RALEIGH, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The Trump administration approved $1.4 billion in grants to help rebuild western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, Gov. Josh Stein announced Friday.
The funding for the state’s Helene Action Plan is provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“This is great news for western North Carolina,” Stein said in a statement. “I thank the Trump Administration for moving quickly to approve this plan so we can get busy rebuilding people’s homes.”
The governor’s office said compared to other states in the last decade, North Carolina submitted its Helene Action Plan to HUD in the shortest amount of time following a major hurricane. A team with the NC Department of Commerce submitted the final version of the Action Plan to HUD on March 26.
The move comes two weeks after the Federal Emergency Management Administration denied the state’s request for an extension on the 100 percent match for Helene disaster recovery.
Approving the Action Plan was the required next step to receive federal funds from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery award (CDBG-DR), which was first announced in January. Once HUD certifies the state’s financial controls for the program, North Carolina can sign the grant agreement and begin committing these funds with a focus on housing and economic revitalization.
CDBG-DR grants focus on long-term rebuilding rather than immediate needs for shelter and are considered “last resort” funds to be used after other recovery sources have been tapped, such as private insurance. The Helene Action Plan proposes most funds go to housing recovery for low- and moderate-income residents, with the rest for infrastructure rebuilding and economic development.
