which is accessible through the virtual
engagement hub link on the front page of
the city website.
We also have an option for the public to
listen live by phone.
For those of you out there with us
today, welcome.
For today's meeting, we have the option
for people to call in and listen or
comment live. To call in and listen to
the meeting, please dial 855-925-2801
and enter the meeting code 2675.
Your phone will be muted and you will
hear the meeting live.
At this point, if you would like to sign
up to speak, you will need to push
asterisk three to enter the speaker
queue.
Before we get started with our roll
call, I would like to take a moment to
remind everyone why we were here.
Purpose statement.
The city of Asheville
Helene recovery boards were established
to support city council's vision of a
recovery that is rooted in resilience,
rises in unity, repairs with care, and
ready for tomorrow.
The four boards represent city council's
priority areas of economy, housing,
infrastructure, environment, and people.
Through collaboration, expertise, and
insight, each of the four boards will
provide critical input on city council
policy recommendations, while also
extending the city of Asheville's
communication through board member
networks.
Um and I just wanted to also mark this
kind of as a transition for the board.
Um we spent a good amount of time having
I thought were were really productive
conversations on the CDBGDR funds. And
uh since a lot of those allocations were recently made, and I think a lot of
that was was due to the the discussion
that we had here. Um and I thought that
was really beneficial. And so what we're
moving towards now is really looking a
little bit at unmet needs. So um today
we're going to have different
presentations on unmet needs and kind of
a transition for us to look at that. And
what we're hoping is to to really get
some strong policy recommendations um
over our our our next meetings that that
run until June. So I just wanted to mark
that. I know we had a meeting last time
with a lot of big decisions, and we
focused a lot on CDBGDR. Um we're we're
really kind of entering another um
phase, I feel like, of of the board. Um
and I think it was also good to get a
lot of feedback from y'all as well on
what we're looking for. So um I just
wanted to mention that before we do roll
call. Um I will introduce all the
committee members and staff.
For members participating remotely,
please make sure to mute your microphone
if you are not speaking, and unmute your
microphone when you would like to speak.
Board members and staff, as I call your
name, please say a quick hello.
Andy Barnett.
Okay.
Robin Raines.
>> Hello.
» Joshua Rudo. Hello.
Elise Martyr.
>> Hello.
>> Rab Hiester.
>> And he is absent.
>> He's absent, okay. David Bartholomew.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Matt Allen.
>> He's trying to join. He's in the queue.
Logan, if you can admit that one guest.
That is Matt Allen at roll call. Great.
Welcome, Matt. We were just calling roll
call.
Say hello.
I think I'll come back.
>> Matt, are you there? It looks like
you're on mute. If you could say hello,
we can count you on roll call.
Just come back.
>> Yeah, I'll just come back to him. Okay,
cool.
Okay.
» Okay.
>> What's um can we come back? I don't
think it'll affect quorum, but we can we
can come back. Okay.
Uh Brian Methvin.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Rebecca Chaplin.
>> Hello.
>> Ray.
» Good afternoon.
>> Did you hear that?
Okay.
Um Yvette Gyves.
» Hello.
>> Nikki Reed.
>> Good afternoon.
» Ashley.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Megan Owens.
Logan Smith.
And I think we can come back to Matt
now. Or he was off mute.
>> Yep, I'm here.
>> Okay. Great. Okay, so we've got
everybody. Reb and Andy seem to be the
ones not here.
Okay.
now we are going to move forward
to adopt the minutes.
Everyone has an agenda printed off at
their seat. The first item on the agenda
is approval of the
minutes. Can I get a motion to approve
the June 3rd, 2026 meeting minutes?
>> I so move.
>> Okay.
>> I second.
>> Okay, we have a motion and a second.
Um
>> I second.
>> I think [clears throat] I have to go
through the list again. Okay.
Um
Andy Barnett
not here.
Robin Raines
>> I.
>> Joshua Rudow
I.
Elise Carter
>> I.
>> Reb Haslip absent.
David Bartholomew
>> I.
>> Matt Allen
>> I.
>> Brian Methvin
>> I.
» Lucas Ray
>> I.
>> Rebecca Chaplin
>> I.
>> Yvette Gyves
» I.
» Okay.
It that passes.
Okay, so um
agenda items here. We have a pretty busy
agenda, so kind of before we get started
on that, I do want to make sure we get
to everything.
So, um I'm going to try to work with
Nikki and trying to keep things at 20
minutes. I know there's a there's a lot
going on, but if we are moving something
forward, it's because we want to make
sure we get to everything on here. Um
the first agenda item is a vote to adopt
the new regular meeting schedule, and
this will be um
uh
helped by Nikki Reed.
>> Great, and thanks everyone. We sent out
a poll just to see um if we could
accommodate a new schedule. Um so, uh
looks like that's what's on the dock for
today to officially move our meeting
schedule to be the third Wednesday of
every month at noon
to 1:30. So if that all works for you
all then I can turn it back over to the
chair for a motion and then to take
action cuz that will then officially
reset our monthly meeting schedule to be
the third Wednesday at noon.
Every other month.
» [snorts]
» Okay.
I would like to
can I get a motion to um
move the meeting to the third Wednesday
of every month every other month at 12.
>> I'll make the motion to move our regular
housing recovery board meeting to the
third Wednesday of every other month at
noon.
>> Can I get a second?
>> I second.
» Okay.
So I will go through this again. Um
All those in favor
say I if you're in favor or nay. Andy
Barnett.
Absent. Robin Raines.
>> I.
>> Joshua Rudell. I.
Elise Martin.
>> I.
>> Reb Haslip. Absent. David Bartholomew.
>> I.
>> Matt Allen.
>> I.
>> Brian Mifflin.
>> I.
>> Lucas Ray.
>> I.
>> Rebecca Chaplin.
>> I.
>> Yvette Jarvis.
>> I.
» Okay. Motion has passed.
Um
So I believe that's all we need on that.
Thank you for that and I believe staff
will also update the front of the
website and kind of help us
with all those pieces, that'd be great.
And if
Yeah.
The calendar invite, having a calendar
invite to that sent out, too, helps me
as well.
Too. Just so it's on there.
Cuz I think I have the I have them on
there for the for the other ones, so.
Um okay. So, for the next agenda item,
um Nikki Reed is going to be doing an
update on the um Housing Recovery Board
work plan.
» Excellent. Okay, just to kick us off,
cuz as as the chair said earlier,
um
we have
reached a point in our uh work planning
just to really think about our
trajectory as far as next steps. So, um
I've developed a few slides just to lead
that conversation. Next slide, please.
So, again, this is just a reminder. So,
it was interesting to, you know, think
back to um our initial convening, which
was held on November 4th.
Um and then this group convened together
in this room on December 3rd. And then
currently we're scheduled to continue
our our work until uh mid-June. So, I
really wanted to think think on a couple
things, really reflect on the past, and
then really look towards the future. So,
next slide, please, Megan.
So, again, our scope, um really framing
up how we provide input to City Council
on policy recommendations
that advance post-disaster housing
stability efforts, that support
temporary and permanent housing
solutions, that support development of
strategies to proactively address future
displacement events, and then lastly,
supporting City Council by helping
residents navigate post-disaster housing
challenges by communicating resources,
funding opportunities. So, I know you
all are are very familiar with this. Um
next slide, please, Megan. But, I
thought what we could do is really just
reflect and kind of close the loop on
some of the work activities that we've
done thus far, and how that really um
responds to those um
stated deliverables. So, in in terms of
the goal to provide input to City
Council on policy recommendations to
advance post-disaster housing, I really
thought about this work of the this team
to advise on the prioritization of the
Renew NC program. So, you recall the
state had an existing prioritization
rubric, and this team further informed
that, um, which we are using currently.
Um, as a second, um, providing input on
the development of strategies to
proactively address future displacement
events,
um, I thought that aligned really well
with some of the work that we discussed
around the affordable housing
multi-family investments,
um, ultimately leading to a $17 million
allocation in CDBG-DR funds.
