[0:47] which is accessible through the virtual

[0:49] engagement hub link on the front page of

[0:51] the city website.

[0:53] We also have an option for the public to

[0:54] listen live by phone.

[0:57] For those of you out there with us

[0:58] today, welcome.

[1:00] For today's meeting, we have the option

[1:02] for people to call in and listen or

[1:04] comment live. To call in and listen to

[1:06] the meeting, please dial 855-925-2801

[1:11] and enter the meeting code 2675.

[1:15] Your phone will be muted and you will

[1:16] hear the meeting live.

[1:18] At this point, if you would like to sign

[1:20] up to speak, you will need to push

[1:22] asterisk three to enter the speaker

[1:24] queue.

[1:26] Before we get started with our roll

[1:27] call, I would like to take a moment to

[1:29] remind everyone why we were here.

[1:32] Purpose statement.

[1:33] The city of Asheville

[1:35] Helene recovery boards were established

[1:38] to support city council's vision of a

[1:40] recovery that is rooted in resilience,

[1:43] rises in unity, repairs with care, and

[1:46] ready for tomorrow.

[1:48] The four boards represent city council's

[1:51] priority areas of economy, housing,

[1:53] infrastructure, environment, and people.

[1:57] Through collaboration, expertise, and

[1:59] insight, each of the four boards will

[2:01] provide critical input on city council

[2:04] policy recommendations, while also

[2:06] extending the city of Asheville's

[2:07] communication through board member

[2:10] networks.

[2:12] Um and I just wanted to also mark this

[2:14] kind of as a transition for the board.

[2:17] Um we spent a good amount of time having

[2:18] I thought were were really productive

[2:20] conversations on the CDBGDR funds. And

[2:24] uh since a lot of those allocations were recently made, and I think a lot of

[2:28] that was was due to the the discussion

[2:31] that we had here. Um and I thought that

[2:32] was really beneficial. And so what we're

[2:34] moving towards now is really looking a

[2:37] little bit at unmet needs. So um today

[2:40] we're going to have different

[2:41] presentations on unmet needs and kind of

[2:42] a transition for us to look at that. And

[2:45] what we're hoping is to to really get

[2:47] some strong policy recommendations um

[2:50] over our our our next meetings that that

[2:53] run until June. So I just wanted to mark

[2:55] that. I know we had a meeting last time

[2:56] with a lot of big decisions, and we

[2:58] focused a lot on CDBGDR. Um we're we're

[3:01] really kind of entering another um

[3:04] phase, I feel like, of of the board. Um

[3:07] and I think it was also good to get a

[3:09] lot of feedback from y'all as well on

[3:10] what we're looking for. So um I just

[3:13] wanted to mention that before we do roll

[3:15] call. Um I will introduce all the

[3:18] committee members and staff.

[3:20] For members participating remotely,

[3:22] please make sure to mute your microphone

[3:24] if you are not speaking, and unmute your

[3:26] microphone when you would like to speak.

[3:28] Board members and staff, as I call your

[3:30] name, please say a quick hello.

[3:33] Andy Barnett.

[3:39] Okay.

[3:40] Robin Raines.

[3:42] >> Hello.

[3:45] » Joshua Rudo. Hello.

[3:49] Elise Martyr.

[3:52] >> Hello.

[3:53] >> Rab Hiester.

[3:56] >> And he is absent.

[3:57] >> He's absent, okay. David Bartholomew.

[4:00] >> Good afternoon.

[4:02] >> Matt Allen.

[4:04] >> He's trying to join. He's in the queue.

[4:09] Logan, if you can admit that one guest.

[4:13] That is Matt Allen at roll call. Great.

[4:16] Welcome, Matt. We were just calling roll

[4:18] call.

[4:20] Say hello.

[4:25] I think I'll come back.

[4:26] >> Matt, are you there? It looks like

[4:28] you're on mute. If you could say hello,

[4:29] we can count you on roll call.

[4:39] Just come back.

[4:39] >> Yeah, I'll just come back to him. Okay,

[4:41] cool.

[4:42] Okay.

[4:45] » Okay.

[4:46] >> What's um can we come back? I don't

[4:48] think it'll affect quorum, but we can we

[4:49] can come back. Okay.

[4:51] Uh Brian Methvin.

[4:53] >> Good afternoon.

[4:55] >> Rebecca Chaplin.

[4:58] >> Hello.

[5:00] >> Ray.

[5:03] » Good afternoon.

[5:06] >> Did you hear that?

[5:07] Okay.

[5:10] Um Yvette Gyves.

[5:16] » Hello.

[5:18] >> Nikki Reed.

[5:21] >> Good afternoon.

[5:24] » Ashley.

[5:25] >> Good afternoon.

[5:26] >> Megan Owens.

[5:29] Logan Smith.

[5:32] And I think we can come back to Matt

[5:34] now. Or he was off mute.

[5:36] >> Yep, I'm here.

[5:37] >> Okay. Great. Okay, so we've got

[5:39] everybody. Reb and Andy seem to be the

[5:41] ones not here.

[5:43] Okay.

[5:46] now we are going to move forward

[5:47] to adopt the minutes.

[5:50] Everyone has an agenda printed off at

[5:51] their seat. The first item on the agenda

[5:53] is approval of the

[5:55] minutes. Can I get a motion to approve

[5:57] the June 3rd, 2026 meeting minutes?

[6:00] >> I so move.

[6:01] >> Okay.

[6:02] >> I second.

[6:03] >> Okay, we have a motion and a second.

[6:06] Um

[6:08] >> I second.

[6:08] >> I think [clears throat] I have to go

[6:09] through the list again. Okay.

[6:13] Um

[6:17] Andy Barnett

[6:19] not here.

[6:20] Robin Raines

[6:21] >> I.

[6:23] >> Joshua Rudow

[6:24] I.

[6:25] Elise Carter

[6:27] >> I.

[6:29] >> Reb Haslip absent.

[6:32] David Bartholomew

[6:33] >> I.

[6:34] >> Matt Allen

[6:36] >> I.

[6:38] >> Brian Methvin

[6:39] >> I.

[6:42] » Lucas Ray

[6:45] >> I.

[6:47] >> Rebecca Chaplin

[6:48] >> I.

[6:50] >> Yvette Gyves

[6:54] » I.

[6:57] » Okay.

[6:58] It that passes.

[7:05] Okay, so um

[7:07] agenda items here. We have a pretty busy

[7:09] agenda, so kind of before we get started

[7:11] on that, I do want to make sure we get

[7:13] to everything.

[7:14] So, um I'm going to try to work with

[7:16] Nikki and trying to keep things at 20

[7:19] minutes. I know there's a there's a lot

[7:20] going on, but if we are moving something

[7:22] forward, it's because we want to make

[7:23] sure we get to everything on here. Um

[7:26] the first agenda item is a vote to adopt

[7:28] the new regular meeting schedule, and

[7:30] this will be um

[7:32] uh

[7:33] helped by Nikki Reed.

[7:35] >> Great, and thanks everyone. We sent out

[7:36] a poll just to see um if we could

[7:39] accommodate a new schedule. Um so, uh

[7:43] looks like that's what's on the dock for

[7:45] today to officially move our meeting

[7:47] schedule to be the third Wednesday of

[7:51] every month at noon

[7:54] to 1:30. So if that all works for you

[7:57] all then I can turn it back over to the

[7:59] chair for a motion and then to take

[8:02] action cuz that will then officially

[8:04] reset our monthly meeting schedule to be

[8:06] the third Wednesday at noon.

[8:09] Every other month.

[8:13] » [snorts]

[8:16] » Okay.

[8:18] I would like to

[8:21] can I get a motion to um

[8:24] move the meeting to the third Wednesday

[8:27] of every month every other month at 12.

[8:30] >> I'll make the motion to move our regular

[8:32] housing recovery board meeting to the

[8:34] third Wednesday of every other month at

[8:36] noon.

[8:38] >> Can I get a second?

[8:40] >> I second.

[8:43] » Okay.

[8:45] So I will go through this again. Um

[8:49] All those in favor

[8:50] say I if you're in favor or nay. Andy

[8:53] Barnett.

[8:54] Absent. Robin Raines.

[8:56] >> I.

[8:57] >> Joshua Rudell. I.

[9:00] Elise Martin.

[9:02] >> I.

[9:03] >> Reb Haslip. Absent. David Bartholomew.

[9:06] >> I.

[9:08] >> Matt Allen.

[9:10] >> I.

[9:11] >> Brian Mifflin.

[9:12] >> I.

[9:14] >> Lucas Ray.

[9:17] >> I.

[9:18] >> Rebecca Chaplin.

[9:19] >> I.

[9:20] >> Yvette Jarvis.

[9:23] >> I.

[9:26] » Okay. Motion has passed.

[9:29] Um

[9:30] So I believe that's all we need on that.

[9:32] Thank you for that and I believe staff

[9:34] will also update the front of the

[9:35] website and kind of help us

[9:37] with all those pieces, that'd be great.

[9:39] And if

[9:40] Yeah.

[9:40] The calendar invite, having a calendar

[9:42] invite to that sent out, too, helps me

[9:43] as well.

[9:44] Too. Just so it's on there.

[9:47] Cuz I think I have the I have them on

[9:48] there for the for the other ones, so.

[9:51] Um okay. So, for the next agenda item,

[9:54] um Nikki Reed is going to be doing an

[9:56] update on the um Housing Recovery Board

[10:00] work plan.

[10:06] » Excellent. Okay, just to kick us off,

[10:08] cuz as as the chair said earlier,

[10:10] um

[10:11] we have

[10:14] reached a point in our uh work planning

[10:15] just to really think about our

[10:16] trajectory as far as next steps. So, um

[10:19] I've developed a few slides just to lead

[10:20] that conversation. Next slide, please.

[10:23] So, again, this is just a reminder. So,

[10:25] it was interesting to, you know, think

[10:27] back to um our initial convening, which

[10:29] was held on November 4th.

[10:32] Um and then this group convened together

[10:34] in this room on December 3rd. And then

[10:36] currently we're scheduled to continue

[10:38] our our work until uh mid-June. So, I

[10:40] really wanted to think think on a couple

[10:42] things, really reflect on the past, and

[10:43] then really look towards the future. So,

[10:45] next slide, please, Megan.

[10:48] So, again, our scope, um really framing

[10:51] up how we provide input to City Council

[10:52] on policy recommendations

[10:55] that advance post-disaster housing

[10:56] stability efforts, that support

[10:59] temporary and permanent housing

[11:00] solutions, that support development of

[11:02] strategies to proactively address future

[11:04] displacement events, and then lastly,

[11:07] supporting City Council by helping

[11:09] residents navigate post-disaster housing

[11:11] challenges by communicating resources,

[11:13] funding opportunities. So, I know you

[11:15] all are are very familiar with this. Um

[11:17] next slide, please, Megan. But, I

[11:19] thought what we could do is really just

[11:21] reflect and kind of close the loop on

[11:23] some of the work activities that we've

[11:24] done thus far, and how that really um

[11:28] responds to those um

[11:31] stated deliverables. So, in in terms of

[11:33] the goal to provide input to City

[11:35] Council on policy recommendations to

[11:36] advance post-disaster housing, I really

[11:39] thought about this work of the this team

[11:42] to advise on the prioritization of the

[11:44] Renew NC program. So, you recall the

[11:46] state had an existing prioritization

[11:48] rubric, and this team further informed

[11:51] that, um, which we are using currently.

[11:54] Um, as a second, um, providing input on

[11:57] the development of strategies to

[11:59] proactively address future displacement

[12:01] events,

[12:02] um, I thought that aligned really well

[12:04] with some of the work that we discussed

[12:05] around the affordable housing

[12:07] multi-family investments,

[12:09] um, ultimately leading to a $17 million

[12:12] allocation in CDBG-DR funds.

