RALEIGH — North Carolina lawmakers received a detailed briefing last week on the state’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene, with officials from two agencies outlining progress, funding gaps and obstacles that continue to slow the effort.
The Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery, co-chaired by Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson) and Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus), heard presentations from Matt Calabria, director of the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), and Stephanie McGarrah, deputy secretary for the Division of Community Revitalization at the N.C. Department of Commerce, last Wednesday.
McGarrah’s presentation focused on Renew NC, the state’s primary housing recovery program funded through a $1.4 billion HUD block grant. The money is divided, with $807 million going toward single-family housing, $191 million for multifamily housing, $53 million for workforce homeownership, $194 million for community infrastructure and $111 million for commercial district revitalization.
As of late March, the program had received 7,924 total applications. Of those, 3,704 are active, 4,220 have been deemed inactive or ineligible, and another 2,176 are still in progress but not yet formally submitted.
McGarrah presented a funding gap projection for construction costs that drew the attention of lawmakers.
At the current weighted average construction cost of $276,285 per home, serving all 3,676 active applicants would require roughly $1.02 billion. The construction budget, however, is $722 million. That leaves a gap of approximately $300 million before accounting for inflation or any increase in reconstruction-heavy caseloads.
Reconstruction projects, which average $365,400 each, make up about 65% of current cases. Rehabilitation projects average $32,100, while replacements average $190,700.
McGarrah referred to using weighted average costs but said the cost will rise when more reconstructions start, adding that inflation and construction costs are increasing.
“I anticipate that ($276,000 per home cost) going up,” she said.
To date, 30 single-family homes have been fully completed, with 138 more in the construction pipeline, McGarrah told lawmakers. Reaching even this stage required extensive outreach — more than 62 community events, 56,000 doors knocked, 23,000 phone calls and nearly 2,000 site visits.
Both McGarrah and Calabria underscored the single-family housing program as moving faster than most states in similar disasters, but more federal help is essential.
One of the clearest friction points in the housing program is the lack of temporary housing for applicants whose homes need to be reconstructed or rehabilitated.
McGarrah described it as a significant chokepoint between the preconstruction and construction phases.
“If we were to solve the temporary relocation issue, would it speed up the process quite a bit?” Sen. Tim Moffitt (R-Henderson) asked McGarrah, who said it would help.
McGarrah said she had talked to many applicants who were living in a damaged home because they had no way to pay for temporary housing.
To address the issue, the Division of Community Revitalization is proposing a $60 million Temporary Relocation Assistance program that would provide short-term housing for an estimated 2,200 applicants who earn less than 80% of the area median income and can demonstrate financial hardship. Under the proposal, builders would manage the housing arrangements, and the state would reimburse them at the state hotel nightly rate plus taxes and overhead, up to a set number of nights depending on the project type.
In his presentation, Calabria restated that Hurricane Helene did an estimated $59.6 billion in damages across North Carolina and only approximately 30% of those needs are currently funded through any source.
State appropriations for Helene total $2.5 billion, including $700 million set aside for the state-federal match requirement. An additional $1.9 billion has been redirected from existing agency budgets toward recovery work, including $1.3 billion from the N.C. Department of Transportation.
On the federal side, more than $7 billion has been awarded or allocated, with FEMA providing more than $5.3 billion plus $564.2 million in grants to survivors to directly help families recover. The next two largest sources include $1.9 billion through the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief program and $1.4 billion in HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery.
Private sources add another layer with roughly $5 billion in insurance payouts and at least $1.4 billion in philanthropic contributions and private donations.
Even combining all those streams, Calabria said the state faces a substantial shortfall.
Gov. Josh Stein has already submitted a $13.5 billion request to Congress for additional funding to close the gaps, with a focus on housing and economic recovery, stabilizing local government finances, highway repairs and water infrastructure.
Calabria said delays in FEMA’s Public Assistance reimbursement program are a persistent obstacle. Of 4,105 total projects submitted, 56% have been obligated.
FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has also been slow. Of 602 voluntary home acquisition applications submitted, 80% are still awaiting FEMA approval. The state secured its first acquisition approval in January.
Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke) questioned the rising cost estimate for I-40 repairs, now projected at $2 billion, nearly double the initial estimate.
Calabria said the Federal Highway Administration normally covers 90% on interstates, so the state’s share is only 10%. He said Stein is pushing Congress for 100% federal coverage.
Daniel also asked about the $1 billion in DOT funds redirected to Helene repairs. Calabria said specific project impacts would need to come from the Transportation Department but that dedicated Helene appropriations are being drawn down to protect other statewide priorities.
