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FEMA outlines housing options for Haywood County: $47M in assistance, 209 Haywood households still in transitional sheltering
Summary
At the Dec. 2 meeting, FEMA told Haywood County commissioners it has provided roughly $47 million in displacement assistance across Western North Carolina, that about 209 Haywood households remain in transitional sheltering assistance, and that FEMA is deploying transportable temporary housing units and rental assistance while inspections continue.
FEMA officials briefed Haywood County commissioners on Dec. 2 about the agency’s direct-housing and rental-assistance efforts following Tropical Storm Helene and described options available to survivors while they work toward permanent housing.
Marty Baumbach, FEMA’s Direct Housing Program representative, told the board the agency has provided ‘‘about $47,000,000 for displacement assistance in Western North Carolina’’ and had placed households into hotels and motel vouchers under transitional sheltering. He said roughly 4,800 households regionally remained in hotel or motel assistance at a recent count and that Haywood County had about 209 households still enrolled in transitional sheltering assistance. ‘‘That’s total households in Haywood County that are still using what we call transitional sheltering assistance,’’ Baumbach said.
FEMA also provided local damage tallies: Baumbach said officials had identified approximately 1,266 owner homes requiring habitability repairs in Haywood County, about 192 owner homes with major damage and 14 homes destroyed. He said FEMA had placed 40 households across nine regional counties into FEMA transportable temporary housing units and that Haywood already had several FEMA units on the ground and multiple site inspections underway.
On timelines, Baumbach said transitional sheltering extensions had been set through Dec. 12 with potential for further extension and that FEMA evaluates extensions in light of survivors’ ongoing needs. He described alternatives including rental assistance (authorized at 200% of HUD fair-market rent for this disaster), direct housing units on private sites, direct leases with landlords, commercial pad placements, and, if necessary, larger group-site construction.
Commissioners asked whether inspections or site feasibility checks were the primary bottleneck; FEMA officials said the matching process—pairing each household’s eligibility and household composition to an appropriate unit—plus assuring utilities and septic services at private sites take time. ‘‘People’s needs change over time, and we are matching individual people to an individual need based on household composition and based on resource availability,’’ Baumbach said.
FEMA provided contact and access information for survivors: people can visit the county’s disaster recovery center at 141 Hemlock Street in Waynesville or text DRC and their ZIP code to 43362 for the nearest disaster recovery center.
Local officials said they will continue coordinating with FEMA to expedite placement where feasible and urged residents to bring concrete, verifiable information about people still exposed to the elements so staff can resolve cases individually.
The briefing did not result in any county appropriation; FEMA and county staff said further placements depend on site feasibility, eligibility, and survivor choice.
