State Office of Resilience outlines Hurricane Helene recovery programs, opens local intake office in Aiken County

The South Carolina Office of Resilience detailed programs to help Hurricane Helene survivors and said it will open a local disaster case management office in Aiken County to accept applications and assess eligibility for housing repairs and replacement.

Eric Fossmeier, chief of staff for the South Carolina Office of Resilience, told the council the federal appropriation to the state totals $150,000,000 through the HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR), with about $123,000,000 earmarked for housing and roughly $19,000,000 available for mitigation projects for local governments. Fossmeier said the state expects to reach roughly 700 households with the housing funds.

Fossmeier said the program prioritizes low- and moderate-income households and gives extra priority to households with age-dependent members (under 18 or 65 and older) or disabled residents. "We lessen the impact of disasters on our citizens across the state," Fossmeier said, describing the officemission to plan, coordinate, and administer long-term recovery and mitigation.

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