[12:15] Um, and then lastly, providing input to

[12:17] City Council on recommendations that

[12:20] support temporary and permanent housing

[12:22] solutions for displaced residents. So,

[12:24] again, really drawing that connection,

[12:26] um, with the action that was taken

[12:28] around the Renew NC allocation. Um, so

[12:31] again, I as staff, I really find it

[12:33] important that we we

[12:35] um, ensure that I'm doing my work in in

[12:37] terms of sharing that information up to

[12:38] City Council when they deliberate on

[12:40] decisions, um, whether it's through

[12:41] themes of feedback that we've created or

[12:44] actual votes that have been taken. And

[12:46] so, those really stood out to me.

[12:49] Um, but if we go, uh, to next slide, we

[12:51] can really start thinking through the

[12:52] future. I wanted, uh, in working with,

[12:55] uh, the chair and and Andy sent out an

[12:57] email just to really start to chart our

[12:59] course forward. And so, here's kind of

[13:01] what we're going to be doing for the

[13:02] next couple of months.

[13:05] Um, today you're going to hear more from

[13:06] Robbie Bazo, who's on camera, um, about

[13:10] FEMA disaster data. And now, FEMA's

[13:13] interesting, we'll get into this. It

[13:14] looks back, so it really has that now

[13:16] clear picture of what happened and what

[13:19] those impacts were.

[13:21] Um, however, FEMA is limited in that we

[13:23] don't really know what's happening or

[13:24] how people have recovered today. So,

[13:26] we'll get into that, but it's a really

[13:28] clear picture looking backwards.

[13:30] But second, um

[13:32] we do have representatives from the

[13:34] Buncombe County Long-Term Recovery Group

[13:36] um that will be joining us shortly. I

[13:38] think they had a meeting um that was

[13:40] just up against this one, so I do expect

[13:42] that they'll walk through the doors

[13:43] um in due time uh to share really on the

[13:46] ground work that they're doing, so we

[13:48] can start to understand what's happening

[13:49] on the on the ground. Um then as another

[13:52] point of information about unmet needs,

[13:54] we're going to have Emily Ball with the

[13:56] Continuum of Care really talk us through

[13:58] the Point in Time Count really discuss

[14:00] some of the findings that they had um

[14:03] with that work and then talk about the

[14:04] strategic plan. Um again, just really

[14:07] trying to lay some strong groundwork for

[14:09] unmet needs so that we can again develop

[14:11] that into policy recommendations moving

[14:13] forward.

[14:14] So, if you go on the next slide, I also

[14:16] wanted to ground this in just the work

[14:17] of staff. As you all know, um our work

[14:20] feeds into um the work Hello, perfect

[14:23] timing. That's our our Long-Term

[14:24] Recovery Group um teammates who are

[14:26] joining us now.

[14:28] So, I just wanted to give you some

[14:29] insight into what our wonderful staff

[14:31] are doing and I have um

[14:33] Elma and Sasha both joining today just

[14:35] to take a listen.

[14:37] And so, right now we are working to

[14:39] implement the CDBG-DR multi-family

[14:41] housing investments. Um we did have some

[14:43] tax credit announcements that did occur.

[14:46] Um 319 Biltmore was funded. We're still

[14:48] awaiting results um for the Terrace at

[14:50] River Hills

[14:51] um which could be forthcoming in the in

[14:53] the next couple of months here. So, then

[14:55] our job is to get those agreements

[14:57] together. So, we go heads down in terms

[14:59] of really refining those legal

[15:00] agreements and making sure that we are

[15:01] being good partners to those projects as

[15:04] they get to the finish line. Um the

[15:07] second step is is very much ongoing

[15:10] communication and coordination to

[15:11] support the state's efforts with Renew

[15:13] and See. I know Elma is on calls um

[15:16] almost every other week with the state

[15:18] to really ensure monitoring and

[15:19] oversight of that program.

[15:22] Then lastly, I did want to start to

[15:24] forecast um some of the remaining work

[15:27] from our CDBGDR that's going to be the

[15:29] subject matter for the Housing Recovery

[15:31] Board. And that's our housing and

[15:33] economic security support services

[15:36] funding. Mouthful. You can just say HESS

[15:39] if you prefer.

[15:41] So, we are developing our approach to

[15:42] this program. Um this is the first

[15:44] mention of it to one of our boards.

[15:47] Um and so that's just a teaser to say

[15:49] we'll be coming back to this board to

[15:51] really flush out that that funding as it

[15:53] relates to housing services. If you want

[15:55] to do some advance homework, I welcome

[15:57] you to take a look at the action plan,

[15:59] which talks about the allocation to this

[16:01] program and some of the early insights

[16:04] um that we were using to frame up where

[16:06] we're heading with this program, but

[16:08] just uh look forward in the future that

[16:10] will be coming back to this board

[16:11] perhaps as soon as October um to start

[16:14] to discuss um some of that funding and

[16:16] some of the particulars. So, with that

[16:19] in mind, I think that was um next slide.

[16:21] I think that really wraps up my I just

[16:22] wanted to set the stage for today and

[16:24] happy to take any questions, but

[16:26] otherwise I'll turn it back over to the

[16:27] chair.

[16:29] So.

[16:30] Great.

[16:31] >> I'm actually just a just like a little

[16:32] question. I know that

[16:33] >> Absolutely.

[16:34] >> HESS conversation is down the road, but it's just helpful to understand

[16:37] what's coming. Like are those

[16:39] COC support services dollars that that

[16:42] would be coming? I haven't heard that

[16:44] term before, HESS.

[16:46] So, it's a particular subset of CDBGDR.

[16:48] >> Correct.

[16:49] >> Mhm.

[16:50] >> Okay.

[16:51] But it can only be used not for sticks

[16:52] and bricks. It has to be used for

[16:54] uh support services.

[16:56] >> So,

[16:58] Elma, do you want to

[17:00] tackle this one at very high level?

[17:02] She's our subject matter expert, so she

[17:03] knows everything always at the top of

[17:05] her head.

[17:06] >> Well, at a very high level it could be

[17:07] things like um referring folks to where

[17:10] there are available there is available

[17:12] housing. It's wrap-around services

[17:14] either for economic security or housing

[17:17] security. That's We haven't fleshed out

[17:19] further what we could do. You mentioned

[17:21] the COC, there's potential for engaging

[17:23] them on identifying what the needs and

[17:26] gaps are

[17:27] and then better flushing out what the

[17:29] program could do. But yes, it's

[17:30] wrap-around services, so related to

[17:32] housing, related to economic security

[17:33] support services, but not actually

[17:35] providing said

[17:37] housing.

[17:38] >> Okay.

[17:39] >> Great distinction and I can certainly

[17:41] follow up on that. So, whereas our other

[17:43] programs have been capital investments

[17:45] into housing, this is really the support

[17:47] services that wrap around, really

[17:48] support the individual individuals in in

[17:50] terms of either access to housing

[17:53] through case management, for example, or

[17:55] other services like that, legal services

[17:57] perhaps.

[17:58] So, again, that's still in development

[18:00] and we'll we'll be ready to come back in

[18:01] the coming months to dig in.

[18:03] >> So, I have a question.

[18:06] Are there any actual consumers or people

[18:09] that are impacted have been impacted by

[18:13] displacement by the hurricane that are

[18:16] still

[18:18] unhoused and having these problems, are

[18:20] they going to be part of this

[18:22] new program that you're projecting and

[18:25] creating because you can have all the

[18:27] people in the room you want that are

[18:30] developing ideas, but if you're not

[18:32] actually having the people in the room

[18:34] that it's impacting and having them

[18:36] being part of the solutions and the

[18:38] conversation, then it's void.

[18:41] >> Mhm.

[18:43] I think that's a great point and and

[18:46] from my perspective, this is why I

[18:48] really wanted to have the voice of the

[18:50] Buncombe

[18:52] long-term recovery group from their case

[18:54] managers today. So, I think perhaps we

[18:57] can revisit that when we hear from the

[18:59] case managers because what I want to get

[19:02] out of that conversation is to

[19:04] understand the themes that they're

[19:06] hearing, what they are hearing from

[19:08] those individuals, Um, is why today

[19:11] we'll hear from those case managers. So,

[19:12] we can certainly follow up with that as

[19:14] that conversation unfolds as our one of

[19:17] our later agenda items.

[19:23] » Nikki, so this program, I'm assuming

[19:26] next time when you bring it back in

[19:27] October, it's like this is the scope of

[19:29] services we're proposing and then we're

[19:31] going to go out and seek agencies to

[19:33] execute on that.

[19:34] >> It's

[19:35] >> do an RFP?

[19:36] >> certain, I mean, I'm generally speaking

[19:39] um, partnering with what we call

[19:40] subrecipients. So, yes, external

[19:42] agencies is often our best approach just

[19:45] given that we have such capacity in our

[19:46] community of nonprofits to really

[19:49] provide those services. So, from my

[19:51] mind, I'm already fairly certain that would be our recommendation. Um,

[19:55] there's of course always the opportunity

[19:56] for municipalities or governments to

[19:59] administer their own program, but again,

[20:01] I think with our capacity in our

[20:02] community, it's it's often the best

[20:04] approach to partner.

[20:06] >> So, what's the kind of time frame for

[20:07] rolling out the services? Is this sort

[20:09] of like first year kind of thing?

[20:12] >> That's that's currently what we're

[20:13] trying to do is is sequence within our

[20:15] work plan when we're ready to then

[20:18] provide that. So, right now, um, we do

[20:21] have a deadline of the end of the year

[20:22] to produce the the manual, so the policy

[20:25] manual for all the eligible activities,

[20:27] but then looking to early next year to

[20:30] really start the process. So, a notice

[20:32] of funding opportunity, soliciting

[20:34] applications, reviewing those

[20:36] applications and and so on and so forth.

[20:38] That's some of the work that we've been

[20:39] doing just this past week to really slot

[20:42] that in. But I we're thinking um, early

[20:44] next year, next half of next year is

[20:46] when we really want to see this program

[20:48] activate.

[20:49] >> Okay, great. Thank you.

[20:52] » Great. Thank you so much.

[20:54] >> I have one other comment, Nikki. I think

[20:57] it's really great that we're having a

[20:58] long-term recovery group here today. I'm

[21:01] really curious to see what they're what

[21:03] they're actually doing boots on the

[21:04] ground because we still have several

[21:07] people in the communities that have been

[21:09] trying to get housing that are still

[21:11] displaced that I've been working with

[21:14] for

[21:15] over 2 years coming against all kind of

[21:17] barriers. I don't remember seeing any of

[21:20] these groups being part of that support

[21:22] for them. So, I'm really curious to see

[21:24] what they have to what they have to say.

[21:27] >> Thank you.

[21:31] » Well, thank you, Nikki. Um and for

[21:33] everyone for their questions and

[21:35] feedback there.

[21:37] So, we have two more presentations

[21:39] today.

[21:40] I am going to hand it over to Robbie

[21:43] Bisote. Did I say that right?

[21:45] Um he is going to give a presentation on

[21:48] updated housing unmet needs presentation

[21:51] and we're a little ahead of ahead of

[21:53] schedule, so I'm keeping an eye on that,

[21:54] but I think we'll

[21:56] have till like at least 12:51. Robbie,

[22:00] is that

[22:01] enough time?

[22:01] >> Plenty of

[22:02] >> Okay. Cool. I want to make sure we have

[22:03] enough time for the last group, but uh

[22:04] thank you. Take it away.

[22:07] >> All right. Yes.

[22:08] Thank you for having me today here. I'm

[22:10] Robbie Bisote. I am the

[22:12] CDBGDR implementation consultant for the

[22:14] city assisting with disaster recovery.

