Helene Telephone Town Hall confirms stark disconnect between needs of Western NC and state action by legislators

Listen to the full town hall event and read the transcript

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Western North Carolinians joined together in solidarity to voice their stories and express their needs and priorities for Helene recovery. We heard from speakers from across the affected areas, including from Buncombe, Haywood, Mecklenburg, McDowell, Surry, and Transylvania counties.

One of the most glaring themes was the stark disconnect between the needs of Western North Carolinians and state legislative action to date.

Rental assistance and the mounting eviction crisis

Several speakers emphasized the dire need for rental assistance. With workers out of work and the state’s broken unemployment insurance system, Western North Carolinians are increasingly unable to pay their rent, and an eviction crisis continues to unfold.

Since November, Western North Carolinians have demanded that Chief Justice Newby and former Governor Cooper implement an eviction moratorium and lawmakers provide rental assistance. Yet the call for an eviction moratorium has gone ignored, and lawmakers have offered little money for rental assistance.  

Across the three bills that lawmakers have passed that include some disaster relief (HB 149, SB 743, and SB 382), lawmakers have provided a mere $1 million dollars for rental assistance. That is enough to cover the fair market rental price for a 2-bedroom in Asheville for just 330 families for a mere 2 months. Those 2 months have now come and gone, while evictions numbers continue to grow.

Rev. Dr. Marcia Mount Shoop of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church spoke during the town hall and explained that her church has provided $4 million in rental assistance from private donations and local grants-four times as much as the state of North Carolina. She noted that they signed $184,000 in rental assistance checks in a single day, with over 70 percent of those receiving the checks already in some phase of eviction. But without additional funds, they can’t continue to provide this support that keeps people housed.

“On a large scale, this is just one example of how the workforce is really retraumatized month after month – and the way a lot of systems aren’t set up to support and take care of the workforce,” Shoop said.

Renny Todisco, a chef in Asheville for the past 16 years, spoke about how this difficult environment is likely to force him to leave the city that he loves so much. Anytime that someone is displaced from their home is a tragedy, but mass displacement will only compound the dire economic circumstances in the region and make recovery even more difficult.

“I don’t want to leave Asheville. I feel like my hand is being forced, and I don’t know where this help is going to come from,” Todisco said.

For the most vulnerable, like those who are previously incarcerated or recovering from addiction, homelessness is the likely outcome, as noted by Micah Hayes, an army veteran and fair chance employment advocate.

None of this is inevitable. State lawmakers can and should provide their constituents with relief. One positive development this week is that the disaster recovery bill that state legislators are currently considering, HB 47, was amended on Tuesday, Feb. 11, to include $10 million for rental assistance after originally including none.

Small business grants, not loans

Business owners in Buncombe and Haywood counties emphasized that they need grants to be able to reopen. Given the extreme economic uncertainty in the region, these business owners were unequivocal that taking on new business loans is not a viable option, no matter how favorable the interest rate is. Echoing this sentiment, Sam Stites, a Transylvania County-based organizer and policy advocate who works with employers who pay a living wage from across 17 affected counties, noted that small business grants are urgently needed; businesses have been waiting since November for these grants, and they have still not come.

“Small business grants are absolutely critical to preventing a failing economy. We lost out on an entire leaf season, and we need to have a bigger share of this conversation. Western North Carolina needs to be centered in these conversations,” Stites said.

Health, well-being, and the need for a full and inclusive recovery

Other themes that we heard on the call were elderly homeowners experiencing flooding and black mold in their houses, cars that are still sitting in rivers leaking battery acid and possibly spreading respiratory illness, dangerous debris preventing businesses from reopening and people from accessing their homes, people suffering trauma and needing mental health support, and unpaid insurance claims and insurance claim denials.

Ben Williamson of the Asheville Poverty Initiative noted how essential the Community Care Stations were that popped up in the immediate aftermath of the climate disaster. They ensured that people had food and water, and that they were able to live in dignity by having clean restrooms, hot showers, and access to laundry. Were they not now disappearing, they could also provide physical and mental health care, and aid people in finding and keeping a job.

We also heard from person who is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community that the deaf and hard of hearing have felt isolated and alone during these events because of a lack of auditory access to news and relief announcements. Similarly, Andy Shoenig of the NC Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network emphasized that we must ensure that we don’t forget the hundreds of Eastern North Carolinians who are still living in temporary shelter assistance years later after Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018).

State funding to date

These bills include a mere $1 million in rental assistance, $50 million in small business loans but no money for grants, no help for those with accessibility needs such as those who are deaf and hard of hearing, and no mention of the community care stations that have been so important. Although money is dedicated to mental health support for students and those with disabilities, everyone else is left out.

What’s more, the disaster recovery bill, HB 47, that is currently being considered does little to change this misalignment of priorities. Although the bill does provide a much-needed $10 million for rental assistance, it still does not include any money for small business grants, for mental health services, for community care stations, for rebuilding in Eastern North Carolina, or for oversight of private firms and non-profit organizations operating in the area, such as insurance and utility companies.

Western North Carolinians want to be included in the rebuilding efforts

The disconnect between the needs of North Carolinians and the state legislature’s actions is disappointing but unsurprising given that the process has not provided time for public input or rested on an overall plan for how the region will recover.

Western North Carolinians want to be included in the state’s disaster recovery plans. During the town hall, we conducted a poll about how Western North Carolinians would like to be engaged in the recovery process. Some 98 percent of respondents said that they wanted an opportunity to provide input on disaster recovery legislation. Legislators ought to listen to these requests as they craft their next disaster recovery bill, as it is only by responding to people’s basic needs and helping them put their lives back together that we can achieve the full and inclusive recovery that North Carolinians need.