NC stands to get $168 million for hurricane mitigation. Here’s how it would be spent.
North Carolina plans to use its $168 million portion of a federal mitigation program to boost funding for the state’s buyout program and provide additional affordable housing, according to a draft action plan published by the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR.
The money is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Mitigation program, a first-of-its-kind effort to help disaster-stricken states finance projects that could reduce the cost of future storm-recovery efforts. North Carolina’s portion is for the Hurricane Matthew recovery, but can also be spent assisting with Florence recovery.
“With $168 million, we can’t stem climate change, but we can get people out of vulnerable areas,” said Laura Hogshead, NCORR’s chief operating officer.
Under the draft plan, NCORR would spend $109.2 million buying out properties in the counties that HUD designated as the hardest hit in Matthew and Florence. An additional $32 million would be spent working with the N.C. Housing Finance Agency to build new affordable housing projects near areas where buyouts took place; $10 million would be used helping public housing agencies move residents out of flood-prone areas.
Environmental groups have criticized North Carolina’s plan, though, saying that while buyouts are a worthy endeavor, the mitigation fund should be used to enact new state programs or to create systemic change.
Critics say NCORR plan is too limited
In a letter submitted as part of the public comment period, a coalition of environmental groups including American Rivers, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, the N.C. Conservation Network, The Conservation Fund and the Southern Environmental Law Center wrote, “The undersigned are disappointed in the draft plan’s limited scope; it reads as though NCORR has viewed the $168 million as another tranche of funds to be spent on recovery, rather than a unique, one-time source of funds to strengthen resilience capacity across state and local governments, as HUD suggests.”
The group suggests that NCORR use the money to ensure that mitigation is part of the state’s next Hazard Mitigation Plan update, to improve building codes and to discourage future building in vulnerable areas. The letter says NCORR should describe how a climate risk and resiliency plan Gov. Roy Cooper directed the state to craft as part of Executive Order 80 will be used to guide future mitigation planning.
“What we think is lacking in this draft plan are other components, other pieces of the puzzle,” said Blakely Hildebrand, an SELC attorney.
In the draft plan, NCORR said it believes using the money for a limited number of well-run programs is likely to have more impact on mitigation than spreading resources across multiple efforts.
NCORR must return the final action plan to HUD for review by Feb. 3.
Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the mitigation fund offers North Carolina a chance to make sweeping changes that will help prevent flooding in future storms. It could, for example, use the latest climate science to update building codes, or it could implement a state-funded buyout program similar to the one Charlotte-Mecklenburg has used to purchase more than 400 at-risk properties since 1999.
“It kind of gets back to, ‘Give a man a fish (and) he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish (and) he’ll eat for a lifetime,’” Moore said. “North Carolina can spend $168 million on buyouts, or it can invest those dollars making sure future development doesn’t have to be bought out.”
Are buyouts best?
Hogshead said that NCORR’s review of the remaining needs from Hurricane Matthew determined that buyouts are the largest priority that has not yet been funded. A study conducted by AECOM earlier this year found that $116 million spent buying out homes after Hurricane Floyd resulted in North Carolina avoiding $133 million in losses during Hurricane Matthew.
“When we look at the areas post-Floyd that were bought out, they did not receive the level of damage in Matthew that other communities did, so we know that long-term, buyouts reduce the risk. That was a big part of what HUD asked us to do with this funding,” Hogshead said.
The state previously allocated $25 million in Matthew recovery to the buyout program. But if 30% of homeowners in state-identified buyout zones take up the offer, NCORR anticipates needing $90 million to complete the Matthew program, as well as $53.4 million for Florence buyouts. If that number rises to 40%, it becomes $95.3 million for Matthew and $67 million for Florence.
At least 50% of the buyout funds are expected to go to homes HUD defines as low or moderate income, or those with an income that is less than 80% of the area’s median income.
Furthermore, Hogshead noted, NCORR anticipates that while buyout needs from Hurricane Florence will continue, more of the roughly $540 million in federal disaster recovery money the state is waiting for from that storm will be spent repairing homes. That is in part, she said, because the later storm had a significant impact on coastal areas, where homeowners are more likely to want to remain in place.
Mitigation funding
HUD announced in April 2018 that it would award nearly $16 billion in funds from its Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for mitigation. That announcement was the first of its kind by HUD, spurred by Congress’ authorization of a series of multibillion-dollar CDBG-DR programs since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
It then took 16 months for the agency to publish guidelines about how states could use the funds in the Federal Register, a step that must take place before local organizations can begin crafting action plans describing how the funds will be spent.
Marion Mollegen McFadden, a senior vice president of public policy at Enterprise Community Partners, worked at HUD from 2000 to 2016, including extensive work on disaster recovery grant programs.
“Congress has been writing very large checks after disasters to try to assist communities in rebuilding, and they do it off the books, so it adds to the national debt each time,” McFadden said. “How long will Congress continue making large sums available as we see more frequent and more intense disasters? ... Investing in mitigation is doing the best possible thing we can with taxpayer dollars.”
Per NCORR’s draft action plan, 50% of the buyout funds will be spent in counties that HUD said were the most affected by Matthew: Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Robeson and Wayne. The other 50% would be spent in the 15 areas NCORR anticipates HUD naming as most affected by Hurricane Florence.
NCORR cannot be certain which areas HUD will designate until the federal agency files a notice in the Federal Register outlining how funds can be used.
“This is the kind of assistance that’s absolutely worth waiting for. This is life-changing assistance,” McFadden said. “If you’re a homeowner who had damage from Matthew or Florence or you didn’t have damage, but you’re in the zone, this is probably the best shot you’re ever going to have to move to a safer place.”
The public comment period for the draft action plan is open until 5 p.m. Monday. The plan can be reviewed at www.rebuild.nc.gov/mitigation and comments sent to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov will be considered.
This reporting is financially supported by Report for America/GroundTruth Project and The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation. The News & Observer maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 2:32 PM.