Housing Aid for Floyd Victims to End

Eighteen remaining families have until the end of this month to find another place to live.

Renee Hoffman, director of public affairs for the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, said that when the residents move out at the end of August, they will have lived in the temporary housing for 35 months.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency originally intended to house North Carolina's Floyd victims in trailers for 18 months, Hoffman said.

"Like every other citizen in the United States, the federal government does not provide permanent housing for these people," she said.

But agencies rebuilding eastern North Carolina realized that victims needed more time.

"There were more than 7,000 homes damaged in eastern North Carolina," Hoffman said. "You just don't build 7,000 homes that quickly."

Hoffman also said many apartment complexes -- which take more time to rebuild than single-family homes -- needed to be renovated and rebuilt as well.

Because of the severity of the problems, the federal government provided an additional year's worth of funding for temporary housing.

Overall, 66 North Carolina counties received more than $708 million.

But the state began picking up the tab in March, said Fred Hartman, Gov. Mike Easley's press secretary.

More than $800 million was originally designated by state legislators for repair and renovation, Hartman said. The majority of that money went to homeowners and renters.

But when FEMA stopped funding temporary housing in the middle of March, state agencies involved with recovery efforts provided additional money to continue housing Floyd victims -- at least temporarily.

"We had stepped in after the federal money ran out so that (Floyd victims) would not be caught off guard -- so that those people would be able to find housing," Hartman said.

In June, the governor moved the remaining relief funds to an escrow account to prevent legislators from using the money to combat the state's budget shortfall, Hartman said.

But Hoffman said Easley's protective measures have not spared her department from the effects of the budget deficit. "The problem is we have no more money," Hoffman said. "The federal funding dried up a long time ago, and as you know, the state is in a budget crunch."

Though the state no longer has money to support them, some of the families still haven't secured their own homes, Hoffman said.

"They either will be living on their own, or they can be living with family," Hoffman said. "They just need to be living in a home. It doesn't have to be a home of their own."

Hartman said the rest of the money originally appropriated for flood victim housing has been allocated to other relief efforts, such as economic recovery initiatives. The remainder of the flood money has yet to be doled out.

The N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety expects to finish all recovery efforts sometime next year.

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.