New state program will help Helene survivors relocate during home repairs
A new state program will help some Hurricane Helene survivors pay for a temporary place to live while their damaged homes are repaired.
The $40 million for the Temporary Relocation Assistance Program was included in the new state budget. It is designed to help eligible applicants, often low-income homeowners, who need a place to stay while construction is underway.
Gov. Josh Stein said the money will help speed up the state’s broader home repair effort.
“You need to have somewhere to live temporarily while the construction’s going on. And the legislature did what we asked them to do and gave us the money,” Stein said. “They didn’t quite give us everything we asked for, but they certainly gave us some money that will help us accelerate this home reconstruction program.”
The program is tied to Renew NC, the state’s $807 million repair program for single-family homes damaged by Hurricane Helene.
Statewide, Renew NC has completed 92 repairs, including two in Asheville. Hundreds of applicants have been pre-approved and are in the pre-construction phase, which is the time when contractors are assigned, permits and utility shutoffs are arranged and relocation is confirmed if required.
In April, Stephanie McGarrah, the head of Renew NC, warned that the lack of funding for temporary housing was a “chokepoint” and had forced some applicants to withdraw from the program and others to delay construction.
“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.
BPR asked the North Carolina Department of Commerce to provide data on how many applicants have been delayed or withdrawn due to a lack of housing assistance. The department did not immediately have any data to share.
The budget stipulates that the $40 million in relocation assistance is meant to help applicants who have demonstrated hardship acquiring housing and exhausted other housing options, including staying with family, friends or volunteer organizations.
The program can cover temporary housing for the standard length of a repair or rebuild project, plus 21 days for moving in and out.
New Christmas tree seed center opens in Ashe County
For most families, a Christmas tree spends just a few weeks in the living room. But improving the next generation of trees can take decades.
Justin Whitehill, Christmas tree genetics program lead at North Carolina State University, says developing seeds is a long, evolving process.
“It takes about 25 to 30 years before the trees actually start to produce female cones and male pollen, which are the components you need to generate that next generation of genetic improvement,” Whitehill says.
After roughly three decades of research, the newly opened Tobacco Trust Fund Christmas Tree Seed Center of Excellence in Ashe County will clean, process and distribute improved Fraser fir seeds.
According to Center Director Tracy Taylor, it was important to produce trees that grow faster, have the shape growers want and hold their needles for longer.
“The last thing a consumer of a real Christmas tree remembers is sweeping the needles out of their floor the day after Christmas,” Taylor says. “So our trees have all those traits that growers like, as well as the needle retention, which is in there for consumers.”
North Carolina is the nation’s second-largest Christmas tree producer, and the industry generates over $250 million annually. In Ashe County alone, Christmas trees contribute more than $85 million to the local economy — making it the largest producing county in the country.
But these growers are facing increasing challenges, especially with inclement weather over the past couple of years. Researchers say floodwater from Hurricane Helene likely helped set the stage for a spread of Phytophthora Root Rot, a soil-borne disease that’s one of the industry’s biggest threats. The recent drought is making that even worse.
But the hope is that improved genetics will eventually help growers better withstand these challenges.
For Justin Whitehill, the opening of the seed center represents much more than a new building.
“I see this sort of the ending of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter for North Carolina’s industry,” Whitehill says.
The first improved Fraser fir seeds are expected to reach growers this fall.