[22:17] And so, today again we're talking about

[22:18] the housing unmet needs assessment and

[22:21] update. So, Megan, next slide for the

[22:23] overview.

[22:25] So, to understand the impacts of an

[22:28] unmet needs assessment, primarily you

[22:30] look at FEMA individual assistance data

[22:32] as the ability to understand housing

[22:34] impacts. Obviously,

[22:37] households, renters, homeowners apply to

[22:39] that access to the individual

[22:42] assistance. FEMA collects that data and

[22:44] from there they start doing inspections

[22:46] and verifications.

[22:48] Um so, early on when we did the unmet

[22:51] needs analysis, the original action plan

[22:53] amendment, we had 2025 FEMA individual

[22:56] data sets. And so, with the substantial

[22:59] action plan amendment that we put in, we

[23:01] had to basically look at updated FEMA

[23:03] individual assistance data, which was

[23:05] available

[23:07] January 2026.

[23:10] So, looking at unmet needs, it's a

[23:12] different calibration of

[23:14] SBA for economic development,

[23:16] infrastructure sometimes looking at FEMA

[23:18] public assistance or HMP, but housing

[23:20] inevitably you're using FEMA individual

[23:23] data sets to understand the impacts. So,

[23:26] this presentation is going to kind of go

[23:27] over the differences between owner

[23:28] occupants and tenants.

[23:31] Uh just to show you a different frame of

[23:32] reference, we had a total of 14,589

[23:36] owner occupants that uh applied to FEMA.

[23:39] We had 20,633

[23:42] renters that applied as of 2026. So,

[23:45] basically a 10% change in owner

[23:47] occupants from 2025 and about a 16%

[23:51] change in renters applying since 2025.

[23:54] Just to put it in frame of reference,

[23:55] the city of Asheville has a total of

[23:58] 93,000

[23:59] people in it.

[24:01] The average household size is 2.43.

[24:04] So, really you have about 38,486

[24:07] households. So, when you look at that

[24:09] combined aspect of renters and owners

[24:11] applying, essentially 91.52%

[24:15] of your households applied for FEMA

[24:17] individual assistance. You know, I've

[24:19] done this for a long time and I just

[24:20] want to applaud the city for

[24:22] you know, telling the public to apply

[24:24] that assistance because majority if not

[24:26] all of your applicants that within your

[24:28] population had the availability when it

[24:31] was there.

[24:32] Uh next slide.

[24:36] All right, so let's talk a little bit

[24:37] about the owner-occupied households.

[24:39] Now,

[24:40] with the uh updates in 2026, again

[24:42] there's now 14,589

[24:44] households that applied, but the issue

[24:47] with FEMA data is that it you're always

[24:49] playing catch-up, right? And so, because

[24:51] Asheville, you know, one of the fastest

[24:54] CDBG awards in history after an event,

[24:57] you're always playing in this kind of

[24:59] limbo period of playing where the FEMA you know FEMA PA, HMP is never in

[25:05] line when you're trying to create your

[25:07] unmet needs analysis, okay?

[25:09] So when we looked at the updated data

[25:11] set, we realized the changes between

[25:13] 2025 and the changes in 2026, FEMA had

[25:17] only inspected 30% of your

[25:19] owner-occupied households. And so when

[25:22] we're trying to create an unmet needs

[25:24] update for the substantial action plan

[25:26] amendment, we kind of had to make some

[25:27] assumptions in the absence of FEMA

[25:29] actually inspecting those properties.

[25:32] Because that is you know, math is math,

[25:33] right? 100% should have been inspected,

[25:35] they only inspected 30% which means 70%

[25:39] of the households out of the 14,000

[25:41] individuals did not have an inspection

[25:44] done. And so we try to do in the next

[25:46] chart is going to be a little flow and

[25:47] it's going to be a little more easier to

[25:48] understand. This is a lot of data, a lot

[25:50] to take in. But some key takeaways in

[25:53] this is that with the observed damages,

[25:55] had they inspected all properties,

[25:58] probably 2,181

[26:01] owner-occupied homes may have had

[26:03] substantial major damage and FEMA

[26:05] estimates that exceeding $8,000 in real

[26:08] property loss, okay?

[26:11] We then looked at the FEMA property

[26:13] insurance data as it relates to the

[26:15] inspected homes and how many of those

[26:17] houses either were uninsured or

[26:20] underinsured. So in these assumptions

[26:22] you're going to see in the chart next

[26:24] that about 286 households were either

[26:26] underinsured

[26:28] or uninsured, excuse me, or 1,900 of

[26:30] them being underinsured creating some

[26:32] significant recovery challenges. So with

[26:35] a culmination of this analysis, you're

[26:37] looking at somewhere in the

[26:38] approximation of $180 million in total

[26:41] unmet needs for housing,

[26:43] $123 million for those underinsured and

[26:46] $57 million for uninsured properties.

[26:49] But again, as Nikki just said, when we

[26:51] started off, FEMA does not tell us

[26:53] what's happened since then. So, if we

[26:56] create an action plan based on 2025 FEMA

[26:58] individual data sets, and we've got

[27:00] updated since January 2026, of course we

[27:03] did see that 10% 14% change in owner

[27:06] occupants and renters, but it doesn't

[27:08] tell the story about what has happened

[27:10] from recovery from these points, all

[27:12] right? So, next slide. To kind of put

[27:14] this in perspective, because those are

[27:16] key takeaways, we kind of just want to

[27:18] walk you through the kind of funnel

[27:20] chart of how we kind of re-updated the

[27:23] unmet needs based on the FEMA 2026 IA

[27:26] data set. So, we know for a fact there's

[27:29] 14,589

[27:31] owner occupants that applied. And so,

[27:34] FEMA inspected 30% of those, which would

[27:36] have been the 4,387

[27:39] uh households, because they did not

[27:42] actually uh inspect all of them. Of the ones they

[27:45] did inspect, 658%

[27:49] of them had something that was either

[27:51] $5,000 or more, but not destroyed, okay?

[27:56] So, again, this is

[27:58] key takeaways here. We're making

[27:59] assumptions based on the absence of FEMA

[28:02] inspecting everything, all right? So, in

[28:05] that assumption,

[28:07] had they inspected all the properties,

[28:08] there could have been somewhere around

[28:10] 2188 owner occupants that received some

[28:13] type of damage above $5,000, but not

[28:17] destroyed. And I then have to then

[28:19] ascertain out of the properties that

[28:21] they did inspect, how many of those

[28:24] properties were either uninsured

[28:26] or underinsured. And so, that's where

[28:28] you see this kind of flowchart, right?

[28:30] Still using assumptions based on the

[28:33] data that we had,

[28:34] it would probably arrive at somewhere

[28:36] around 286 households that have that

[28:38] kind of major damage, which would

[28:40] constitute about a $57 million unmet

[28:43] need.

[28:44] In retrospect, you're basically

[28:46] um subtracting the two 2,188 from the

[28:50] uninsured leaves you approximately 1,900

[28:53] people uninsured. Now, there's a vast

[28:56] difference that you have to understand

[28:57] in underinsured and uninsured, okay?

[29:01] In every one of these scenarios, if a

[29:03] person did in fact get an estimate and

[29:06] get some type of physical loss, FEMA

[29:08] most likely gave them some type of

[29:10] repair assistance, okay? So, as we know

[29:13] or may not know, any type of FEMA

[29:16] individual repair assistance will be

[29:17] counted as a duplication of benefit.

[29:19] It's available for the recovery effort

[29:22] in another different type of CDBG funded

[29:23] program. Where the uninsured issue

[29:26] happens is that with uninsured, even

[29:30] with the FEMA individual assistance and

[29:32] you not having any personal property

[29:34] insurance as an additional buffer, your

[29:36] cost of recovery is going to be more.

[29:38] It's most likely going to have a gap of

[29:40] somewhere about a $200,000 unmet need.

[29:43] On the other hand, people who were

[29:45] uninsured, typically uninsured means

[29:47] that they went with a very high

[29:49] deductible insurance plan and the

[29:52] fortunate fact is what the HUD Universal

[29:54] data says is that a deductible in and of

[29:57] itself, the homeowner's responsibility

[30:00] is not counted as a duplication of

[30:02] benefit. It's only what insurance

[30:04] actually paid. So, then they do have

[30:07] that private property insurance as a

[30:09] means to be able to recover along with

[30:11] probably some type of FEMA

[30:13] individual assistance for repair awards

[30:16] so. Again, this is a point in time it

[30:18] does not tell you what's happened since

[30:20] the recovery effort. It doesn't happen

[30:21] what's happening through philanthropic

[30:23] money, through different means, through

[30:25] private property insurance, through the

[30:27] means of being able to recover with the

[30:28] FEMA individual assistance repair award.

[30:30] It's just a point in time. So, but I

[30:32] think more grounded in truth is what we

[30:35] know at least for ones that were

[30:37] actually inspected because

[30:39] and I you know, we really are trying to

[30:41] address the uh the LMI community uh in

[30:44] the owner-occupied uh setting. So, Megan

[30:47] place, next slide.

[30:49] So, to talk about this, is those are

[30:51] again our ascertains. Again, we have the

[30:53] ability to make ascertains in updating

[30:55] unmet needs analysis. Is it a way that

[30:58] HUD allowed us to move forward with

[30:59] substantial action plan amendment and

[31:01] adopting that substantial action plan

[31:03] amendment with that unmet need analysis.

[31:06] But, really ground truth in that into

[31:07] the individuals that primarily are going

[31:09] to be the hardest to uh to recover,

[31:12] right? Your LMI community. So,

[31:14] before we get too too far into like,

[31:17] what does damage levels mean, right?

[31:19] Because we're going to talk a little bit

[31:20] about renters in a second, but

[31:22] owner-occupants have a vastly different

[31:24] categorization of

[31:26] uh damage than renters do.

[31:29] But, the way that FEMA constitutes

[31:31] damage is severe, minor high, minor low, You see that on

[31:36] the chart there. And so, what that

[31:37] basically says, and HUD also says that

[31:40] you primarily only look at three main

[31:43] categories when you're doing an unmet

[31:44] needs assessment. And that's severe,

[31:47] major high, major low. So, when looking

[31:50] at this, you have about 200 You have 23

[31:53] people in that kind of severe or

[31:54] destroyed aspect. You know, I cannot

[31:57] tell you whether or not they're they're the uninsured or underinsured

[32:00] aspect of it cuz that it's

[32:02] Every It's not a guarantee to see that data in that

[32:05] data set. The next 134, the next 196.

[32:09] So, in in reality,

[32:11] you have a 153

[32:13] households that are LMI that have some

[32:17] type of damage that would either

[32:18] constitute a reconstruction or some type

[32:20] of rehabilitation. Now, considering that

[32:23] and in the absence of us understanding

[32:25] that kind of recalibration of

[32:27] assumptions in the number of the 2,188,

[32:31] I can't tell you how many of those might

[32:33] be LMI. I'm just ground truthing in what

[32:35] I know right now. 153 households in

[32:38] those major categories that you really

[32:40] want to focus on. Now, you know, and you

[32:42] guys talked a little bit about the

[32:43] prioritization of the state level in the

[32:45] ReBuild NC program, and it's kind of

[32:47] trending in lines that kind of that

[32:48] right around number about the ones that

[32:50] applied. So, whether they applied

[32:52] through the ReBuild NC program or were

[32:54] able to recover on their own through

[32:55] other private uh private property

[32:57] insurance needs or FEMA individual

[32:58] repair needs, you are maybe addressing

[33:01] some of those either within ReBuild

[33:02] program, private property insurance, or

[33:05] through the philanthropic on the ground

[33:07] uh recovery that's inherently happened

[33:09] uh since the tropical storm Helene.