Um, and then lastly, providing input to
City Council on recommendations that
support temporary and permanent housing
solutions for displaced residents. So,
again, really drawing that connection,
um, with the action that was taken
around the Renew NC allocation. Um, so
again, I as staff, I really find it
important that we we
um, ensure that I'm doing my work in in
terms of sharing that information up to
City Council when they deliberate on
decisions, um, whether it's through
themes of feedback that we've created or
actual votes that have been taken. And
so, those really stood out to me.
Um, but if we go, uh, to next slide, we
can really start thinking through the
future. I wanted, uh, in working with,
uh, the chair and and Andy sent out an
email just to really start to chart our
course forward. And so, here's kind of
what we're going to be doing for the
next couple of months.
Um, today you're going to hear more from
Robbie Bazo, who's on camera, um, about
FEMA disaster data. And now, FEMA's
interesting, we'll get into this. It
looks back, so it really has that now
clear picture of what happened and what
those impacts were.
Um, however, FEMA is limited in that we
don't really know what's happening or
how people have recovered today. So,
we'll get into that, but it's a really
clear picture looking backwards.
But second, um
we do have representatives from the
Buncombe County Long-Term Recovery Group
um that will be joining us shortly. I
think they had a meeting um that was
just up against this one, so I do expect
that they'll walk through the doors
um in due time uh to share really on the
ground work that they're doing, so we
can start to understand what's happening
on the on the ground. Um then as another
point of information about unmet needs,
we're going to have Emily Ball with the
Continuum of Care really talk us through
the Point in Time Count really discuss
some of the findings that they had um
with that work and then talk about the
strategic plan. Um again, just really
trying to lay some strong groundwork for
unmet needs so that we can again develop
that into policy recommendations moving
forward.
So, if you go on the next slide, I also
wanted to ground this in just the work
of staff. As you all know, um our work
feeds into um the work Hello, perfect
timing. That's our our Long-Term
Recovery Group um teammates who are
joining us now.
So, I just wanted to give you some
insight into what our wonderful staff
are doing and I have um
Elma and Sasha both joining today just
to take a listen.
And so, right now we are working to
implement the CDBG-DR multi-family
housing investments. Um we did have some
tax credit announcements that did occur.
Um 319 Biltmore was funded. We're still
awaiting results um for the Terrace at
River Hills
um which could be forthcoming in the in
the next couple of months here. So, then
our job is to get those agreements
together. So, we go heads down in terms
of really refining those legal
agreements and making sure that we are
being good partners to those projects as
they get to the finish line. Um the
second step is is very much ongoing
communication and coordination to
support the state's efforts with Renew
and See. I know Elma is on calls um
almost every other week with the state
to really ensure monitoring and
oversight of that program.
Then lastly, I did want to start to
forecast um some of the remaining work
from our CDBGDR that's going to be the
subject matter for the Housing Recovery
Board. And that's our housing and
economic security support services
funding. Mouthful. You can just say HESS
if you prefer.
So, we are developing our approach to
this program. Um this is the first
mention of it to one of our boards.
Um and so that's just a teaser to say
we'll be coming back to this board to
really flush out that that funding as it
relates to housing services. If you want
to do some advance homework, I welcome
you to take a look at the action plan,
which talks about the allocation to this
program and some of the early insights
um that we were using to frame up where
we're heading with this program, but
just uh look forward in the future that
will be coming back to this board
perhaps as soon as October um to start
to discuss um some of that funding and
some of the particulars. So, with that
in mind, I think that was um next slide.
I think that really wraps up my I just
wanted to set the stage for today and
happy to take any questions, but
otherwise I'll turn it back over to the
chair.
So.
Great.
>> I'm actually just a just like a little
question. I know that
>> Absolutely.
>> HESS conversation is down the road, but it's just helpful to understand
what's coming. Like are those
COC support services dollars that that
would be coming? I haven't heard that
term before, HESS.
So, it's a particular subset of CDBGDR.
>> Correct.
>> Mhm.
>> Okay.
But it can only be used not for sticks
and bricks. It has to be used for
uh support services.
>> So,
Elma, do you want to
tackle this one at very high level?
She's our subject matter expert, so she
knows everything always at the top of
her head.
>> Well, at a very high level it could be
things like um referring folks to where
there are available there is available
housing. It's wrap-around services
either for economic security or housing
security. That's We haven't fleshed out
further what we could do. You mentioned
the COC, there's potential for engaging
them on identifying what the needs and
gaps are
and then better flushing out what the
program could do. But yes, it's
wrap-around services, so related to
housing, related to economic security
support services, but not actually
providing said
housing.
>> Okay.
>> Great distinction and I can certainly
follow up on that. So, whereas our other
programs have been capital investments
into housing, this is really the support
services that wrap around, really
support the individual individuals in in
terms of either access to housing
through case management, for example, or
other services like that, legal services
perhaps.
So, again, that's still in development
and we'll we'll be ready to come back in
the coming months to dig in.
>> So, I have a question.
Are there any actual consumers or people
that are impacted have been impacted by
displacement by the hurricane that are
still
unhoused and having these problems, are
they going to be part of this
new program that you're projecting and
creating because you can have all the
people in the room you want that are
developing ideas, but if you're not
actually having the people in the room
that it's impacting and having them
being part of the solutions and the
conversation, then it's void.
>> Mhm.
I think that's a great point and and
from my perspective, this is why I
really wanted to have the voice of the
Buncombe
long-term recovery group from their case
managers today. So, I think perhaps we
can revisit that when we hear from the
case managers because what I want to get
out of that conversation is to
understand the themes that they're
hearing, what they are hearing from
those individuals, Um, is why today
we'll hear from those case managers. So,
we can certainly follow up with that as
that conversation unfolds as our one of
our later agenda items.
» Nikki, so this program, I'm assuming
next time when you bring it back in
October, it's like this is the scope of
services we're proposing and then we're
going to go out and seek agencies to
execute on that.
>> It's
>> do an RFP?
>> certain, I mean, I'm generally speaking
um, partnering with what we call
subrecipients. So, yes, external
agencies is often our best approach just
given that we have such capacity in our
community of nonprofits to really
provide those services. So, from my
mind, I'm already fairly certain that would be our recommendation. Um,
there's of course always the opportunity
for municipalities or governments to
administer their own program, but again,
I think with our capacity in our
community, it's it's often the best
approach to partner.
>> So, what's the kind of time frame for
rolling out the services? Is this sort
of like first year kind of thing?
>> That's that's currently what we're
trying to do is is sequence within our
work plan when we're ready to then
provide that. So, right now, um, we do
have a deadline of the end of the year
to produce the the manual, so the policy
manual for all the eligible activities,
but then looking to early next year to
really start the process. So, a notice
of funding opportunity, soliciting
applications, reviewing those
applications and and so on and so forth.
That's some of the work that we've been
doing just this past week to really slot
that in. But I we're thinking um, early
next year, next half of next year is
when we really want to see this program
activate.
>> Okay, great. Thank you.
» Great. Thank you so much.
>> I have one other comment, Nikki. I think
it's really great that we're having a
long-term recovery group here today. I'm
really curious to see what they're what
they're actually doing boots on the
ground because we still have several
people in the communities that have been
trying to get housing that are still
displaced that I've been working with
for
over 2 years coming against all kind of
barriers. I don't remember seeing any of
these groups being part of that support
for them. So, I'm really curious to see
what they have to what they have to say.
>> Thank you.
» Well, thank you, Nikki. Um and for
everyone for their questions and
feedback there.
So, we have two more presentations
today.
I am going to hand it over to Robbie
Bisote. Did I say that right?
Um he is going to give a presentation on
updated housing unmet needs presentation
and we're a little ahead of ahead of
schedule, so I'm keeping an eye on that,
but I think we'll
have till like at least 12:51. Robbie,
is that
enough time?
