The N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) is now accepting grant applications for the Public Housing Restoration Fund Program, with approximately $16 million to be awarded to public housing agencies experiencing unmet hurricane recovery needs in Wayne and surrounding counties. The economic support aims to increase the availability of safe, affordable housing in areas of the state that experienced unprecedented damage when hurricanes Matthew and Florence hit only two years apart. The funding announced today is in addition to more than $9.6 million NCORR previously committed to public housing projects in Wilson and Lumberton.
“The Public Housing Restoration Fund Program provides an opportunity to preserve and create housing opportunities for our state’s most vulnerable populations and to leverage existing HUD resources,” said NCORR Director Laura Hogshead. “We are excited to partner with public housing agencies that have continued to do phenomenal work in the face of so many challenges.”
The Public Housing Restoration Fund Program will use a competitive application process to determine funding awards. The program is available to public housing agencies located or operating in the 16 North Carolina counties federally identified as “most impacted and distressed” (MID) due to damage from hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Public housing projects that have unoccupied units and/or displaced residents due to storm damage will be given priority. A map and full list of MID counties is available on the NCORR website.
Eligible grant activities may include, but are not limited to, acquisition of real property for development into replacement public housing units; clearance and demolition activities with appropriate HUD approvals; improvements to or repair or replacement of existing public housing units; and new development of public housing units outside of Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) as identified by FEMA. A project’s new construction and rehabilitation activities must occur outside the 100-year floodplain.
A virtual technical assistance webinar for grant applicants will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15. More information about the application and webinar is available online at the Public Housing Restoration Fund website. Grant applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Aug. 1, 2022.
The Public Housing Restoration Fund Program is supported by the North Carolina’s HUD Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery funding for hurricanes Matthew and Florence. It is one of multiple housing programs overseen by NCORR through its Community Development Office, which also administers the Multi-Family Development Fund, Affordable Housing Development Fund and Infrastructure Program.