[33:12] Uh but then let's talk about

[33:14] >> interrupt to say

[33:15] >> Great. I'll just interrupt to say like

[33:16] so, you know, when I see these numbers,

[33:18] for me again, it reflects a lot of I

[33:20] think what we saw as we were looking at

[33:23] the dashboards that we were receiving

[33:24] from ReBuild NC about the number of

[33:27] applications they were receiving. So,

[33:29] again, I think a lot of especially if we

[33:31] look at the severe FEMA verified loss,

[33:34] like if if you were are are low income

[33:36] and experienced significant loss, it is

[33:38] likely that you are applying to these

[33:41] programs of assistance. So, this again

[33:44] for me represents

[33:46] with, you know, assumptions that and

[33:48] caveats that Robbie has shared, but this

[33:50] does represent the impact to homeowners

[33:52] for our low-to-moderate income sub-sect.

[33:55] So, keeping our eye on this like as a

[33:58] pretty clear picture of of what kind of

[34:02] um low-income owner household impacts

[34:05] were experienced across our city. So,

[34:07] just keep that in mind as we again

[34:09] reflect on on on the investments that

[34:11] we've made with ReBuild NC, but then

[34:13] think through what the long-term

[34:14] recovery group is doing and how um how

[34:17] those impacts will continue to show up

[34:20] and and how to address those. So,

[34:22] thanks, Robbie.

[34:23] >> And

[34:23] also, um is it okay if we ask questions

[34:26] during? I just want to open up the floor

[34:27] if anyone else has any questions. There

[34:29] is lots of numbers up here, so I didn't

[34:31] want to

[34:32] save all questions. I just wanted to say

[34:34] that if anyone has anything now

[34:37] ask that rather than just waiting

[34:38] afterwards.

[34:39] >> Can I ask the clarifying question? When

[34:42] you say FEMA individual assistance, I

[34:45] guess the number like 92% of households

[34:48] applied for this, that kind of made me

[34:50] think is this referring to or does this

[34:53] include that $750

[34:56] that individuals could apply for?

[34:59] >> It absolutely does and that's I was

[35:01] going to get to that point in a second

[35:02] and when when you start seeing

[35:04] is this same slide for household is it

[35:07] low to low to moderate slide still up on

[35:09] the on the on

[35:10] >> Yeah, we're looking at the low to

[35:11] moderate income households impacts,

[35:13] yeah.

[35:14] >> So let's let's look at that very very

[35:16] last line cuz I mean you're probably

[35:17] thinking wow 4,740

[35:20] LMI households are it's a big number but

[35:24] in reality they probably just got that

[35:26] food stipend, you know, I mean the

[35:28] number between that you're probably

[35:30] totally talking about a hundred maybe

[35:32] that had somewhere between a thousand to

[35:34] three thousand dollars in in in loss and

[35:37] I mean

[35:38] typically when FEMA individual

[35:40] assistance repair awards we give give

[35:42] that to them it's only going to be a

[35:44] couple thousand dollars cuz in reality

[35:46] that's what it probably takes just for

[35:47] the minor cosmetic aspects of what

[35:49] actually happened to their to the real

[35:51] property loss. A lot of those numbers

[35:54] are just people truly getting that that

[35:55] stipend.

[35:56] >> Right.

[35:56] >> You know.

[35:57] >> Then follow up question.

[36:00] Like for example, I I applied and got

[36:02] that $750

[36:04] stipend at the time. I did not have any

[36:07] property damage. So

[36:10] is there any like selective bias where

[36:14] like does does FEMA inspect more of the

[36:18] households that reported property

[36:20] damage? Like is there a skewing in we're

[36:23] saying you know 15% I think that's the

[36:25] right number. 15% of the households that

[36:28] FEMA

[36:30] looked at their structure. Um

[36:35] >> 30% inspections. I mean, here's

[36:38] >> Also, they inspected 30% of the total

[36:41] applicants, but then they only found

[36:43] that a certain percent of that 30%

[36:46] actually had structural damage. So, is

[36:48] that 30% that got

[36:51] physically evaluated? Does that

[36:55] Did they look more at the households

[36:57] that reported damage? My [clears throat]

[36:59] point here is wondering

[37:02] is it right to apply the assumption that a certain

[37:09] percentage of households likely have

[37:11] this structural damage if there was a

[37:13] bias in only evaluating households with

[37:17] that reported structural damage?

[37:20] I hope that makes

[37:20] >> necessarily I wouldn't go straight to

[37:22] the bias aspect of it because, you know,

[37:27] but

[37:28] if there's not enough boots on the

[37:29] ground, I mean, remember this is just

[37:32] this is Asheville's

[37:34] I data. This is not Buncombe. This is

[37:36] not in Western North Carolina. So, you

[37:39] only have so many people that can do

[37:42] inspections, you know? And so, where you

[37:45] they do it Yeah, they inevitably they

[37:47] will inspect the ones where a person had

[37:49] self-reported damage, but it could have

[37:51] just been some of them got missed. But

[37:53] you're also dealing with

[37:54] a federal data set that people are

[37:56] filling out on the fields. There's

[37:57] inaccuracies in all that, you know? But

[38:00] what this doesn't show is what we

[38:03] and inevitably what the ReNew and See

[38:05] program has is something called a DOB

[38:07] database. So, that is more up-to-date so

[38:11] that if a person does apply and that

[38:12] we're missing that that linkage of that

[38:14] inspection and it didn't actually occur,

[38:16] they have access to be able to

[38:18] understand that to infer any type of

[38:20] duplication of benefit they might give

[38:21] for a repair award. I just don't see

[38:23] this. I'm not able to get see that in this in that data. But

[38:27] I wouldn't go to the bias route. I think it was manpower just the not

[38:31] enough inspectors in the field to be

[38:32] able to do everything they needed to do,

[38:34] you know? But I mean, but you see, I

[38:35] mean, from a year's difference, you had,

[38:39] you know,

[38:40] 17% more renters apply, right? They They

[38:43] typically don't do a lot of inspections

[38:45] for renters cuz typically those are

[38:46] going to you're going to see this in the

[38:47] next slide is a lot of apartments.

[38:49] Um but you did have a 17% increase in

[38:53] owner occupants. That kind of probably

[38:55] ticked up to you probably getting

[38:57] another 2% from that from It was

[38:58] probably It was probably 28%. So they

[39:00] did about 2% more inspections in that in

[39:03] that additional $10,000 and 10,000 um

[39:06] people added to the the um

[39:08] the individual homeowners, you know?

[39:10] >> [clears throat]

[39:11] >> Um

[39:12] I mean, as it's it's it's it's the best

[39:14] available data that we have, you know?

[39:17] Um I mean, I think the resources

[39:19] collectively as a team, you know, the

[39:21] long-term recovery group, you know, the

[39:23] different uh COCs, the philanthropic um

[39:26] on the ground to the ears are going to

[39:28] be able to fill some type of unknown

[39:29] gaps of with the absence of FEMA FEMA

[39:31] data is not going to be able to tell

[39:32] you, you know?

[39:35] » Great. Thanks, Robbie. And just um

[39:38] for Logan, if you can turn our speakers

[39:42] up just a little in this room, that'll

[39:43] be helpful. We're struggling just a

[39:45] little bit to hear in the room if that's

[39:47] possible. But sorry to interrupt,

[39:48] Robbie. Why don't you go on to the next

[39:50] part cuz I do think um unpacking the

[39:52] renter impact is also going to help

[39:54] complete the picture of our housing uh

[39:57] situation. So, let's keep going.

[40:00] >> Absolutely. So, the renter household

[40:02] actually accounts for your largest uh

[40:05] population for individual assistance. Um

[40:08] 220,600

[40:09] individuals. 61% of those individuals

[40:12] are LMI households. But to your point,

[40:15] uh Eloise Eloise,

[40:18] Um

[40:19] what we're looking at is substantial

[40:20] impacts beyond the water and power

[40:22] outages because

[40:24] in the absence of you actually having

[40:26] any personal property loss, which we're

[40:28] going to talk about on this FEMA looks

[40:29] at renters a little bit different, all

[40:31] right? Most of these individuals got the

[40:33] stipend, right? So, we really want to

[40:34] look beyond the water and power outages.

[40:36] That's That's typically what it would

[40:37] have would have gotten that stipend for.

[40:39] So, with that, we had 1,827 renter

[40:42] households with documented personal

[40:44] property damage. Of those, 63% were low

[40:47] to moderate, or 1,159 households. The

[40:51] remaining unmet renter need appears to

[40:52] be concentrated primarily on 424

[40:55] impacted LMI households living in rental

[40:58] houses and duplexes. I want to focus on

[41:00] rental houses and duplexes to show you

[41:02] even more in this next slide. And then

[41:04] we're going to talk about 47 households

[41:06] with the most significant property

[41:07] losses within that category of single

[41:10] family and duplexes.

[41:12] Um so, the next slide.

[41:15] So, these are truth, right? So, these

[41:17] are 20,633.

[41:21] Um

[41:22] again, FEMA did not inspect all of

[41:25] these, but with that, we do know where

[41:27] they live, right? So, we do know what

[41:29] their income is. 61% of those 12,000

[41:32] were LMI, 24% non-LMI, and because this

[41:36] is a voluntary question that you don't

[41:38] have to answer, you had about 3,000

[41:40] people, or 14% of the individuals not

[41:43] reporting their income. Now,

[41:45] it's it's really evident, you know,

[41:47] where you live matters because where you

[41:51] live is how it the the facility in and

[41:54] of itself recovers. So,

[41:56] 52% of those 20,000 people live in

[41:59] apartment complexes, okay?

[42:01] Apartment complexes inherently have

[42:03] private property insurance. They recover

[42:05] through that private property insurance.

[42:07] They don't usually They don't get FEMA

[42:09] individual assistance to do that. Of

[42:11] course, there is a rapid multi-family

[42:13] program that is offered through FEMA.

[42:15] I'm not sure if any of them took

[42:16] advantage of that, but at we've looked

[42:18] through the Bowan study, we've looked

[42:20] through the different reoccupying of the

[42:23] LIHTC deals, the market rate

[42:26] developments, and a lot of those have

[42:27] recovered. So, in essence,

[42:29] the renters have had the opportunity to

[42:31] be rehoused under the means of private

[42:33] property insurance. Now, the issue with

[42:36] individual living in duplexes and and

[42:38] housing and single-family housing, 33%

[42:41] of them,

[42:42] they can't recover, right? I mean, the

[42:44] landlord is the person who has to

[42:46] recover. In the absence of the landlord

[42:47] having insurance for the coverage of it,

[42:51] they might not have the ability to still

[42:52] occupy that house, right? And then the

[42:55] other combined types, it's a misnumber

[42:56] in there. You have dorm rooms, military

[42:59] housing, nursing centers, a lot of

[43:01] different combined weird and it's Again,

[43:03] this is FEMA data. You're it's you're

[43:04] beholden to the person checking the

[43:06] right box of who's actually applying

[43:08] somewhere. So, I really want to focus on

[43:10] those uh those housing and duplexes uh

[43:13] so, the next slide because you know,

[43:14] we're talking about the you know, the

[43:16] assistance to low to moderate

[43:18] households. Uh next slide.

[43:20] We want to look a little bit about what

[43:22] is their impacts related to their

[43:24] personal property loss. Now, I mentioned

[43:26] earlier that, you know, FEMA has a way

[43:29] of defining things on an owner basis.

[43:31] It's vastly different from a renter

[43:33] basis.

[43:34] So, on an owner basis, they look at what

[43:36] is the damage relative to the real

[43:38] property loss, and they categorize those

[43:40] in the same way, severe, minor high,

[43:43] minor low, minor, and so on.

[43:44] The way that FEMA constitutes um damages

[43:47] for renters, it's based on their

[43:49] personal property loss.