>> Plenty of
>> Okay. Cool. I want to make sure we have
enough time for the last group, but uh
thank you. Take it away.
>> All right. Yes.
Thank you for having me today here. I'm
Robbie Bisote. I am the
CDBGDR implementation consultant for the
city assisting with disaster recovery.
And so, today again we're talking about
the housing unmet needs assessment and
update. So, Megan, next slide for the
overview.
So, to understand the impacts of an
unmet needs assessment, primarily you
look at FEMA individual assistance data
as the ability to understand housing
impacts. Obviously,
households, renters, homeowners apply to
that access to the individual
assistance. FEMA collects that data and
from there they start doing inspections
and verifications.
Um so, early on when we did the unmet
needs analysis, the original action plan
amendment, we had 2025 FEMA individual
data sets. And so, with the substantial
action plan amendment that we put in, we
had to basically look at updated FEMA
individual assistance data, which was
available
January 2026.
So, looking at unmet needs, it's a
different calibration of
SBA for economic development,
infrastructure sometimes looking at FEMA
public assistance or HMP, but housing
inevitably you're using FEMA individual
data sets to understand the impacts. So,
this presentation is going to kind of go
over the differences between owner
occupants and tenants.
Uh just to show you a different frame of
reference, we had a total of 14,589
owner occupants that uh applied to FEMA.
We had 20,633
renters that applied as of 2026. So,
basically a 10% change in owner
occupants from 2025 and about a 16%
change in renters applying since 2025.
Just to put it in frame of reference,
the city of Asheville has a total of
93,000
people in it.
The average household size is 2.43.
So, really you have about 38,486
households. So, when you look at that
combined aspect of renters and owners
applying, essentially 91.52%
of your households applied for FEMA
individual assistance. You know, I've
done this for a long time and I just
want to applaud the city for
you know, telling the public to apply
that assistance because majority if not
all of your applicants that within your
population had the availability when it
was there.
Uh next slide.
All right, so let's talk a little bit
about the owner-occupied households.
Now,
with the uh updates in 2026, again
there's now 14,589
households that applied, but the issue
with FEMA data is that it you're always
playing catch-up, right? And so, because
Asheville, you know, one of the fastest
CDBG awards in history after an event,
you're always playing in this kind of
limbo period of playing where the FEMA you know FEMA PA, HMP is never in
line when you're trying to create your
unmet needs analysis, okay?
So when we looked at the updated data
set, we realized the changes between
2025 and the changes in 2026, FEMA had
only inspected 30% of your
owner-occupied households. And so when
we're trying to create an unmet needs
update for the substantial action plan
amendment, we kind of had to make some
assumptions in the absence of FEMA
actually inspecting those properties.
Because that is you know, math is math,
right? 100% should have been inspected,
they only inspected 30% which means 70%
of the households out of the 14,000
individuals did not have an inspection
done. And so we try to do in the next
chart is going to be a little flow and
it's going to be a little more easier to
understand. This is a lot of data, a lot
to take in. But some key takeaways in
this is that with the observed damages,
had they inspected all properties,
probably 2,181
owner-occupied homes may have had
substantial major damage and FEMA
estimates that exceeding $8,000 in real
property loss, okay?
We then looked at the FEMA property
insurance data as it relates to the
inspected homes and how many of those
houses either were uninsured or
underinsured. So in these assumptions
you're going to see in the chart next
that about 286 households were either
underinsured
or uninsured, excuse me, or 1,900 of
them being underinsured creating some
significant recovery challenges. So with
a culmination of this analysis, you're
looking at somewhere in the
approximation of $180 million in total
unmet needs for housing,
$123 million for those underinsured and
$57 million for uninsured properties.
But again, as Nikki just said, when we
started off, FEMA does not tell us
what's happened since then. So, if we
create an action plan based on 2025 FEMA
individual data sets, and we've got
updated since January 2026, of course we
did see that 10% 14% change in owner
occupants and renters, but it doesn't
tell the story about what has happened
from recovery from these points, all
right? So, next slide. To kind of put
this in perspective, because those are
key takeaways, we kind of just want to
walk you through the kind of funnel
chart of how we kind of re-updated the
unmet needs based on the FEMA 2026 IA
data set. So, we know for a fact there's
14,589
owner occupants that applied. And so,
FEMA inspected 30% of those, which would
have been the 4,387
uh households, because they did not
actually uh inspect all of them. Of the ones they
did inspect, 658%
of them had something that was either
$5,000 or more, but not destroyed, okay?
So, again, this is
key takeaways here. We're making
assumptions based on the absence of FEMA
inspecting everything, all right? So, in
that assumption,
had they inspected all the properties,
there could have been somewhere around
2188 owner occupants that received some
type of damage above $5,000, but not
destroyed. And I then have to then
ascertain out of the properties that
they did inspect, how many of those
properties were either uninsured
or underinsured. And so, that's where
you see this kind of flowchart, right?
Still using assumptions based on the
data that we had,
it would probably arrive at somewhere
around 286 households that have that
kind of major damage, which would
constitute about a $57 million unmet
need.
In retrospect, you're basically
um subtracting the two 2,188 from the
uninsured leaves you approximately 1,900
people uninsured. Now, there's a vast
difference that you have to understand
in underinsured and uninsured, okay?
In every one of these scenarios, if a
person did in fact get an estimate and
get some type of physical loss, FEMA
most likely gave them some type of
repair assistance, okay? So, as we know
or may not know, any type of FEMA
individual repair assistance will be
counted as a duplication of benefit.
It's available for the recovery effort
in another different type of CDBG funded
program. Where the uninsured issue
happens is that with uninsured, even
with the FEMA individual assistance and
you not having any personal property
insurance as an additional buffer, your
cost of recovery is going to be more.
It's most likely going to have a gap of
somewhere about a $200,000 unmet need.
On the other hand, people who were
uninsured, typically uninsured means
that they went with a very high
deductible insurance plan and the
fortunate fact is what the HUD Universal
data says is that a deductible in and of
itself, the homeowner's responsibility
is not counted as a duplication of
benefit. It's only what insurance
actually paid. So, then they do have
that private property insurance as a
means to be able to recover along with
probably some type of FEMA
individual assistance for repair awards
so. Again, this is a point in time it
does not tell you what's happened since
the recovery effort. It doesn't happen
what's happening through philanthropic
money, through different means, through
private property insurance, through the
means of being able to recover with the
FEMA individual assistance repair award.
It's just a point in time. So, but I
think more grounded in truth is what we
know at least for ones that were
actually inspected because
and I you know, we really are trying to
address the uh the LMI community uh in
the owner-occupied uh setting. So, Megan
place, next slide.
So, to talk about this, is those are
again our ascertains. Again, we have the
ability to make ascertains in updating
unmet needs analysis. Is it a way that
HUD allowed us to move forward with
substantial action plan amendment and
adopting that substantial action plan
amendment with that unmet need analysis.
But, really ground truth in that into
the individuals that primarily are going
to be the hardest to uh to recover,
right? Your LMI community. So,
before we get too too far into like,
what does damage levels mean, right?
Because we're going to talk a little bit
about renters in a second, but
owner-occupants have a vastly different
categorization of
uh damage than renters do.
But, the way that FEMA constitutes
damage is severe, minor high, minor low, You see that on
the chart there. And so, what that
basically says, and HUD also says that
you primarily only look at three main
categories when you're doing an unmet
needs assessment. And that's severe,
major high, major low. So, when looking
at this, you have about 200 You have 23
people in that kind of severe or
destroyed aspect. You know, I cannot
tell you whether or not they're they're the uninsured or underinsured
aspect of it cuz that it's
Every It's not a guarantee to see that data in that
data set. The next 134, the next 196.
