Many of the people who applied for help to rebuild their homes after Hurricanes Matthew and Florence say they’re still waiting for the state to come through and build new houses as promised.
On Wednesday, the head of North Carolina’s Office of Recovery and Resilience, along with the secretary for the Department of Public Safety, testified before a North Carolina General Assembly committee.
“The lack of urgency that has been performed since all this began and trying to get these people back in their homes has been going on, this is totally unacceptable,” said Sen. Brent Jackson, who sits on the committee tasked with investigating the recovery program.
Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina in October 2016, bringing more than a foot of rain across much of eastern North Carolina. Rivers in the southeast part of the state swelled, some hitting record flood levels.
Two years later, Hurricane Florence dumped more than 20 inches of rain on much of this corner of the state. The rainfall total in Wilmington topped 30 inches. Record flooding cut off Wilmington and caused billions in damage.
The state Office of Recovery and Resiliency has until 2025 to spend federal money meant for recovery from Hurricane Matthew and 2026 for Florence. The money is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, separate from the disaster money that poured into the state from FEMA after the storms.
The program has been plagued with problems. A private vendor was handling much of the work from the state, but people complained of high turnover with case managers and delays that lasted for years.
“This is in state hands as of Tuesday morning,” said Laura Hogshead, head of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She faced tough questions from legislators Wednesday who wanted to know why, years after the hurricanes, more than 3,000 people still don’t have new homes.
“Eight-hundred-ninety-nine people are back in their homes, and our team knows that they need to pick up that pace,” said Department of Public Safety Sec. Eddie Buffaloe, who ultimately oversees the ReBuildNC recovery program.
More than 100 people have been in temporary housing, like hotel rooms for more than a year, legislators said. That’s left taxpayers with a $500 to $600,000 a month tab, Jackson said.
Hogshead told legislators the program has faced a number of major problems, including a shortage of general contractors, difficulty finding labor and supply chain issues. Before the pandemic, she said, the program was building about 30 houses a month. That number dropped over two years, bottoming out at just seven houses a month earlier this year, she said.
But that number is climbing again, with about 17 new houses a month right now. The office has been able to make some changes and has doubled the number of general contractors it’s working with to 12.
Construction is also hitting bottlenecks with things like inspections, Hogshead said.
“The counties are overwhelmed by the number of inspections and the number of permits we require,” she told the committee.
“I drive around in my district, and I go to those homes that say ‘under construction’ and nothing going on in any of them,” said Sen. Jim Perry, who represents Lenoir and Wayne counties. “I’m extremely disappointed.”
He said the program needs to be completing more like 60 homes a month to clear the backlog before the clock runs out on the federal money.
Now that the program is back, being run by state employees and not with a contractor, the pace of construction is picking up, Hogshead said.
“It’s not enough,” she said. “We continue to make progress.”
“If you were in the private sector, I don't know any employer who would keep you in your job,” Sen. Danny Britt said during Wednesday’s hearing.
Others on the committee thanked Hogshead for coming and facing tough questions.
Facing questioning like she did Wednesday, Hogshead said, was “part of the job.”
There are currently more than 300 people receiving temporary rental assistance, according to the committee, and more than 100 of those have been in temporary housing for more than a year.
At the committee’s last hearing in September, members said they wanted those people back in their homes in time for Christmas. A handful have gotten new houses since then, but most have not.
Many people report waiting years to get a new home built. Many are still waiting, according to comments submitted to a legislative committee over the fall.
“I have been displaced and squeezed into my family home for four years. I had nowhere to go after Hurricane Florence destroyed my home. I have been in the Rebuild holding pattern since August 2020,” one woman from Carteret County wrote to the committee.
“It has been a nightmare trying to get my mother’s house fixed,” a Craven County man said. The comments were submitted along with about 50 others to a committee at the North Carolina General Assembly investigating problems with the Rebuild program and why so many people have had to wait years to get assistance.
A report from the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor, released in April, found that the Department of Public Safety and the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency sent out hundreds of millions in state funds with limited oversight.
“DPS’s limited monitoring procedures did not ensure that external recipients were spending approximately $502 million of Hurricane Florence Disaster Recovery Funds in accordance with Hurricane Florence Recovery legislation,” the April 2022 audit states.
“Without independent verification, DPS could not detect misuse of the funds that could occur due to misunderstandings, errors, or omissions,” according to the audit.
Hogshead said her office is making progress, by bringing the operations back into state government, and that they’ve been able to pick up the pace. The office has also gotten an exemption to the state’s 30-day pay rule, allowing them to pay contractors faster. She said that’s made it easier to attract more general contractors and get more crews to work building homes.