[43:51] And just to kind of put it like in a

[43:53] crosswalk, okay? Let's focus on major

[43:56] high. So, if a person, a renter,

[43:59] is major high, they have a $5,500 to a

[44:02] $9,000 personal property loss. That's

[44:05] equatable

[44:06] to if you look at the structure damage

[44:09] on the owner occupant side of a house

[44:11] having somewhere between 15,000 and

[44:13] 28,800

[44:15] dollars in real property loss. So that

[44:18] tells you that that house most likely is

[44:21] either on the cusp of a reconstruction

[44:23] or definitely needs rehabilitation.

[44:25] Okay? So as you see here, the

[44:28] apartments, yes, inherently you have a a

[44:30] large number of individuals in LMI

[44:32] living in apartments, but like I said,

[44:34] majority of those individuals have

[44:36] probably been rehoused through the

[44:38] ability for those private property

[44:40] insurance claims to be able to bring

[44:41] those apartment units back online. Where

[44:44] we need to focus attention on are

[44:45] housing and duplexes. So of the ones

[44:48] that you typically want to care you

[44:49] really want to look at it is typically

[44:51] like the HUD wants severe, major high,

[44:54] major low, and they kind of stop there

[44:56] in the unmet needs analysis, but I don't

[44:58] want to look overlook the individuals

[45:00] that are in the minor high cuz $2,500 to

[45:03] $3,400 in personal property loss could

[45:06] be something that is their car got

[45:08] flooded or they probably got some type

[45:11] of water on the first floor to damage

[45:13] some type of furniture. So there FEMA

[45:15] gives them an award for personal

[45:17] property loss to be able to help them

[45:18] recover from a from a loss perspective

[45:20] for their personal property, but it does

[45:22] not allow them the opportunity to have

[45:24] the house rehab. It has to be done

[45:26] through other means. So

[45:28] with that, you know, early on in the key

[45:30] takeaways, I talked about 424 people

[45:33] living in those housing duplexes that I

[45:34] really want to focus

[45:36] the attention on those 47 renter

[45:38] households. That's going to be the ones

[45:39] that are in major high, major low, and

[45:42] minor high. Uh and just giving you an

[45:44] option an opportunity to understand how

[45:46] they probably may have been served uh is

[45:49] in the next slide.

[45:50] So um I'm very familiar

[45:53] >> put a fine point on that cuz just again,

[45:55] my takeaway as and at least this kind of

[45:57] goes back to what you're saying earlier.

[45:59] So when we look Let me go back just a

[46:01] second. when

[46:03] again, looking at this, understanding

[46:05] that personal property damage that

[46:07] renters experienced,

[46:10] as as Alisa said earlier, you can see in

[46:12] that minor low, it's likely that, you

[46:14] know, the the the power outage, the

[46:16] water outage caused that damage, right?

[46:19] So, fridge went out, lost all the food,

[46:21] freezer went out. That's where we're

[46:23] seeing that. But again, like trying then

[46:25] to zero in on where were impacts felt

[46:28] that maybe does not have a clear line of

[46:31] recovery, right? And so, again, as as

[46:34] Robbie points out, trying to understand,

[46:36] well, what is happening in the framework

[46:38] of single-family or landlord-owned

[46:41] single houses or duplexes, what are

[46:43] their options for recovery? Because our

[46:45] programs have been focused on

[46:48] single-family homeowner-occupied, right?

[46:50] And new rental construction. But then,

[46:53] what is what is what is there for people

[46:55] who have been renting whole houses that

[46:57] may or may not have recovered. Um

[46:59] And then, yes, when Robbie and I were

[47:00] talking about this, you know, one thing

[47:02] that we're tracking now is Renew NC's

[47:04] program for that underserved population.

[47:09] So, they are And And Robbie, take it

[47:10] away. I'll let you kind of walk us

[47:11] through this, and then we'll wrap up,

[47:13] cuz we have just a couple more slides.

[47:14] >> here as well.

[47:15] >> Yeah, go ahead.

[47:16] >> Does housing impact include things like

[47:18] private roads and bridges or access to

[47:20] the home?

[47:22] >> Um that would be

[47:24] it would be that would be typically the

[47:27] responsibility It depends on if it's a state-owned road, uh which

[47:33] >> private road, like driveway.

[47:35] >> Yeah, private road. I mean, you know,

[47:37] under the Renew NC program, they do

[47:40] allow a private property road to be a

[47:43] component of the

[47:44] eligible expense if it's the necessary

[47:46] egress for them to to leave it. But from

[47:49] the renter household perspective, I

[47:52] don't think that program

[47:55] I don't speak

[47:56] I don't know enough about

[47:58] the small rental program, but I don't

[48:00] think that was a component of that

[48:01] particular program. But it was something

[48:03] for the owner occupied um

[48:05] >> So it's included in these numbers here?

[48:08] >> Um for the renter for the LMI renter

[48:10] households?

[48:11] >> Yeah, access to their property or to

[48:14] their

[48:14] >> No, it's it's not

[48:17] but I can do some more research. I can

[48:19] get back to you on that. I mean, you

[48:21] know, I ran a very very similar program

[48:23] to this in Louisiana called the

[48:24] Louisiana neighbor neighborhood program.

[48:27] Um we it was a $47 million program that

[48:29] we did about 339 units out of it. Um

[48:33] what's different in this program is that

[48:35] if you if you go to the

[48:37] Let's go to the renewal one. The

[48:38] difference in this program is $57

[48:40] million.

[48:41] They have capped max caps awarded

[48:43] $450,000

[48:45] per project. So that's where I'm

[48:47] thinking maybe they do have the right away access to those roads if

[48:51] you're saying that up to $1.5 million

[48:53] could be an eligible project because

[48:55] typically the fourplexes don't

[48:58] necessarily need $1.5 million to cover

[49:00] so maybe they do have access roads that

[49:02] I could look look more into that to see

[49:03] what the eligible uses could be.

[49:06] Um

[49:07] >> [snorts]

[49:07] >> And then I'll I'll just share too. So

[49:09] when we So this program is now the

[49:12] application period is has concluded as far as I understand and we're just

[49:17] tracking again, this is a a public

[49:19] dashboard that Renew and See populates

[49:21] on their website. You can hover over the

[49:23] different counties and we saw that 32

[49:26] applications have been received for

[49:27] Buncombe County.

[49:29] So it's just again a point of reference.

[49:31] Um

[49:32] And I think just checking time right

[49:34] quick Robbie, any final questions? This

[49:36] was the conclusion of Robbie's slide and

[49:38] then we'll turn it over to Buncombe

[49:39] County's

[49:40] >> Yeah, I think

[49:41] >> [clears throat]

[49:41] >> the bigger impact for these renters is

[49:44] that where you see property personal

[49:46] property damage, you saw likely saw

[49:48] property damage which isn't covered by

[49:50] this program, but these were all

[49:52] low-to-moderate income households,

[49:54] likely renting in older apartments as

[49:57] those landlords made improvements to

[50:00] those important apartments and the

[50:01] leases came up for renewals, the rents

[50:04] went up. And what we're seeing is that

[50:05] people are being displaced because they

[50:07] can't afford the increase in rents.

[50:10] So, this

[50:11] that property damage and then the

[50:13] insurance coverage for it is creating

[50:14] displacement in the community amongst

[50:16] this group of people and that's a lot of

[50:18] people just to displace. If you go back

[50:20] to the slides, I mean

[50:22] you could you know, if you got even amongst those people who

[50:27] are down in the lowest category, you

[50:29] could have water damage in units, people

[50:31] are coming and replacing ceilings,

[50:33] painting units, replacing appliances,

[50:35] and then those apartments all become

[50:37] unaffordable.

[50:39] And I think that's the real crisis

[50:40] that's occurred in the community for

[50:41] those individuals. It's not the loss of

[50:44] a couch, it's the loss of their unit.

[50:47] >> Absolutely agree.

[50:48] >> Right, cuz cuz that's what we were

[50:50] correlating, right? Is that what we're

[50:53] seeing here is your personal property

[50:54] damage, whether it's your couch or your

[50:56] you know, materials in your home, your

[50:57] stuff.

[50:58] >> Right.

[50:58] >> But really that correlation of dwelling

[51:00] damage is is is is got to be very high.

[51:03] So, when you see a lot of property

[51:04] personal property damage, you got to

[51:06] know that that structure's got to be

[51:08] >> Yes.

[51:08] >> challenged, too.

[51:09] >> And then once you rehab a unit, then you

[51:12] can charge more money for it. It's not a

[51:14] $1,100 a month unit, it's a $1,400 a

[51:16] month unit.

[51:17] >> Yeah, the beauty of the renewal and CDBG

[51:20] program is that the any person partaking

[51:22] as a landlord in this program would have

[51:25] to have a 10-year affordability

[51:27] commitment on the on the unit that

[51:29] served. So,

[51:31] um while those person those individual

[51:33] might have been displaced because their

[51:36] unit was became you know,

[51:38] uninhabitable, with the actual

[51:41] rehabilitation reconstruction of this

[51:43] single-family duplex street tri's or

[51:45] quads,

[51:47] the landlords have to rent to LMI

[51:51] households and it's rent restricted for

[51:53] 10 years in that program.

[51:57] » But that's the

[51:57] >> So you really want to bring more of

[51:58] those programs

[51:59] >> 32 households that got covered by that

[52:01] program?

[52:01] >> Well, that's Yeah.

[52:03] >> Yeah. That's what it was.

[52:04] >> No one's covered yet.

[52:06] >> It's just in in application. So

[52:08] um

[52:11] Okay.

[52:12] I'm keeping time for you, Josh. So if we

[52:14] need to move on um

[52:16] >> That seems okay.

[52:17] >> Yeah. Uh thank you, Robbie, for that.

[52:19] was really helpful. Um I think it'd

[52:21] be good cuz we got public comments still

[52:24] and it'd be good to make sure that we

[52:25] give um LTRG at least 20 minutes. So

[52:29] thank you, Robbie. Um

[52:31] for the next

[52:33] presentation here, um

[52:36] we are going to have a uh presentation

[52:38] from the long-term recovery group.

[52:40] They'll have 20 minutes.

[52:42] Um and uh Sarah Roth will be doing the

[52:44] presentation. Um

[52:46] >> Great. It's

[52:48] 12:55. So we'll have like at least until

[52:50] 1:15.

[52:51] >> Okay. And that's for the full thing

[52:53] including

[52:54] both parts, right?

[52:55] >> Yeah.

[52:55] >> Okay.

[52:56] >> Yeah. I think we can go like a hair over

[52:58] if we need to.

[52:59] How much public comment do we do we

[53:00] have?

[53:01] >> We No, we don't really We don't have too

[53:03] much public comment.

[53:04] >> Oh, yeah. So we can go a little past

[53:05] that.

[53:06] >> Past that's fine. And is it okay um um

[53:08] like the other presentation to ask

[53:10] questions during?

[53:11] >> Totally.

[53:11] >> Okay. Great.

[53:12] >> Yeah.

[53:13] Great. Awesome. Well, thanks for having

[53:14] me. Um my name is Sarah Roth. I'm the

[53:17] interim executive director for the

[53:19] Buncombe County Long-Term Recovery

[53:20] Group. I'm also the senior director of

[53:22] community resilience at United Way. So I

[53:25] kind of wear dual hats um in this role.

[53:28] Um and yeah, if you want to just go

[53:30] ahead and go to the first slide, I

[53:31] wanted to give a little bit of sort of

[53:33] context setting around sort of who we

[53:35] are and what we do.

[53:36] Um and a lot of what we think about, we

[53:39] really handle household level recovery.

[53:42] So it's really on that individual basis.