So, in in reality,
you have a 153
households that are LMI that have some
type of damage that would either
constitute a reconstruction or some type
of rehabilitation. Now, considering that
and in the absence of us understanding
that kind of recalibration of
assumptions in the number of the 2,188,
I can't tell you how many of those might
be LMI. I'm just ground truthing in what
I know right now. 153 households in
those major categories that you really
want to focus on. Now, you know, and you
guys talked a little bit about the
prioritization of the state level in the
ReBuild NC program, and it's kind of
trending in lines that kind of that
right around number about the ones that
applied. So, whether they applied
through the ReBuild NC program or were
able to recover on their own through
other private uh private property
insurance needs or FEMA individual
repair needs, you are maybe addressing
some of those either within ReBuild
program, private property insurance, or
through the philanthropic on the ground
uh recovery that's inherently happened
uh since the tropical storm Helene.
Uh but then let's talk about
>> interrupt to say
>> Great. I'll just interrupt to say like
so, you know, when I see these numbers,
for me again, it reflects a lot of I
think what we saw as we were looking at
the dashboards that we were receiving
from ReBuild NC about the number of
applications they were receiving. So,
again, I think a lot of especially if we
look at the severe FEMA verified loss,
like if if you were are are low income
and experienced significant loss, it is
likely that you are applying to these
programs of assistance. So, this again
for me represents
with, you know, assumptions that and
caveats that Robbie has shared, but this
does represent the impact to homeowners
for our low-to-moderate income sub-sect.
So, keeping our eye on this like as a
pretty clear picture of of what kind of
um low-income owner household impacts
were experienced across our city. So,
just keep that in mind as we again
reflect on on on the investments that
we've made with ReBuild NC, but then
think through what the long-term
recovery group is doing and how um how
those impacts will continue to show up
and and how to address those. So,
thanks, Robbie.
>> And
also, um is it okay if we ask questions
during? I just want to open up the floor
if anyone else has any questions. There
is lots of numbers up here, so I didn't
want to
save all questions. I just wanted to say
that if anyone has anything now
ask that rather than just waiting
afterwards.
>> Can I ask the clarifying question? When
you say FEMA individual assistance, I
guess the number like 92% of households
applied for this, that kind of made me
think is this referring to or does this
include that $750
that individuals could apply for?
>> It absolutely does and that's I was
going to get to that point in a second
and when when you start seeing
is this same slide for household is it
low to low to moderate slide still up on
the on the on
>> Yeah, we're looking at the low to
moderate income households impacts,
yeah.
>> So let's let's look at that very very
last line cuz I mean you're probably
thinking wow 4,740
LMI households are it's a big number but
in reality they probably just got that
food stipend, you know, I mean the
number between that you're probably
totally talking about a hundred maybe
that had somewhere between a thousand to
three thousand dollars in in in loss and
I mean
typically when FEMA individual
assistance repair awards we give give
that to them it's only going to be a
couple thousand dollars cuz in reality
that's what it probably takes just for
the minor cosmetic aspects of what
actually happened to their to the real
property loss. A lot of those numbers
are just people truly getting that that
stipend.
>> Right.
>> You know.
>> Then follow up question.
Like for example, I I applied and got
that $750
stipend at the time. I did not have any
property damage. So
is there any like selective bias where
like does does FEMA inspect more of the
households that reported property
damage? Like is there a skewing in we're
saying you know 15% I think that's the
right number. 15% of the households that
FEMA
looked at their structure. Um
>> 30% inspections. I mean, here's
>> Also, they inspected 30% of the total
applicants, but then they only found
that a certain percent of that 30%
actually had structural damage. So, is
that 30% that got
physically evaluated? Does that
Did they look more at the households
that reported damage? My [clears throat]
point here is wondering
is it right to apply the assumption that a certain
percentage of households likely have
this structural damage if there was a
bias in only evaluating households with
that reported structural damage?
I hope that makes
>> necessarily I wouldn't go straight to
the bias aspect of it because, you know,
but
if there's not enough boots on the
ground, I mean, remember this is just
this is Asheville's
I data. This is not Buncombe. This is
not in Western North Carolina. So, you
only have so many people that can do
inspections, you know? And so, where you
they do it Yeah, they inevitably they
will inspect the ones where a person had
self-reported damage, but it could have
just been some of them got missed. But
you're also dealing with
a federal data set that people are
filling out on the fields. There's
inaccuracies in all that, you know? But
what this doesn't show is what we
and inevitably what the ReNew and See
program has is something called a DOB
database. So, that is more up-to-date so
that if a person does apply and that
we're missing that that linkage of that
inspection and it didn't actually occur,
they have access to be able to
understand that to infer any type of
duplication of benefit they might give
for a repair award. I just don't see
this. I'm not able to get see that in this in that data. But
I wouldn't go to the bias route. I think it was manpower just the not
enough inspectors in the field to be
able to do everything they needed to do,
you know? But I mean, but you see, I
mean, from a year's difference, you had,
you know,
17% more renters apply, right? They They
typically don't do a lot of inspections
for renters cuz typically those are
going to you're going to see this in the
next slide is a lot of apartments.
Um but you did have a 17% increase in
owner occupants. That kind of probably
ticked up to you probably getting
another 2% from that from It was
probably It was probably 28%. So they
did about 2% more inspections in that in
that additional $10,000 and 10,000 um
people added to the the um
the individual homeowners, you know?
>> [clears throat]
>> Um
I mean, as it's it's it's it's the best
available data that we have, you know?
Um I mean, I think the resources
collectively as a team, you know, the
long-term recovery group, you know, the
different uh COCs, the philanthropic um
on the ground to the ears are going to
be able to fill some type of unknown
gaps of with the absence of FEMA FEMA
data is not going to be able to tell
you, you know?
» Great. Thanks, Robbie. And just um
for Logan, if you can turn our speakers
up just a little in this room, that'll
be helpful. We're struggling just a
little bit to hear in the room if that's
possible. But sorry to interrupt,
Robbie. Why don't you go on to the next
part cuz I do think um unpacking the
renter impact is also going to help
complete the picture of our housing uh
situation. So, let's keep going.
>> Absolutely. So, the renter household
actually accounts for your largest uh
population for individual assistance. Um
220,600
individuals. 61% of those individuals
are LMI households. But to your point,
uh Eloise Eloise,
Um
what we're looking at is substantial
impacts beyond the water and power
outages because
in the absence of you actually having
any personal property loss, which we're
going to talk about on this FEMA looks
at renters a little bit different, all
right? Most of these individuals got the
stipend, right? So, we really want to
look beyond the water and power outages.
That's That's typically what it would
have would have gotten that stipend for.
So, with that, we had 1,827 renter
households with documented personal
property damage. Of those, 63% were low
to moderate, or 1,159 households. The
remaining unmet renter need appears to
be concentrated primarily on 424
impacted LMI households living in rental
houses and duplexes. I want to focus on
rental houses and duplexes to show you
even more in this next slide. And then
we're going to talk about 47 households
with the most significant property
losses within that category of single
family and duplexes.
Um so, the next slide.
So, these are truth, right? So, these
are 20,633.
Um
again, FEMA did not inspect all of
these, but with that, we do know where
they live, right? So, we do know what
their income is. 61% of those 12,000
were LMI, 24% non-LMI, and because this
is a voluntary question that you don't
have to answer, you had about 3,000
people, or 14% of the individuals not
reporting their income. Now,
it's it's really evident, you know,
where you live matters because where you
live is how it the the facility in and
of itself recovers. So,
52% of those 20,000 people live in
apartment complexes, okay?
Apartment complexes inherently have
private property insurance. They recover
through that private property insurance.
They don't usually They don't get FEMA
individual assistance to do that. Of
course, there is a rapid multi-family
program that is offered through FEMA.
