North Carolina started accepting applications from homeowners this week for money to rebuild houses damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Helene, which left more than 100 people dead in the state’s western mountains last fall.
Working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state said $807 million in federal funds is available for people who own single-family and mobile homes in 29 counties. Officials in Asheville, the largest city in the region, said last month they received a separate pot of federal relief funds, of which $31 million will be used for housing.
Some 73,000 homes may have been damaged by the storm, according to a December state budget office estimate. About 4,000 of those were in Asheville, according to the Insurance Information Institute. In Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, the institute found that only about 1% of residents had federal flood insurance coverage when the hurricane hit. Some people with older houses may not have had homeowners insurance.
“There is a lot of work to do, and the Renew North Carolina housing program is the next step in helping western North Carolinians recover,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement Monday.
The housing repair program will prioritize funds for owners whose incomes are 80% or less of the area's median. Families with children, seniors or people with disabilities will also be closer to the front of the line, as will homes that haven’t been repaired yet.
The funding is only for people’s primary homes; vacation homes are excluded. To be eligible for assistance, owners have to commit to stay in their homes for at least three years. Mobile homes are eligible only if estimated repair costs are under $25,000 and the home is less than five years old. In general, mobile home applicants must also own the land their homes sit on, but the state said on the housing program’s website that it will consider each application individually.
With the next hurricane season already under way, the state said its program will pay for one year of flood insurance for houses located in a floodplain.