will act on Stein’s request, which he initially made in September 2025. But during a recent visit to western North Carolina HUD Sec. Scott Turner said that Renew NC does not have a funding problem.
“The money is there. It just has not been used in its totality,” he said.
To ensure that the money is spent prudently, McGarrah told lawmakers, Renew NC only draws down money when a project is completed. According to HUD’s own public documents the program’s spending is moving at an acceptable rate.
Lack of temporary housing delays repairs
Most program applicants who are eligible for home repairs and reconstruction must temporarily relocate while their homes are being worked on. McGarrah told lawmakers that lack of funding for this temporary housing is a “chokepoint” and forcing some applicants to withdraw and delaying construction for others.
“What's happened is we've started to have applicants who just won't move. They don't have anywhere they can go, so they won't move and we can't repair or rebuild their homes,” she said, adding that some contractors and nonprofits have stepped in to fund relocations in order to start construction.
Further complicating the issue is the lack of housing stock in rural areas of western North Carolina where hotels and other temporary options are sparse.
“Funding is a challenge, but also, where to put them is a challenge. We don't really have a lot of good places because we don't have a lot of options in different parts of western North Carolina,” she said.
McGarrah pitched lawmakers a $60 million dollar solution that would allow Renew NC to use state funds that were previously allocated to the program to be used for temporary housing.
This isn't the first time the state has experienced difficulties with a HUD-funded recovery program. The Rebuild NC program was aimed at helping communities in eastern North Carolina recover from hurricanes Matthew and Florence in 2018. It was a “disaster,” according to State Auditor Dave Boliek. It required a $297 million state funded bailout while several storm survivors were left waiting years for repairs.
To avoid the issues of the past program, Renew NC would not allow applicants to move out until they received confirmation that construction would proceed. There would also be limits to how long people could stay in temporary housing based on the complexity of the construction.
“ We've made a few changes to this program from previous storms so that we don't run into the same challenges that they had,” she said.