I'm not sure if any of them took
advantage of that, but at we've looked
through the Bowan study, we've looked
through the different reoccupying of the
LIHTC deals, the market rate
developments, and a lot of those have
recovered. So, in essence,
the renters have had the opportunity to
be rehoused under the means of private
property insurance. Now, the issue with
individual living in duplexes and and
housing and single-family housing, 33%
of them,
they can't recover, right? I mean, the
landlord is the person who has to
recover. In the absence of the landlord
having insurance for the coverage of it,
they might not have the ability to still
occupy that house, right? And then the
other combined types, it's a misnumber
in there. You have dorm rooms, military
housing, nursing centers, a lot of
different combined weird and it's Again,
this is FEMA data. You're it's you're
beholden to the person checking the
right box of who's actually applying
somewhere. So, I really want to focus on
those uh those housing and duplexes uh
so, the next slide because you know,
we're talking about the you know, the
assistance to low to moderate
households. Uh next slide.
We want to look a little bit about what
is their impacts related to their
personal property loss. Now, I mentioned
earlier that, you know, FEMA has a way
of defining things on an owner basis.
It's vastly different from a renter
basis.
So, on an owner basis, they look at what
is the damage relative to the real
property loss, and they categorize those
in the same way, severe, minor high,
minor low, minor, and so on.
The way that FEMA constitutes um damages
for renters, it's based on their
personal property loss.
And just to kind of put it like in a
crosswalk, okay? Let's focus on major
high. So, if a person, a renter,
is major high, they have a $5,500 to a
$9,000 personal property loss. That's
equatable
to if you look at the structure damage
on the owner occupant side of a house
having somewhere between 15,000 and
28,800
dollars in real property loss. So that
tells you that that house most likely is
either on the cusp of a reconstruction
or definitely needs rehabilitation.
Okay? So as you see here, the
apartments, yes, inherently you have a a
large number of individuals in LMI
living in apartments, but like I said,
majority of those individuals have
probably been rehoused through the
ability for those private property
insurance claims to be able to bring
those apartment units back online. Where
we need to focus attention on are
housing and duplexes. So of the ones
that you typically want to care you
really want to look at it is typically
like the HUD wants severe, major high,
major low, and they kind of stop there
in the unmet needs analysis, but I don't
want to look overlook the individuals
that are in the minor high cuz $2,500 to
$3,400 in personal property loss could
be something that is their car got
flooded or they probably got some type
of water on the first floor to damage
some type of furniture. So there FEMA
gives them an award for personal
property loss to be able to help them
recover from a from a loss perspective
for their personal property, but it does
not allow them the opportunity to have
the house rehab. It has to be done
through other means. So
with that, you know, early on in the key
takeaways, I talked about 424 people
living in those housing duplexes that I
really want to focus
the attention on those 47 renter
households. That's going to be the ones
that are in major high, major low, and
minor high. Uh and just giving you an
option an opportunity to understand how
they probably may have been served uh is
in the next slide.
So um I'm very familiar
>> put a fine point on that cuz just again,
my takeaway as and at least this kind of
goes back to what you're saying earlier.
So when we look Let me go back just a
second. when
again, looking at this, understanding
that personal property damage that
renters experienced,
as as Alisa said earlier, you can see in
that minor low, it's likely that, you
know, the the the power outage, the
water outage caused that damage, right?
So, fridge went out, lost all the food,
freezer went out. That's where we're
seeing that. But again, like trying then
to zero in on where were impacts felt
that maybe does not have a clear line of
recovery, right? And so, again, as as
Robbie points out, trying to understand,
well, what is happening in the framework
of single-family or landlord-owned
single houses or duplexes, what are
their options for recovery? Because our
programs have been focused on
single-family homeowner-occupied, right?
And new rental construction. But then,
what is what is what is there for people
who have been renting whole houses that
may or may not have recovered. Um
And then, yes, when Robbie and I were
talking about this, you know, one thing
that we're tracking now is Renew NC's
program for that underserved population.
So, they are And And Robbie, take it
away. I'll let you kind of walk us
through this, and then we'll wrap up,
cuz we have just a couple more slides.
>> here as well.
>> Yeah, go ahead.
>> Does housing impact include things like
private roads and bridges or access to
the home?
>> Um that would be
it would be that would be typically the
responsibility It depends on if it's a state-owned road, uh which
>> private road, like driveway.
>> Yeah, private road. I mean, you know,
under the Renew NC program, they do
allow a private property road to be a
component of the
eligible expense if it's the necessary
egress for them to to leave it. But from
the renter household perspective, I
don't think that program
I don't speak
I don't know enough about
the small rental program, but I don't
think that was a component of that
particular program. But it was something
for the owner occupied um
>> So it's included in these numbers here?
>> Um for the renter for the LMI renter
households?
>> Yeah, access to their property or to
their
>> No, it's it's not
but I can do some more research. I can
get back to you on that. I mean, you
know, I ran a very very similar program
to this in Louisiana called the
Louisiana neighbor neighborhood program.
Um we it was a $47 million program that
we did about 339 units out of it. Um
what's different in this program is that
if you if you go to the
Let's go to the renewal one. The
difference in this program is $57
million.
They have capped max caps awarded
$450,000
per project. So that's where I'm
thinking maybe they do have the right away access to those roads if
you're saying that up to $1.5 million
could be an eligible project because
typically the fourplexes don't
necessarily need $1.5 million to cover
so maybe they do have access roads that
I could look look more into that to see
what the eligible uses could be.
Um
>> [snorts]
>> And then I'll I'll just share too. So
when we So this program is now the
application period is has concluded as far as I understand and we're just
tracking again, this is a a public
dashboard that Renew and See populates
on their website. You can hover over the
different counties and we saw that 32
applications have been received for
Buncombe County.
So it's just again a point of reference.
Um
And I think just checking time right
quick Robbie, any final questions? This
was the conclusion of Robbie's slide and
then we'll turn it over to Buncombe
County's
>> Yeah, I think
>> [clears throat]
>> the bigger impact for these renters is
that where you see property personal
property damage, you saw likely saw
property damage which isn't covered by
this program, but these were all
low-to-moderate income households,
likely renting in older apartments as
those landlords made improvements to
those important apartments and the
leases came up for renewals, the rents
went up. And what we're seeing is that
people are being displaced because they
can't afford the increase in rents.
So, this
that property damage and then the
insurance coverage for it is creating
displacement in the community amongst
this group of people and that's a lot of
people just to displace. If you go back
to the slides, I mean
you could you know, if you got even amongst those people who
are down in the lowest category, you
could have water damage in units, people
are coming and replacing ceilings,
painting units, replacing appliances,
and then those apartments all become
unaffordable.
And I think that's the real crisis
that's occurred in the community for
those individuals. It's not the loss of
a couch, it's the loss of their unit.
>> Absolutely agree.
>> Right, cuz cuz that's what we were
correlating, right? Is that what we're
seeing here is your personal property
damage, whether it's your couch or your
you know, materials in your home, your
stuff.
>> Right.
>> But really that correlation of dwelling
damage is is is is got to be very high.
So, when you see a lot of property
personal property damage, you got to
know that that structure's got to be
>> Yes.
>> challenged, too.
>> And then once you rehab a unit, then you
can charge more money for it. It's not a
$1,100 a month unit, it's a $1,400 a
month unit.
>> Yeah, the beauty of the renewal and CDBG
program is that the any person partaking
as a landlord in this program would have
to have a 10-year affordability
commitment on the on the unit that
served. So,
um while those person those individual
might have been displaced because their
unit was became you know,
uninhabitable, with the actual
rehabilitation reconstruction of this
single-family duplex street tri's or
quads,
the landlords have to rent to LMI
households and it's rent restricted for
10 years in that program.
» But that's the
>> So you really want to bring more of
those programs
>> 32 households that got covered by that
program?
>> Well, that's Yeah.
>> Yeah. That's what it was.
>> No one's covered yet.
>> It's just in in application. So
um
Okay.
I'm keeping time for you, Josh. So if we
need to move on um
>> That seems okay.
