Another $4 million granted for affordable housing
Feb. 23—Haywood County got an unexpected windfall of another $4 million in federal housing funds to alleviate the affordable housing shortage, on top of $7 million already awarded late last year.
The first grant of $7 million was tied to disaster recovery from the August 2021 floods that damaged or destroyed 563 homes in Haywood, taking a sizable bite out of the already scarce housing inventory. The federal government apparently still had money left in the kitty, however, and decided to send Haywood County $4 million more.
The additional money was dolled out at the federal level and was not requested by the county or by state. Specifically, the money is part of the Housing and Urban Development Community Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program.
"The grant funds were unallocated, and then redistributed, likely due to the unmet needs in Haywood County," said Janet Kelly-Scholle with the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which oversees disaster funds across the state.
Because an extensive public hearing process was already held last August, there is no need to go through the procedure again.
The state "expects affordable housing to be the investment focus for the additional funding, as it was for the original grant award," Kelly-Scholle said.
The additional $4 million, along with the initial $7 million, must be spent within six years, by December 2028. The state must update its Tropical Storm Fred Action Plan that spells out how disaster recovery funds are being spent to account for the additional money. The plan is to have HUD approval of the revised action plan no later than this summer 2023, she added.
The original action plan stipulated Haywood was to use the money for "affordable housing activities" stemming from unmet flood recovery needs. The plan defines affordable housing as that which does not exceed 30% of household income, so the county is seeking proposals from those specializing in that area to ensure the funding goes toward the intended purpose.
Under the terms of the grant, housing proposals may include assisting with tax-credit projects, multi-family developments, property acquisition for housing projects and renovation and repair of residential properties. Funds can also be used to help make down payments on a home and for rental assistance.
An environmental review of each project must be completed as part of the process, per the grant terms. Last week, a working group of county leaders were hammering out the requirements to select firms to assist with the process. All accepted projects must be completed by December 2028.
The county must submit a final program budget, including project-specific information, within 180 days of signing the agreement.
