Donations fund 2nd hotel extension for Chantal flood victims in Orange County
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- Orange County approved $20,000 to extend hotel stays and aid Chantal flood victims
- Funds from Social Justice Reserve will help with deposits, fees, and housing needs
- Countywide recovery group will weigh $83,500 in donations for future assistance
Update: Orange County announced on Sept. 9, 2025, that over $84,000 in public donations would help households displaced by the July 6 flooding stay in hotels and relocate. Several households have not yet found housing, while others are waiting for repairs and inspections.
Orange County residents who need help can call 919-245-2800, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, to speak with a social worker. Help may depend financial eligibility and will require documentation of damages.
County residents flooded out of their apartments got another reprieve Tuesday when commissioners unanimously approved an additional $20,000 for hotel rooms and relocation expenses.
The 6-0 decision followed emotional appeals from former Camelot Village residents and the advocates and organizers with two grassroots groups that have been helping people affected by Tropical Depression Chantal on July 6.
Commissioners Chair Jamezetta Bedford said a countywide recovery group will also consider Thursday how to use $83,500 in donations for flood relief and housing.
Camelot Village, which sits between two low-lying floodplains, sustained over $3 million in damages when Tropical Depression Chantal dropped up to 10 inches of rain on July 6. The complex was among 210 apartments and homes damaged by the storm, displacing 190 people, the county has reported.
Some residents found new housing, but others still live in hotel rooms, supported by county offices using $100,000 in Chapel Hill town emergency funding. That money runs out Friday.
The money approved Tuesday will extend the hotel stays at least through Sept. 5. The commissioners could vote on a work group’s recommendation for using public donations at their Sept. 4 meeting.
Quinten Simmons was one of the Camelot Village residents to describe his dire circumstances during the storm. Simmons, who uses a wheelchair, said he might have died in the flood at Camelot Village without help from a friend and firefighters.
“It sucks to be living in a place like that, and even when it’s not flooding, every time it rains, the paranoia just kills you, because you don’t know when it’s going to flood,” Simmons told the commissioners. “It’s just not a good place to live for anybody, as you can tell, so the additional funding would be nice for us to stay a little bit longer till we figure it out.”
Commissioner Sally Greene, who formerly served on the Chapel Hill Town Council, thanked the residents for sharing their worries, including that Camelot Village landlords will repair the apartments and rent them to other tenants who could get hurt.
The town has tried to buy and demolish the floodprone buildings, but without support from individual apartment owners, previous efforts have failed. The town is pursuing those talks again with Camelot Village property management, a town spokesman said, but any deal would also depend on federal approval of the state’s Aug. 5 disaster declaration.
“It’s a terrible situation,” Greene said, “and I’ll just say, I deplore landlords who continue to subject human beings to these conditions.”
Hotel rooms, support and counseling available
Orange County Department of Social Services staff evaluated 64 households after the flood, directing those who did not qualify for county programs to other resources, they said.
The county reported 32 households in hotel rooms on July 11. On Tuesday, 23 remained, including four who got Alliance Health support, county officials said. Hotel stays have cost the county an average of $2,000 a night — a tab of $88,000 so far, staff said.
Displaced residents also received $50 gift cards for food and necessities.
Some of those in hotel rooms have found housing, including over two dozen with federal Section 8 vouchers, but they are waiting for required inspections. DSS caseworkers are helping eight additional households.
Chapel Hill is providing hotel rooms to another 29 households evacuated from the town’s public housing communities.
The money approved Tuesday will be transferred from the county’s Social Justice Reserve Fund to DSS for distribution. Residents who lost their housing can get help if they earn 200% or less of the federal poverty level — up to $31,300 a year for an individual, for instance, or up to $64,300 for a family of four.
The money will help pay for temporary hotel rooms, security deposits, application fees, furniture, and essential household goods, officials said. Residents can also get DSS help with replacing identification and financial documents; transportation, food or living assistance; or emotional support or counseling.
Additional financial support could be available later, including state grants for individual residents. Those decisions are pending and could take at least another month, county officials said. The state could decide this week whether to help pay for hotel rooms.
DSS Director Lindsey Shewmaker said residents who need help should call 919-245-2800.
Displaced residents face deadline
Triangle Tenants Union and Triangle Mutual Aid community groups started asking local governments for more help a few weeks ago. They’ve also pushed most landlords to waive July’s rent, cancel leases, and return security deposits, so displaced tenants can find other housing.
But before that, they were working to help stabilize communities, feeding residents, buying clothes, and giving people money and shelter, said Devin Ceartas, founder of Triangle Mutual Aid. They’ve mucked out mud and gutted apartments, while helping victims apply for grants and assistance.
Last week, they organized a news conference with six displaced Camelot Village residents, some of them older adults and adults with disabilities.
Two have since found housing, and four still have nowhere to go, community organizers said.
The crisis has put volunteers in “very difficult situations” for which they were not trained or prepared, Ceartas said, and it showed them that “all of the poor people live in places that flood.”
“That’s pretty visible in an event like this, and I’m not going to look away from it,” he said. “I’m going to say that if you have to live in a place where your life is in danger because you don’t have money, that means that in America, you don’t have a right to live, you have to earn a right to live.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2025 at 9:30 PM.
