A state agency tasked with rebuilding homes damaged in hurricanes Matthew and Florence is asking the legislature for more money, saying it otherwise won't finish the long-delayed recovery from storms that hit North Carolina more than six years ago.
Even as much of the focus has turned to the recovery from Helene in western North Carolina, state lawmakers held a two-hour hearing Thursday on a troubled program to help hurricane victims in the east.
The state's Office of Resiliency and Recovery, known as NCORR or Rebuild NC, says it needs $217 million from the legislature soon, or the homes might never get completed. Further delays in funding could result in the program's network of contractors leaving the project for good.
That prompted a testy exchange between agency leader Pryor Gibson and Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, who represents counties that were hit hard by flooding in 2016 and 2018.
As Gibson promised, "you give us the money, we'll get these people home," Jones was skeptical.
"How many times have we heard that?" he said. "Every time it's 'we need more money.' We keep throwing more at the problem. Y'all have proven you can't do the job."
The latest request comes after lawmakers approved $80 million for the program last year to deal with cost overruns the agency discovered last fall, although that total was less than the agency requested.
More than 1,100 homeowners are still waiting for new houses to be finished, with about 600 of those currently under construction. Gibson says the pace of remaining projects has picked up.
"Last month, 144 homeowners got keys to a new home," he told legislators. "That's five families every single day of the month that got keys to a new home. Can we maintain that pace? In (20)25 we can't. But what this clearly shows is that we have the infrastructure and the processes in place to finish."
Gov. Josh Stein has set up a new program, GROW NC, to oversee the recovery process from Helene, leaving Rebuild NC to wind down after it completes the remaining homes. Legislators say they want to make sure the mistakes of the Rebuild program aren't repeated in western North Carolina.
"I can assure you that if we have to have committee meetings like this six or eight years from now, we would have already seceded from the state, and we would have solved the problems ourselves," said Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson.
Gibson said he's trying to "stay out of (GROW NC's) way so they can stand up the western office with new criteria." Legislators have also been getting updates from GROW NC this week, and there are already concerns there that sluggish federal funding could make it difficult to begin rebuilding homes from Helene until this fall.