[53:44] Households apply if they need

[53:46] assistance, and then we're working with

[53:47] them through the process. So, our

[53:49] process, we think of it as a four-step

[53:51] process. We have our intake. Um it is an

[53:54] online form that captures their

[53:56] household information, demographics, um

[54:00] their damage self-reported damage

[54:02] assessment. Um and then we basically

[54:05] take that information, and it gets

[54:06] prioritized based on the household. So,

[54:09] looking at factors, is it a household

[54:11] with children? Is it a household with

[54:13] seniors? Did they have severe damage or

[54:15] minor damage? Did they get insurance?

[54:17] All those things sort of roll up into

[54:19] somebody's prioritization.

[54:21] And then we take that and then determine

[54:24] their eligibility for um full case

[54:26] management. Um and so, we have different

[54:29] case management agencies. So, like Nikki

[54:32] said earlier, if we've so many different

[54:33] partners in our community that are

[54:35] already doing work, we're partnering

[54:37] with a lot of those agencies to provide

[54:39] wraparound case management services. So,

[54:42] once we sort of get a case out a

[54:44] household out to our partners, they then

[54:47] work with them to identify what are

[54:48] their remaining needs. Let's develop a

[54:50] recovery plan and help them see through

[54:53] getting connected to recovery resources.

[54:56] So, right now, um we have a couple

[54:58] different recovery resources that are

[55:00] available. So, we do have a construction

[55:03] um program. It is not us doing direct

[55:06] construction work. Again, it's a partner

[55:08] network of construction partners. So,

[55:11] we're working with places like Fuller

[55:13] Center, Disaster Rebuilders, Valley Hope

[55:15] Foundation, a number of different

[55:17] agencies that we can then say, "Here's

[55:20] this household. We have this identified

[55:22] need." and match them with that partner.

[55:24] Um we have data sharing agreements with

[55:26] both FEMA and renew. Um and so, when a

[55:30] case comes in, we are able to match with

[55:32] the FEMA data, so we can then identify

[55:34] what this person has received from FEMA.

[55:37] And then we also have a part a data

[55:38] sharing with Renew, so that we can

[55:40] understand is this somebody that's

[55:42] already in the Renew pipeline, so we

[55:44] just need to support them with case

[55:46] management, or is it someone that was

[55:48] denied or withdrew from Renew and get an

[55:51] understanding of why that is and then

[55:53] figure out what partner we might want to

[55:54] what match them with.

[55:56] Then we have TRA assistance, so the

[55:58] temporary relocation assistance. So,

[56:01] this is really moving needs, storage

[56:04] needs,

[56:05] um and in the future we'll have some

[56:07] temporary rental assistance that's just

[56:10] while someone is going through the

[56:11] rebuild time frame. Um so, it's really

[56:14] to cover that bridge funding, and a lot

[56:17] of these referrals we're getting from

[56:18] Renew. So, Renew can cover the overnight

[56:22] cost of somebody who is in their program

[56:25] and has to be out of their unit while

[56:28] the rebuild is happening. They cannot be

[56:30] or the repair, they cannot be in their

[56:31] unit, so they have to vacate the home.

[56:34] They're then the they're paying for the

[56:36] overnight cost, but any of the moving

[56:39] truck, a storage unit, anything like

[56:41] that is not covered. So, those referrals

[56:44] are coming to us to help meet that need

[56:46] either through volunteer support or

[56:48] through financial assistance.

[56:51] We also then have a fund available for

[56:52] moving supplies and try to connect

[56:54] people to if they need a mattress or a

[56:57] washer dryer, something like that, so we

[56:59] have that available. And then we do have

[57:01] a bucket of sort of

[57:03] flexible financial assistance, right?

[57:05] Where it's those

[57:08] last minute needs that are still

[57:10] unaddressed that they weren't able to

[57:11] meet either through their FEMA

[57:13] assistance or they didn't apply or

[57:14] anything like that, we can help them

[57:16] meet those remaining needs for those

[57:18] homes.

[57:19] >> I think I see one one question up there.

[57:22] Elise, do you have a question?

[57:23] >> Yes, um I'm sorry if I missed this, but

[57:25] is is the long-term recovery group part

[57:28] of the Buncombe County government or is

[57:30] this a different organization that's

[57:33] >> Yeah, it's different. Yeah, so

[57:36] we are separate right now. United Way is

[57:38] the fiscal sponsor and staffing partner

[57:41] for this and it is a collaboration of a

[57:44] number of different partner

[57:45] organizations who are all doing the

[57:47] work.

[57:49] This all began sort of really quickly

[57:51] after the storm. FEMA approached United

[57:54] Way and was basically like, "So,

[57:56] typically after a storm a long-term

[57:58] recovery group forms." Right? We're

[58:00] like, "I've never heard of this before."

[58:02] Learned a lot about it, tried to figure

[58:04] it out and it's really to cover the gaps

[58:06] that FEMA leaves behind in essence,

[58:08] right? We know FEMA assistance does not

[58:10] cover enough

[58:12] and so it's really trying to connect

[58:14] with a lot of the community partners who

[58:16] are doing the work. We have a lot of

[58:19] agencies that came into our community

[58:21] who are doing rebuilds or providing

[58:23] support. We have a lot of kind of

[58:25] homegrown organizations that started up

[58:27] right after the storm and so this is a

[58:29] network of folks that are trying to all

[58:31] work together. So, it's it's supporting

[58:33] that household journey and then bringing

[58:35] those partners together so everyone is

[58:37] working together.

[58:39] >> And what is the source of funding?

[58:42] >> We have a number of different sources.

[58:45] It's all Right now, it's all grants. So,

[58:47] we have a large grant from Red Cross

[58:49] right now which is our predominant

[58:51] source but we have other grants from

[58:53] Dogwood, from United Way North Carolina,

[58:56] the United Way here, WNC Bridge

[58:58] Foundation. So, we have small buckets

[59:01] from different sources but it's all

[59:03] private dollars so there's no state or

[59:05] federal funding for it.

[59:07] >> Thank you very much.

[59:08] >> Yeah.

[59:09] >> Okay, so I have a question.

[59:12] So, you're saying that I know that you

[59:15] say you get a lot of your clients from

[59:17] Renew NC.

[59:19] Um working with them. So,

[59:22] you're and then also stated that a lot

[59:24] of your funding there's really no state

[59:27] and federal

[59:28] stipulations. Is Is that what I'm

[59:30] hearing as far as like how you can help

[59:32] a family?

[59:33] >> Yeah, and so the clients we're getting

[59:35] for Renew are just that temporary

[59:37] relocation assistance. We're not

[59:39] necessarily that's not our case

[59:40] management services. [snorts] So it's

[59:43] just that one bucket. Um but yes, that's

[59:45] correct. I mean, we're getting referrals

[59:47] from Renew, but there is no state

[59:49] funding for the support around storage

[59:52] or moving. So we are using the

[59:54] philanthropic dollars that we have

[59:55] through grants to support that.

[59:59] >> So I mean, what I'm asking is so I'm

[1:00:02] working with several families and

[1:00:05] um I've been in some of these long-term

[1:00:06] recovery meetings with with different

[1:00:09] groups and stuff that are that are

[1:00:11] working toward different, you know,

[1:00:14] talking about different resources and

[1:00:15] things that they have. So the families

[1:00:18] that I'm working with, they do not meet

[1:00:19] the requirements up under Renew

[1:00:22] uh for different reasons, which I won't

[1:00:24] take a lot of time with right now.

[1:00:26] >> Yeah.

[1:00:26] >> Uh

[1:00:27] and um two of them don't, but one of

[1:00:30] them has been up under Renew, I guess

[1:00:33] we're going on like a year and a half

[1:00:34] now waiting to see if this family is

[1:00:36] going to finally get to their home and

[1:00:38] their roof is caving in. But um the

[1:00:41] other two, one of them they really could

[1:00:43] not meet the guidelines up under Renew

[1:00:46] for different reasons. So I'm wondering

[1:00:50] and from from hearing you what you just

[1:00:52] said,

[1:00:53] making a connection with your

[1:00:55] organization to see if there's something

[1:00:56] because we also one of our other

[1:00:58] families is receiving a lot of support

[1:01:01] from the Red Cross

[1:01:02] >> Mhm.

[1:01:02] >> because um they were they were denied

[1:01:04] different things by Renew. But the other family, we're still like

[1:01:09] working with the city of Asheville as

[1:01:11] far as like getting stormwater stuff

[1:01:14] taken care of so that

[1:01:16] organizations can actually come on and

[1:01:18] build the home and get these families

[1:01:20] back into their own

[1:01:22] So, I would love to have your your

[1:01:24] information so that I can make that

[1:01:27] connection and just see

[1:01:29] have a conversation as to see if this is

[1:01:32] something, some type of wraparound

[1:01:33] support that you can provide for these

[1:01:36] families and meet with these families.

[1:01:38] >> Yeah, that does I mean that is what our purpose is is to fill the gap that

[1:01:43] other services are not able to fill and

[1:01:45] because our money is not state money,

[1:01:48] it's a lot more flexible in terms of the

[1:01:51] requirements.

[1:01:52] Um and so those are definitely folks

[1:01:53] that you could, you know, we could

[1:01:55] support and try to get connected to case

[1:01:57] management and then work through. So,

[1:01:59] absolutely and I'm realizing I should

[1:02:01] have put all the contact information on

[1:02:02] the slides and I didn't so I will make

[1:02:04] sure that all of that gets to Nikki and

[1:02:06] goes out to you all. Um but yeah, so

[1:02:09] this is just high-level kind of where

[1:02:11] we're at number wise. Um so we've had

[1:02:14] and we started doing intake in August of

[1:02:19] 25.

[1:02:21] Um and so to date we've had 1,162

[1:02:25] households um through our intake. We

[1:02:28] currently have 408 active case

[1:02:31] management cases and that's through the

[1:02:33] partner network of eight case management

[1:02:35] agencies. We have 123

[1:02:39] construction cases in our pipeline so

[1:02:41] those are all households that have done

[1:02:43] the intake and then identified that they

[1:02:46] have a home repair need specifically.

[1:02:49] We have done rounds of just general

[1:02:52] rental assistance as well as eviction

[1:02:54] prevention so a little over a million

[1:02:56] dollars specifically around rental and

[1:02:59] eviction prevention and then um a little

[1:03:02] over 300,000 dollars specifically on the

[1:03:04] construction support. Um so we're able

[1:03:07] to provide those construction partners

[1:03:09] that are doing the work with material

[1:03:10] funds or contractor costs um on the

[1:03:13] project by project basis.

[1:03:16] Go ahead.

[1:03:18] A little bit about who we're serving.

[1:03:19] So, um in April, home repair sort of

[1:03:22] bumped to number one for us in terms of

[1:03:25] what folks were identifying as a need

[1:03:27] coming through our web portal. Um we

[1:03:30] have predominantly under 80% AMI. That

[1:03:34] is not a requirement for our services

[1:03:38] because of that prioritization that I

[1:03:39] talked about earlier. It sort of all

[1:03:41] rolls up that in theory you could have

[1:03:43] someone with a little bit higher, but

[1:03:44] high household needs and high damage. Um

[1:03:47] and really about half of our folks are

[1:03:49] under 30% AMI.

[1:03:51] Um rural households, about a little over

[1:03:54] half. That's a self-identification.

[1:03:57] So, it's not like a USDA designation or

[1:03:59] anything like that. That's just someone

[1:04:01] identifying that, you know, our is a

[1:04:03] rural property.

[1:04:05] Um and then about a quarter for

[1:04:06] households with a disability, households

[1:04:08] with children, or households with

[1:04:09] seniors. Um and then about 8% um are

[1:04:12] Spanish-speaking households. And then I

[1:04:14] didn't have as a chart cuz we've only

[1:04:16] done it for about a month. We've started

[1:04:18] tracking um race data. Um and so, in

[1:04:22] July, we had it was about 69% white, 19%

[1:04:26] black or African-American, and 8%

[1:04:28] American Indian or Alaskan Native. So,

[1:04:30] that's a new We're trying to, you know,

[1:04:33] use this information to then also help

[1:04:35] do outreach to make sure that we're

[1:04:37] reaching communities that maybe

[1:04:39] historically weren't accessing services.