>> Yeah. Uh thank you, Robbie, for that.
was really helpful. Um I think it'd
be good cuz we got public comments still
and it'd be good to make sure that we
give um LTRG at least 20 minutes. So
thank you, Robbie. Um
for the next
presentation here, um
we are going to have a uh presentation
from the long-term recovery group.
They'll have 20 minutes.
Um and uh Sarah Roth will be doing the
presentation. Um
>> Great. It's
12:55. So we'll have like at least until
1:15.
>> Okay. And that's for the full thing
including
both parts, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. I think we can go like a hair over
if we need to.
How much public comment do we do we
have?
>> We No, we don't really We don't have too
much public comment.
>> Oh, yeah. So we can go a little past
that.
>> Past that's fine. And is it okay um um
like the other presentation to ask
questions during?
>> Totally.
>> Okay. Great.
>> Yeah.
Great. Awesome. Well, thanks for having
me. Um my name is Sarah Roth. I'm the
interim executive director for the
Buncombe County Long-Term Recovery
Group. I'm also the senior director of
community resilience at United Way. So I
kind of wear dual hats um in this role.
Um and yeah, if you want to just go
ahead and go to the first slide, I
wanted to give a little bit of sort of
context setting around sort of who we
are and what we do.
Um and a lot of what we think about, we
really handle household level recovery.
So it's really on that individual basis.
Households apply if they need
assistance, and then we're working with
them through the process. So, our
process, we think of it as a four-step
process. We have our intake. Um it is an
online form that captures their
household information, demographics, um
their damage self-reported damage
assessment. Um and then we basically
take that information, and it gets
prioritized based on the household. So,
looking at factors, is it a household
with children? Is it a household with
seniors? Did they have severe damage or
minor damage? Did they get insurance?
All those things sort of roll up into
somebody's prioritization.
And then we take that and then determine
their eligibility for um full case
management. Um and so, we have different
case management agencies. So, like Nikki
said earlier, if we've so many different
partners in our community that are
already doing work, we're partnering
with a lot of those agencies to provide
wraparound case management services. So,
once we sort of get a case out a
household out to our partners, they then
work with them to identify what are
their remaining needs. Let's develop a
recovery plan and help them see through
getting connected to recovery resources.
So, right now, um we have a couple
different recovery resources that are
available. So, we do have a construction
um program. It is not us doing direct
construction work. Again, it's a partner
network of construction partners. So,
we're working with places like Fuller
Center, Disaster Rebuilders, Valley Hope
Foundation, a number of different
agencies that we can then say, "Here's
this household. We have this identified
need." and match them with that partner.
Um we have data sharing agreements with
both FEMA and renew. Um and so, when a
case comes in, we are able to match with
the FEMA data, so we can then identify
what this person has received from FEMA.
And then we also have a part a data
sharing with Renew, so that we can
understand is this somebody that's
already in the Renew pipeline, so we
just need to support them with case
management, or is it someone that was
denied or withdrew from Renew and get an
understanding of why that is and then
figure out what partner we might want to
what match them with.
Then we have TRA assistance, so the
temporary relocation assistance. So,
this is really moving needs, storage
needs,
um and in the future we'll have some
temporary rental assistance that's just
while someone is going through the
rebuild time frame. Um so, it's really
to cover that bridge funding, and a lot
of these referrals we're getting from
Renew. So, Renew can cover the overnight
cost of somebody who is in their program
and has to be out of their unit while
the rebuild is happening. They cannot be
or the repair, they cannot be in their
unit, so they have to vacate the home.
They're then the they're paying for the
overnight cost, but any of the moving
truck, a storage unit, anything like
that is not covered. So, those referrals
are coming to us to help meet that need
either through volunteer support or
through financial assistance.
We also then have a fund available for
moving supplies and try to connect
people to if they need a mattress or a
washer dryer, something like that, so we
have that available. And then we do have
a bucket of sort of
flexible financial assistance, right?
Where it's those
last minute needs that are still
unaddressed that they weren't able to
meet either through their FEMA
assistance or they didn't apply or
anything like that, we can help them
meet those remaining needs for those
homes.
>> I think I see one one question up there.
Elise, do you have a question?
>> Yes, um I'm sorry if I missed this, but
is is the long-term recovery group part
of the Buncombe County government or is
this a different organization that's
>> Yeah, it's different. Yeah, so
we are separate right now. United Way is
the fiscal sponsor and staffing partner
for this and it is a collaboration of a
number of different partner
organizations who are all doing the
work.
This all began sort of really quickly
after the storm. FEMA approached United
Way and was basically like, "So,
typically after a storm a long-term
recovery group forms." Right? We're
like, "I've never heard of this before."
Learned a lot about it, tried to figure
it out and it's really to cover the gaps
that FEMA leaves behind in essence,
right? We know FEMA assistance does not
cover enough
and so it's really trying to connect
with a lot of the community partners who
are doing the work. We have a lot of
agencies that came into our community
who are doing rebuilds or providing
support. We have a lot of kind of
homegrown organizations that started up
right after the storm and so this is a
network of folks that are trying to all
work together. So, it's it's supporting
that household journey and then bringing
those partners together so everyone is
working together.
>> And what is the source of funding?
>> We have a number of different sources.
It's all Right now, it's all grants. So,
we have a large grant from Red Cross
right now which is our predominant
source but we have other grants from
Dogwood, from United Way North Carolina,
the United Way here, WNC Bridge
Foundation. So, we have small buckets
from different sources but it's all
private dollars so there's no state or
federal funding for it.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay, so I have a question.
So, you're saying that I know that you
say you get a lot of your clients from
Renew NC.
Um working with them. So,
you're and then also stated that a lot
of your funding there's really no state
and federal
stipulations. Is Is that what I'm
hearing as far as like how you can help
a family?
>> Yeah, and so the clients we're getting
for Renew are just that temporary
relocation assistance. We're not
necessarily that's not our case
management services. [snorts] So it's
just that one bucket. Um but yes, that's
correct. I mean, we're getting referrals
from Renew, but there is no state
funding for the support around storage
or moving. So we are using the
philanthropic dollars that we have
through grants to support that.
>> So I mean, what I'm asking is so I'm
working with several families and
um I've been in some of these long-term
recovery meetings with with different
groups and stuff that are that are
working toward different, you know,
talking about different resources and
things that they have. So the families
that I'm working with, they do not meet
the requirements up under Renew
uh for different reasons, which I won't
take a lot of time with right now.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh
and um two of them don't, but one of
them has been up under Renew, I guess
we're going on like a year and a half
now waiting to see if this family is
going to finally get to their home and
their roof is caving in. But um the
other two, one of them they really could
not meet the guidelines up under Renew
for different reasons. So I'm wondering
and from from hearing you what you just
said,
making a connection with your
organization to see if there's something
because we also one of our other
families is receiving a lot of support
from the Red Cross
>> Mhm.
>> because um they were they were denied
different things by Renew. But the other family, we're still like
working with the city of Asheville as
far as like getting stormwater stuff
taken care of so that
organizations can actually come on and
build the home and get these families
back into their own
So, I would love to have your your
information so that I can make that
connection and just see
have a conversation as to see if this is
something, some type of wraparound
support that you can provide for these
families and meet with these families.
>> Yeah, that does I mean that is what our purpose is is to fill the gap that
other services are not able to fill and
because our money is not state money,
it's a lot more flexible in terms of the
requirements.
Um and so those are definitely folks
that you could, you know, we could
support and try to get connected to case
management and then work through. So,
absolutely and I'm realizing I should
have put all the contact information on
the slides and I didn't so I will make
sure that all of that gets to Nikki and
goes out to you all. Um but yeah, so
this is just high-level kind of where
we're at number wise. Um so we've had
and we started doing intake in August of
25.
Um and so to date we've had 1,162
households um through our intake. We
currently have 408 active case
management cases and that's through the
partner network of eight case management
agencies. We have 123
construction cases in our pipeline so
those are all households that have done
the intake and then identified that they
have a home repair need specifically.
We have done rounds of just general
rental assistance as well as eviction
prevention so a little over a million
dollars specifically around rental and
eviction prevention and then um a little
over 300,000 dollars specifically on the
construction support. Um so we're able
to provide those construction partners
that are doing the work with material
funds or contractor costs um on the
project by project basis.
Go ahead.
A little bit about who we're serving.
So, um in April, home repair sort of
bumped to number one for us in terms of
what folks were identifying as a need
coming through our web portal. Um we
have predominantly under 80% AMI. That
is not a requirement for our services
because of that prioritization that I
talked about earlier. It sort of all
rolls up that in theory you could have
someone with a little bit higher, but
high household needs and high damage. Um
and really about half of our folks are
under 30% AMI.
Um rural households, about a little over
half. That's a self-identification.
So, it's not like a USDA designation or
anything like that. That's just someone
identifying that, you know, our is a
rural property.
Um and then about a quarter for
households with a disability, households
with children, or households with
seniors. Um and then about 8% um are
Spanish-speaking households. And then I
didn't have as a chart cuz we've only
done it for about a month. We've started
tracking um race data. Um and so, in
July, we had it was about 69% white, 19%
black or African-American, and 8%
American Indian or Alaskan Native. So,
that's a new We're trying to, you know,
use this information to then also help
do outreach to make sure that we're
reaching communities that maybe
historically weren't accessing services.
So, we can use this data to help inform
um our outreach plan.
Go ahead.
Um the So, the housing assistance I
mentioned earlier, again, it was about
600,000 for eviction prevention, and
then 480 for rental assistance. Both of
those had to be storm-impacted.
Um but the eviction prevention was very
specifically tied to enrolled in case
management and they're facing eviction.
Whereas, the rental assistance, they did
not need to be in case management, but
they just needed um
they had a storm impact and needed
rental assistance. And we worked with
the six different partner agencies to
administer these funds. So, um like
Eblin Charities, Grace Covenant
Presbyterian Church. So, a number of
different partners who were actually the
ones administering that fund. And at
this point most of that is now spent.
So, there really isn't much in terms of
the eviction prevention or general
rental assistance. Um and really as that
has sort of winded down and as we get
further from the storm it gets harder
and harder to tie specifically
like a rental assistance need back to
the storm. So, at the moment we're
really focusing on that temporary rental
assistance for folks who are going
through a rebuild or repair to provide
that sort of bridge um assistance.
Go ahead.
This is that temporary relocation. So,
right now we've received a little over
100 referrals. These are outside of
those numbers I shared earlier. So,
these are separate cases coming straight
from Renew.
Um that really Renew like I said is
paying for those overnight costs and
then we're identifying any of those sort
of supplementary needs. Needing to move
out of the home, they need a storage pod
on their property, or they need a
storage unit. Um some is pet boarding or
just challenges with housing um because
right now a lot of contractors are
trying to they're finding hotels, but
that hotel won't allow a pet. And so,
we're trying to help folks sort of
navigate through that temporary
relocation assistance process and um
it's long and complicated. So.
Um construction. So, here's sort of um
and these numbers the numbers here are a
little different than the numbers there
cuz I pulled them at different times. I
probably should have double checked
that. But, so we have 36 active
projects. So, those are ones that are
matched with one of our construction
partners.
Um 119
um in the pipeline. I know the previous
one I think said 123, but you know, they
shifted as they close. So, those are
ones who have identified a home repair
need. That eight completed projects is
actually now 13 as of this morning. So,
we have 13 completed projects. And then
we have seven partner agencies that have
those 36 projects. And this is a map
that sort of shows
the construction projects that have
completed our pre-screens. So, that
means they've actually filled out the
form and submitted their
homeowner documentation, any sort of
income verification. So, that's where
sort of
the
general area of where we've received
most of our
completed ones. Yeah.
>> a question. Yeah, I've always been
interested in in getting more home
repair data.
Do you have like a cost per
unit data and just any other kind of
qualitative or anecdotal data on the the
types of repairs that you're seeing?
>> Yeah, it's really varied. And a lot
happens where, you know, so there's
doing another presentation today that
actually has a few of those. So, it's
great. It's good practice for me. But,
so
some that like they'll get referred for
one problem that they've identified. So,
we had one that was basically referred
to us for an HVAC that got flooded. So,
they were sort of working on that. But,
then the partner that went out there
actually identified there was an
additional roof need. So, like then
being able to pull that together and you
know, we were able to provide the
funding for that to be completed. That
partner pulled in a lot of volunteers
and other donated
materials to be able to pull that
project off. So, it kind of takes that
sort of multi-point. The other is like
filling a gap for things cuz we have one
referral that came in that was denied
through another program because someone
in the house is undocumented, but the
homeowner is a US citizen. But they were
denied services and so they have now
come through us and they're going to get
they were in a mobile home and are now
going to get a stick-built home on the
property. So it really is case-by-case
and it varies. In terms of spend, we we
do have a cap on what we can spend. So
right now it's about 10 to 15,000 for a
repair and then it's 40 to 60,000 for a
full rebuild, which we know is not
enough for a full rebuild, right? Who
can build a house for $60,000? Nobody.
Um and so it really that's where the
collaborative network comes in that if
we have a partner that can bring some of
the funding that they have, we can put
in some additional funding, pulling in
volunteers for the labor in order to do
it and then pulling in like the moving
supplies, the furniture and donated and
things like that. So trying it's it's a
piecemeal together kind of process um at
for each individual household. Um so
yeah, the the projects really truly
vary. Now we're seeing a couple more
where it's a access issue in addition to
a home repair issue. So they can't start
the project until the access issue is
solved. Like the private road, private
driveway, all those pieces that that
needs to be solved first before a home
repair can be solved. And we do have two
partners that are really doing sort of
private road and bridge repair, which
has been huge because I said that you
can't start if you can't get there. Um
especially if you need to get there with
heavy machinery or anything like that.
So
yeah, it's not enough. You know, some of
the state budget, you know, has funding
um for more rebuilds. We had done when
the um
there was the emergency management VOAD
grant that had come out. We had applied
for that previously and tried to bump
our
um like full rebuild cost to like 110.
But we didn't get approved that time.
Hopefully we will be able to apply this
time and and do
get approved for another round. But
yeah, the cost is challenging when
funders are restricted on how much you
can spend per project.
Yeah.
And then this is just a map of sort of
the ones that are in pre-screen. So
these are just the households that have
been sent the screener. They haven't
necessarily filled it out yet. Not all
of these will come through. Some folks
may have filled this out because they
were like, "It's not happening with
Renew. I'm going to fill this out." and
then actually finds out that they can
get through Renew. So there some will
fall off
of this map, but this is just sort of
that basically that 120 that's in the
pipeline is this crew.
So yeah, really sort of our
the partnerships are key for us because
like I said, there's so many different
you need to pull in funding from
multiple sources, pulling in volunteers,
all of those pieces. So we're really
committed to taking on the households
that fall through the gap. We know that
there's a lot in the Renew program who
withdraw, right? Renew has also limits
in if it's above a $100,000 repair, then
it triggers a full rebuild. And someone
who needs 101,000 might be like, "I
don't want a new house. I just want this
fixed." right? So those folks might be
withdrawing and therefore coming to us,
but then that's still a $100,000
rebuild, right? Or repair.
So we're we're trying to figure out how
we can fill those gaps and sort of
sustain that
over time. So sustained funding is
really important for us. We know that
case management is a key part of the
process. Navigating this process alone
when you need so many different things.
You also have, you know, sort of the
trauma from experiencing it all, but
having somebody walk alongside you
through this process is really critical.