[1:04:41] So, we can use this data to help inform

[1:04:44] um our outreach plan.

[1:04:46] Go ahead.

[1:04:47] Um the So, the housing assistance I

[1:04:49] mentioned earlier, again, it was about

[1:04:51] 600,000 for eviction prevention, and

[1:04:54] then 480 for rental assistance. Both of

[1:04:57] those had to be storm-impacted.

[1:05:00] Um but the eviction prevention was very

[1:05:02] specifically tied to enrolled in case

[1:05:04] management and they're facing eviction.

[1:05:07] Whereas, the rental assistance, they did

[1:05:08] not need to be in case management, but

[1:05:10] they just needed um

[1:05:12] they had a storm impact and needed

[1:05:13] rental assistance. And we worked with

[1:05:15] the six different partner agencies to

[1:05:17] administer these funds. So, um like

[1:05:20] Eblin Charities, Grace Covenant

[1:05:22] Presbyterian Church. So, a number of

[1:05:23] different partners who were actually the

[1:05:25] ones administering that fund. And at

[1:05:28] this point most of that is now spent.

[1:05:31] So, there really isn't much in terms of

[1:05:33] the eviction prevention or general

[1:05:34] rental assistance. Um and really as that

[1:05:37] has sort of winded down and as we get

[1:05:40] further from the storm it gets harder

[1:05:42] and harder to tie specifically

[1:05:45] like a rental assistance need back to

[1:05:47] the storm. So, at the moment we're

[1:05:49] really focusing on that temporary rental

[1:05:52] assistance for folks who are going

[1:05:53] through a rebuild or repair to provide

[1:05:56] that sort of bridge um assistance.

[1:06:00] Go ahead.

[1:06:01] This is that temporary relocation. So,

[1:06:03] right now we've received a little over

[1:06:05] 100 referrals. These are outside of

[1:06:07] those numbers I shared earlier. So,

[1:06:09] these are separate cases coming straight

[1:06:11] from Renew.

[1:06:12] Um that really Renew like I said is

[1:06:15] paying for those overnight costs and

[1:06:18] then we're identifying any of those sort

[1:06:20] of supplementary needs. Needing to move

[1:06:22] out of the home, they need a storage pod

[1:06:24] on their property, or they need a

[1:06:26] storage unit. Um some is pet boarding or

[1:06:29] just challenges with housing um because

[1:06:32] right now a lot of contractors are

[1:06:33] trying to they're finding hotels, but

[1:06:35] that hotel won't allow a pet. And so,

[1:06:38] we're trying to help folks sort of

[1:06:39] navigate through that temporary

[1:06:41] relocation assistance process and um

[1:06:44] it's long and complicated. So.

[1:06:48] Um construction. So, here's sort of um

[1:06:51] and these numbers the numbers here are a

[1:06:53] little different than the numbers there

[1:06:55] cuz I pulled them at different times. I

[1:06:56] probably should have double checked

[1:06:57] that. But, so we have 36 active

[1:07:00] projects. So, those are ones that are

[1:07:02] matched with one of our construction

[1:07:04] partners.

[1:07:05] Um 119

[1:07:07] um in the pipeline. I know the previous

[1:07:09] one I think said 123, but you know, they

[1:07:11] shifted as they close. So, those are

[1:07:14] ones who have identified a home repair

[1:07:15] need. That eight completed projects is

[1:07:18] actually now 13 as of this morning. So,

[1:07:20] we have 13 completed projects. And then

[1:07:23] we have seven partner agencies that have

[1:07:26] those 36 projects. And this is a map

[1:07:29] that sort of shows

[1:07:31] the construction projects that have

[1:07:33] completed our pre-screens. So, that

[1:07:35] means they've actually filled out the

[1:07:37] form and submitted their

[1:07:40] homeowner documentation, any sort of

[1:07:43] income verification. So, that's where

[1:07:45] sort of

[1:07:46] the

[1:07:47] general area of where we've received

[1:07:49] most of our

[1:07:51] completed ones. Yeah.

[1:07:52] >> a question. Yeah, I've always been

[1:07:54] interested in in getting more home

[1:07:55] repair data.

[1:07:56] Do you have like a cost per

[1:07:59] unit data and just any other kind of

[1:08:02] qualitative or anecdotal data on the the

[1:08:05] types of repairs that you're seeing?

[1:08:07] >> Yeah, it's really varied. And a lot

[1:08:09] happens where, you know, so there's

[1:08:12] doing another presentation today that

[1:08:14] actually has a few of those. So, it's

[1:08:15] great. It's good practice for me. But,

[1:08:18] so

[1:08:19] some that like they'll get referred for

[1:08:21] one problem that they've identified. So,

[1:08:24] we had one that was basically referred

[1:08:26] to us for an HVAC that got flooded. So,

[1:08:29] they were sort of working on that. But,

[1:08:30] then the partner that went out there

[1:08:32] actually identified there was an

[1:08:33] additional roof need. So, like then

[1:08:36] being able to pull that together and you

[1:08:38] know, we were able to provide the

[1:08:39] funding for that to be completed. That

[1:08:42] partner pulled in a lot of volunteers

[1:08:44] and other donated

[1:08:46] materials to be able to pull that

[1:08:47] project off. So, it kind of takes that

[1:08:49] sort of multi-point. The other is like

[1:08:52] filling a gap for things cuz we have one

[1:08:55] referral that came in that was denied

[1:08:57] through another program because someone

[1:08:59] in the house is undocumented, but the

[1:09:02] homeowner is a US citizen. But they were

[1:09:05] denied services and so they have now

[1:09:07] come through us and they're going to get

[1:09:10] they were in a mobile home and are now

[1:09:12] going to get a stick-built home on the

[1:09:14] property. So it really is case-by-case

[1:09:17] and it varies. In terms of spend, we we

[1:09:20] do have a cap on what we can spend. So

[1:09:23] right now it's about 10 to 15,000 for a

[1:09:25] repair and then it's 40 to 60,000 for a

[1:09:29] full rebuild, which we know is not

[1:09:32] enough for a full rebuild, right? Who

[1:09:34] can build a house for $60,000? Nobody.

[1:09:37] Um and so it really that's where the

[1:09:39] collaborative network comes in that if

[1:09:41] we have a partner that can bring some of

[1:09:43] the funding that they have, we can put

[1:09:45] in some additional funding, pulling in

[1:09:47] volunteers for the labor in order to do

[1:09:50] it and then pulling in like the moving

[1:09:52] supplies, the furniture and donated and

[1:09:54] things like that. So trying it's it's a

[1:09:56] piecemeal together kind of process um at

[1:09:59] for each individual household. Um so

[1:10:02] yeah, the the projects really truly

[1:10:05] vary. Now we're seeing a couple more

[1:10:07] where it's a access issue in addition to

[1:10:11] a home repair issue. So they can't start

[1:10:14] the project until the access issue is

[1:10:16] solved. Like the private road, private

[1:10:18] driveway, all those pieces that that

[1:10:20] needs to be solved first before a home

[1:10:23] repair can be solved. And we do have two

[1:10:26] partners that are really doing sort of

[1:10:28] private road and bridge repair, which

[1:10:30] has been huge because I said that you

[1:10:33] can't start if you can't get there. Um

[1:10:35] especially if you need to get there with

[1:10:36] heavy machinery or anything like that.

[1:10:39] So

[1:10:40] yeah, it's not enough. You know, some of

[1:10:42] the state budget, you know, has funding

[1:10:45] um for more rebuilds. We had done when

[1:10:48] the um

[1:10:49] there was the emergency management VOAD

[1:10:51] grant that had come out. We had applied

[1:10:53] for that previously and tried to bump

[1:10:55] our

[1:10:56] um like full rebuild cost to like 110.

[1:11:00] But we didn't get approved that time.

[1:11:02] Hopefully we will be able to apply this

[1:11:03] time and and do

[1:11:06] get approved for another round. But

[1:11:09] yeah, the cost is challenging when

[1:11:11] funders are restricted on how much you

[1:11:13] can spend per project.

[1:11:16] Yeah.

[1:11:18] And then this is just a map of sort of

[1:11:20] the ones that are in pre-screen. So

[1:11:21] these are just the households that have

[1:11:23] been sent the screener. They haven't

[1:11:25] necessarily filled it out yet. Not all

[1:11:27] of these will come through. Some folks

[1:11:29] may have filled this out because they

[1:11:31] were like, "It's not happening with

[1:11:33] Renew. I'm going to fill this out." and

[1:11:34] then actually finds out that they can

[1:11:36] get through Renew. So there some will

[1:11:38] fall off

[1:11:39] of this map, but this is just sort of

[1:11:42] that basically that 120 that's in the

[1:11:44] pipeline is this crew.

[1:11:48] So yeah, really sort of our

[1:11:52] the partnerships are key for us because

[1:11:55] like I said, there's so many different

[1:11:56] you need to pull in funding from

[1:11:57] multiple sources, pulling in volunteers,

[1:11:59] all of those pieces. So we're really

[1:12:02] committed to taking on the households

[1:12:03] that fall through the gap. We know that

[1:12:05] there's a lot in the Renew program who

[1:12:07] withdraw, right? Renew has also limits

[1:12:10] in if it's above a $100,000 repair, then

[1:12:15] it triggers a full rebuild. And someone

[1:12:17] who needs 101,000 might be like, "I

[1:12:19] don't want a new house. I just want this

[1:12:21] fixed." right? So those folks might be

[1:12:23] withdrawing and therefore coming to us,

[1:12:25] but then that's still a $100,000

[1:12:28] rebuild, right? Or repair.

[1:12:30] So we're we're trying to figure out how

[1:12:32] we can fill those gaps and sort of

[1:12:35] sustain that

[1:12:36] over time. So sustained funding is

[1:12:38] really important for us. We know that

[1:12:40] case management is a key part of the

[1:12:43] process. Navigating this process alone

[1:12:46] when you need so many different things.

[1:12:48] You also have, you know, sort of the

[1:12:50] trauma from experiencing it all, but

[1:12:53] having somebody walk alongside you

[1:12:55] through this process is really critical.

[1:12:57] So, we're trying to sustain that network

[1:12:59] of case management agencies that can

[1:13:00] connect people to those recovery

[1:13:02] services. And then just sort of ongoing

[1:13:05] coordination between the different

[1:13:06] entities that are doing different pieces

[1:13:08] of the work, like Renew, like the city,

[1:13:11] Buncombe County, all sort of trying to

[1:13:13] stay connected is a big part of what

[1:13:16] we're doing, too, to just make sure that

[1:13:17] we're not all duplicating or um

[1:13:21] yeah. So, we're sort of staying in touch

[1:13:23] with each other.

[1:13:24] And I'm going to pass now to Miguel. Um

[1:13:27] we um originally had someone um a case

[1:13:30] manager from one of our partner agencies

[1:13:33] who was going to come. She was not able

[1:13:35] to, so Miguel, who is our case

[1:13:37] management lead with the long-term

[1:13:39] recovery group, helps work with those

[1:13:41] eight partner agencies across the

[1:13:43] network. Um so, he's going to talk a

[1:13:45] little bit about some of the sort of

[1:13:46] day-to-day, like what does that look

[1:13:48] like for case managers.

[1:13:53] » How's it going, everyone? My name is

[1:13:54] Miguel Hernandez. I'm the DCM lead for

[1:13:56] the Buncombe County long-term recovery

[1:13:57] group. Give you a little bit of context

[1:13:59] of what I do.