So, we're trying to sustain that network
of case management agencies that can
connect people to those recovery
services. And then just sort of ongoing
coordination between the different
entities that are doing different pieces
of the work, like Renew, like the city,
Buncombe County, all sort of trying to
stay connected is a big part of what
we're doing, too, to just make sure that
we're not all duplicating or um
yeah. So, we're sort of staying in touch
with each other.
And I'm going to pass now to Miguel. Um
we um originally had someone um a case
manager from one of our partner agencies
who was going to come. She was not able
to, so Miguel, who is our case
management lead with the long-term
recovery group, helps work with those
eight partner agencies across the
network. Um so, he's going to talk a
little bit about some of the sort of
day-to-day, like what does that look
like for case managers.
» How's it going, everyone? My name is
Miguel Hernandez. I'm the DCM lead for
the Buncombe County long-term recovery
group. Give you a little bit of context
of what I do.
Uh we have eight uh disaster case
management agencies we work with and
about 17 case managers across those
agencies. My job is to coordinate with
them,
uh strengthen our network of
partnership, do some supervision, and
provide more guidance and training on
case management.
So, basically what we've seen
um
it's actually been for the past 2 years
is um we have a bit of a
So, we've done some uh some outreach to
the community out here, but we're very
internet focused, right? Our form is
online. You know, that we partner up
with uh Red Cross to do outreach to help
people fill out their intake forms over
the phone. Uh there are still folks in
rural areas, our elderly folks, or
people, you know, don't have internet
who may have not heard of us, so we need
to improve our outreach process is reach
those communities.
Right?
Um other issues that we have is
definitely housing. Housing's been the
one issue until recently cuz this summer
we did a big push for home repair
outreach over across. But before that,
right? How finding housing for people
has been the biggest challenge,
especially for folks who may not be able
to find who whose homes were destroyed
or displaced by the storm and not able
to fulfill the three times rent requirements for a
lot of these apartment complexes cuz
it's the or the credit uh
check requirements.
Um that's been a big thing. So, our goal
here for case management is to get the
person back to
baseline, right? Where were the they're
for some or better than baseline. But a
lot of this uh folks we're getting right
now, especially 2 years after the storm,
were never at baseline or their
attachment to that baseline was 10 years
at best. So, when we get folks 2 years
in the storm, we're still finding people
with the disabilities, the elderly, the
undocumented, people chronic uh
you know, health issues that don't allow
them to work, people with chronic
poverty issues, chronic homelessness.
So, at this point um
the cases we're getting are the ones
that require the heavier touch, the re-
the referral to resources that may not
exist, and the access to funding that we
don't have access to right now.
Um as you can see here, right? The
rental housing supply has shrunk. So,
Helene damaged or destroyed about 6,500
houses across the county.
Um a lot of people are moving out of the
state, out of the region, going to South
Carolina cuz they just simply can't
afford to live here. And that's what a
lot of case managers
are having to do. Assist people to move
out of the area, people who grew up
here,
uh take their kids to schools here,
who've been here for generations, can no
longer afford to live here.
Um another thing too is recently we're
going to have a challenge wherein uh
FEMA's temporary housing assistance
is ending in Septem- is in September. A
lot of those people who are there um
already are clients of ours, but we do
see we're going to see a bit of an
influx at the end of September with
folks coming to us for assistance. And
these folks are like 2 years living in
hotels or temporary Airbnbs.
And when they come to us and we have to
find a way to find housing, when you
look at the housing stock, it's like
it's it's tough out here.
Um
Yeah, and that's pretty much is the
housing issue is the biggest one that
we're facing at this point.
Um
Yes, any questions?
>> I have a question. Are you having Do you
Are you having any luck with ADA
appliance
ADA compliance apartments or housing
for your people that you're supporting?
>> I mean, yes and no. Um a lot of these
housing
Like if we're talking about affordable
housing or elderly housing have long
wait lists,
for example, but also like what somebody
can afford without going for those
housing is
especially with the elderly and disabled
is a lot of the housing stock right
there right, owned by private landlords,
are not ADA compliant, are not,
you know,
um fit for people with disabilities to
access. So, sometimes with the case
managers, they have to work with what
they have and may put somebody in a
situation that's in a maybe a trailer
that's moldy or doesn't have like a a
ramp or just put somebody in there, but
it's like better than
person not having a place to stay. So,
it's
kind of like a
case-by-case basis on that one.
» So, you So, you're saying that the
person may even identify
particular mobile home, apartment, or
house, whatever, and that up on that
identifying that home and they need ADA
support, then your organization could
possibly come in and maybe help put a
ramp there so that they can move into
the home.
>> For us, I don't
So, that's not something that that can
do ourselves. We we try to guide the
case managers
>> with different organizations.
>> Yeah, we try to make guide the case
managers make referrals to other
organizations that may have provide that
service, but a lot of these
organizations have long wait list or uh
have lost funding.
Um so for a lot of people it's it's the
kind of wait and see approach to see if
you even get approved for that kind of
assistance.
Sure.
Go right ahead.
>> Um the one thing I'll add to that is
that if we do some what we do see is
that um if someone received a
construction, repair, or something that
happened with another entity that didn't
meet that requirement for them, we're
getting that referral and then some of
our partners are able to then fulfill
that request. So if somebody does need a
ramp that's put on then it's something
that we can look at with our
construction fund. Um it's not something
we can really do with rental units. The
problem, you know, with rental units you
have it's you need the homeowner to
approve any change, right? We can't just
sort of go through with the renter needs
that. So it's really in those homeowner
occupied units. So if they did get
something and then if the rebuild if a
repair or a rebuild is happening through
one of our partners, they will make sure
that that is part of their process to
make sure that those are accessible for
those folks.
>> Okay.
So they if the homeowner says yes that
you can make this change to their
property and you're able to contract
with someone, is that something that
could happen?
>> Yes. Yes, that can happen.
>> Okay.
>> But if it's um say the landlord is not
responsive or not willing to have that
work done then
um
so we can't really help with that.
>> Correct.
Yes.
But there's an option.
>> Yes, indeed.
» I don't really have any questions, but I
do want to say how uh much I appreciate
the work that the long-term recovery
group has done. The rental assistance
has kept thousands of people in Buncombe
County able to stay and I'm of course
very concerned about that running out
for what that's going to mean for our
community.
And the other thing I are you still
looking for a chairperson for the
subcommittee of the housing long-term
recovery group? Okay, just want to make
sure everyone on this group knows that
the long-term recovery group for
Buncombe County is looking for
a chairperson for that role.
It's a excellent group of people who are
very connected to the work being done in
our community. And so if anybody's
interested in doing that, it's a good
opportunity to I think you're taking
applications, right? Yeah.
» Almost out of time. Does anyone have any
other questions? I had one but I wanted
to make sure.
>> Does this program, initiative, whatever
you want to call it, does it have a
sunset date or any type of timeline?
>> So I'm going to give you like some
something I heard from uh
some of my colleagues over in the
eastern part of the the state. The
LTRG's in this part of the state have
been going on for
8 to 10 years cuz the construction is
not something that goes
from one day to the other. It's it's
going to be a long-term. We're here to stay as long as funding is
there.
>> Okay, great. So there's not like a
deadline. You're just going to keep
doing your thing for as as long as you
can to help all the people. All right,
thank you.
» Uh
Sarah and and Miguel, thank you very
much for your time. I appreciate that.
Um yeah. Um
so we are now moving to public comment.
But I don't believe we have any public
comments. Is that
» There was at least one that came in by
email.
>> One public comment came by email but
otherwise I don't think we have any
public comment. No one's in person here.
Yeah.
>> Okay. Okay, no one is here. So
move to my next page here.
Okay, so no public comments. So um
uh un- unless there's anything else, uh
can I get a motion to adjourn?
>> I move to adjourn.
>> I'll second.
>> Okay.
so I would I have to go through
the Okay.
>> [laughter]
>> We normally just adjourn without a roll
call, but if we get in trouble for that,
I'm sorry. So.
>> Great.