[1:14:00] Uh we have eight uh disaster case

[1:14:02] management agencies we work with and

[1:14:04] about 17 case managers across those

[1:14:07] agencies. My job is to coordinate with

[1:14:09] them,

[1:14:10] uh strengthen our network of

[1:14:11] partnership, do some supervision, and

[1:14:13] provide more guidance and training on

[1:14:15] case management.

[1:14:16] So, basically what we've seen

[1:14:19] um

[1:14:19] it's actually been for the past 2 years

[1:14:21] is um we have a bit of a

[1:14:25] So, we've done some uh some outreach to

[1:14:26] the community out here, but we're very

[1:14:28] internet focused, right? Our form is

[1:14:30] online. You know, that we partner up

[1:14:32] with uh Red Cross to do outreach to help

[1:14:34] people fill out their intake forms over

[1:14:36] the phone. Uh there are still folks in

[1:14:38] rural areas, our elderly folks, or

[1:14:39] people, you know, don't have internet

[1:14:41] who may have not heard of us, so we need

[1:14:43] to improve our outreach process is reach

[1:14:45] those communities.

[1:14:47] Right?

[1:14:48] Um other issues that we have is

[1:14:49] definitely housing. Housing's been the

[1:14:51] one issue until recently cuz this summer

[1:14:53] we did a big push for home repair

[1:14:56] outreach over across. But before that,

[1:14:59] right? How finding housing for people

[1:15:00] has been the biggest challenge,

[1:15:02] especially for folks who may not be able

[1:15:04] to find who whose homes were destroyed

[1:15:07] or displaced by the storm and not able

[1:15:09] to fulfill the three times rent requirements for a

[1:15:12] lot of these apartment complexes cuz

[1:15:14] it's the or the credit uh

[1:15:16] check requirements.

[1:15:18] Um that's been a big thing. So, our goal

[1:15:20] here for case management is to get the

[1:15:22] person back to

[1:15:24] baseline, right? Where were the they're

[1:15:25] for some or better than baseline. But a

[1:15:27] lot of this uh folks we're getting right

[1:15:30] now, especially 2 years after the storm,

[1:15:31] were never at baseline or their

[1:15:33] attachment to that baseline was 10 years

[1:15:35] at best. So, when we get folks 2 years

[1:15:37] in the storm, we're still finding people

[1:15:39] with the disabilities, the elderly, the

[1:15:41] undocumented, people chronic uh

[1:15:44] you know, health issues that don't allow

[1:15:46] them to work, people with chronic

[1:15:47] poverty issues, chronic homelessness.

[1:15:50] So, at this point um

[1:15:52] the cases we're getting are the ones

[1:15:54] that require the heavier touch, the re-

[1:15:56] the referral to resources that may not

[1:15:58] exist, and the access to funding that we

[1:16:00] don't have access to right now.

[1:16:03] Um as you can see here, right? The

[1:16:04] rental housing supply has shrunk. So,

[1:16:06] Helene damaged or destroyed about 6,500

[1:16:08] houses across the county.

[1:16:11] Um a lot of people are moving out of the

[1:16:13] state, out of the region, going to South

[1:16:14] Carolina cuz they just simply can't

[1:16:16] afford to live here. And that's what a

[1:16:17] lot of case managers

[1:16:19] are having to do. Assist people to move

[1:16:20] out of the area, people who grew up

[1:16:21] here,

[1:16:22] uh take their kids to schools here,

[1:16:24] who've been here for generations, can no

[1:16:26] longer afford to live here.

[1:16:28] Um another thing too is recently we're

[1:16:30] going to have a challenge wherein uh

[1:16:32] FEMA's temporary housing assistance

[1:16:35] is ending in Septem- is in September. A

[1:16:38] lot of those people who are there um

[1:16:40] already are clients of ours, but we do

[1:16:42] see we're going to see a bit of an

[1:16:44] influx at the end of September with

[1:16:45] folks coming to us for assistance. And

[1:16:47] these folks are like 2 years living in

[1:16:48] hotels or temporary Airbnbs.

[1:16:52] And when they come to us and we have to

[1:16:54] find a way to find housing, when you

[1:16:56] look at the housing stock, it's like

[1:16:57] it's it's tough out here.

[1:16:59] Um

[1:17:00] Yeah, and that's pretty much is the

[1:17:02] housing issue is the biggest one that

[1:17:04] we're facing at this point.

[1:17:07] Um

[1:17:08] Yes, any questions?

[1:17:10] >> I have a question. Are you having Do you

[1:17:13] Are you having any luck with ADA

[1:17:15] appliance

[1:17:16] ADA compliance apartments or housing

[1:17:20] for your people that you're supporting?

[1:17:22] >> I mean, yes and no. Um a lot of these

[1:17:25] housing

[1:17:27] Like if we're talking about affordable

[1:17:28] housing or elderly housing have long

[1:17:29] wait lists,

[1:17:31] for example, but also like what somebody

[1:17:33] can afford without going for those

[1:17:35] housing is

[1:17:36] especially with the elderly and disabled

[1:17:38] is a lot of the housing stock right

[1:17:39] there right, owned by private landlords,

[1:17:41] are not ADA compliant, are not,

[1:17:44] you know,

[1:17:45] um fit for people with disabilities to

[1:17:47] access. So, sometimes with the case

[1:17:49] managers, they have to work with what

[1:17:51] they have and may put somebody in a

[1:17:53] situation that's in a maybe a trailer

[1:17:55] that's moldy or doesn't have like a a

[1:17:58] ramp or just put somebody in there, but

[1:17:59] it's like better than

[1:18:01] person not having a place to stay. So,

[1:18:03] it's

[1:18:05] kind of like a

[1:18:06] case-by-case basis on that one.

[1:18:12] » So, you So, you're saying that the

[1:18:13] person may even identify

[1:18:17] particular mobile home, apartment, or

[1:18:19] house, whatever, and that up on that

[1:18:23] identifying that home and they need ADA

[1:18:26] support, then your organization could

[1:18:28] possibly come in and maybe help put a

[1:18:30] ramp there so that they can move into

[1:18:32] the home.

[1:18:33] >> For us, I don't

[1:18:34] So, that's not something that that can

[1:18:36] do ourselves. We we try to guide the

[1:18:38] case managers

[1:18:39] >> with different organizations.

[1:18:40] >> Yeah, we try to make guide the case

[1:18:42] managers make referrals to other

[1:18:43] organizations that may have provide that

[1:18:45] service, but a lot of these

[1:18:46] organizations have long wait list or uh

[1:18:50] have lost funding.

[1:18:51] Um so for a lot of people it's it's the

[1:18:54] kind of wait and see approach to see if

[1:18:56] you even get approved for that kind of

[1:18:57] assistance.

[1:19:00] Sure.

[1:19:01] Go right ahead.

[1:19:02] >> Um the one thing I'll add to that is

[1:19:03] that if we do some what we do see is

[1:19:06] that um if someone received a

[1:19:08] construction, repair, or something that

[1:19:11] happened with another entity that didn't

[1:19:13] meet that requirement for them, we're

[1:19:15] getting that referral and then some of

[1:19:17] our partners are able to then fulfill

[1:19:19] that request. So if somebody does need a

[1:19:20] ramp that's put on then it's something

[1:19:22] that we can look at with our

[1:19:23] construction fund. Um it's not something

[1:19:26] we can really do with rental units. The

[1:19:28] problem, you know, with rental units you

[1:19:30] have it's you need the homeowner to

[1:19:32] approve any change, right? We can't just

[1:19:34] sort of go through with the renter needs

[1:19:35] that. So it's really in those homeowner

[1:19:38] occupied units. So if they did get

[1:19:40] something and then if the rebuild if a

[1:19:42] repair or a rebuild is happening through

[1:19:44] one of our partners, they will make sure

[1:19:46] that that is part of their process to

[1:19:48] make sure that those are accessible for

[1:19:50] those folks.

[1:19:53] >> Okay.

[1:19:54] So they if the homeowner says yes that

[1:19:57] you can make this change to their

[1:20:00] property and you're able to contract

[1:20:02] with someone, is that something that

[1:20:03] could happen?

[1:20:04] >> Yes. Yes, that can happen.

[1:20:06] >> Okay.

[1:20:07] >> But if it's um say the landlord is not

[1:20:09] responsive or not willing to have that

[1:20:12] work done then

[1:20:13] um

[1:20:14] so we can't really help with that.

[1:20:16] >> Correct.

[1:20:17] Yes.

[1:20:18] But there's an option.

[1:20:19] >> Yes, indeed.

[1:20:24] » I don't really have any questions, but I

[1:20:26] do want to say how uh much I appreciate

[1:20:28] the work that the long-term recovery

[1:20:29] group has done. The rental assistance

[1:20:31] has kept thousands of people in Buncombe

[1:20:34] County able to stay and I'm of course

[1:20:37] very concerned about that running out

[1:20:39] for what that's going to mean for our

[1:20:40] community.

[1:20:41] And the other thing I are you still

[1:20:43] looking for a chairperson for the

[1:20:46] subcommittee of the housing long-term

[1:20:47] recovery group? Okay, just want to make

[1:20:49] sure everyone on this group knows that

[1:20:51] the long-term recovery group for

[1:20:52] Buncombe County is looking for

[1:20:54] a chairperson for that role.

[1:20:57] It's a excellent group of people who are

[1:21:00] very connected to the work being done in

[1:21:02] our community. And so if anybody's

[1:21:04] interested in doing that, it's a good

[1:21:05] opportunity to I think you're taking

[1:21:06] applications, right? Yeah.

[1:21:13] » Almost out of time. Does anyone have any

[1:21:15] other questions? I had one but I wanted

[1:21:16] to make sure.

[1:21:19] >> Does this program, initiative, whatever

[1:21:21] you want to call it, does it have a

[1:21:23] sunset date or any type of timeline?

[1:21:27] >> So I'm going to give you like some

[1:21:30] something I heard from uh

[1:21:31] some of my colleagues over in the

[1:21:33] eastern part of the the state. The

[1:21:34] LTRG's in this part of the state have

[1:21:36] been going on for

[1:21:38] 8 to 10 years cuz the construction is

[1:21:40] not something that goes

[1:21:41] from one day to the other. It's it's

[1:21:43] going to be a long-term. We're here to stay as long as funding is

[1:21:45] there.

[1:21:46] >> Okay, great. So there's not like a

[1:21:48] deadline. You're just going to keep

[1:21:49] doing your thing for as as long as you

[1:21:51] can to help all the people. All right,

[1:21:54] thank you.

[1:21:58] » Uh

[1:21:59] Sarah and and Miguel, thank you very

[1:22:01] much for your time. I appreciate that.

[1:22:03] Um yeah. Um

[1:22:05] so we are now moving to public comment.

[1:22:07] But I don't believe we have any public

[1:22:10] comments. Is that

[1:22:13] » There was at least one that came in by

[1:22:15] email.

[1:22:17] >> One public comment came by email but

[1:22:18] otherwise I don't think we have any

[1:22:19] public comment. No one's in person here.

[1:22:21] Yeah.

[1:22:22] >> Okay. Okay, no one is here. So

[1:22:25] move to my next page here.

[1:22:27] Okay, so no public comments. So um

[1:22:29] uh un- unless there's anything else, uh

[1:22:32] can I get a motion to adjourn?

[1:22:35] >> I move to adjourn.

[1:22:39] >> I'll second.

[1:22:39] >> Okay.

[1:22:41] so I would I have to go through

[1:22:43] the Okay.

[1:22:44] >> [laughter]

[1:22:44] >> We normally just adjourn without a roll

[1:22:46] call, but if we get in trouble for that,

[1:22:47] I'm sorry. So.

[1:22:51] >> Great.

Helene Housing Recovery Board – August 19, 2026

Transcript