The entrance to Hendersonville Mobile Estates. The mobile home community was flooded during Hurricane Helene. One tenant lost her life. (Photo: Greg Childress)
In recent months, Hurricane Helene and the historic flooding it unleashed on western North Carolina have dominated housing headlines.
The Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) estimates damages and needs totaling $59.6 billion due to the storm. Helene’s fury will have a decades-long impact on residents and businesses in the west.
A large portion — $15.4 billion — of the state’s damages and needs assessment is for housing assistance and recovery. The region suffered $12.7 billion in residential damage. The remainder of the money is needed for transitional shelter and other public assistance.
Approximately 73,700 homes are expected to be found damaged by the time the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) finishes its assessment. Single-family homes, manufactured homes, and duplexes account for the majority of affected residential structures, the OSBM estimates.
NC Newsline traveled to Western North Carolina in mid-November and found a robust recovery effort and proud, resilient residents showing what one called “true grit” in the face of unprecedented disaster.
The residents of Hendersonville Mobile Estates, Inc., a mobile home park for senior citizens graciously shared their story of survival and loss.
With water up to his bearded chin, Robert Tallman, the park’s manager, had what he believed was his final conversation with God:
One mobile home park resident did die in the storm. Vicki Allen and her dog Sophie both perished after a porch Allen was standing on washed away in fast-moving flood waters. There are 103 verified storm-related fatalities in North Carolina as of December 18, 2024 due to Hurricane Helene, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Tallman was like many residents in Hendersonville and other parts of Western North Carolina who had been living in what they call “FEMA hotels” since shortly after the storm hit September 27.
In Swannanoa, NC Newsline found volunteers from across the country who have been in North Carolina for several weeks assisting with the recovery effort.
A couple from the Winston-Salem area set up a makeshift stand in the middle of the parking lot of a flooded-out strip mall.
Heather Hunter and husband Noah were serving hot dogs, cold drinks and snacks to survivors.
Kim Teitelman, a Red Cross volunteer from Northern Virginia, was at the strip mall handing out emergency supplies. Teitelman said she believed the coming holidays will bring people closer together as the recovery effort in western North Carolina continues.
Governor-elect Josh Stein has said that the recovery effort in Western North Carolina will be the “top priority” of his administration.
In November, Stein launched the Rebuilding Western North Carolina Advisory Committee to help advise his work to address communities affected by Hurricane Helene. The Committee is made up of leaders across the region to provide counsel and strategic advice.
Homelessness in the capital city
Storm-damaged sections of western North Carolina were far from the only parts of North Carolina in which people struggled to find decent and affordable housing in 2024. As NC Newsline chronicled in a September report, a struggle between people living in homeless encampments and public officials is a problem that continues to the City of Raleigh.
Several people living in an encampment off of Highway 70 near Interstate 40 spoke with NC Newsline about the struggle to find affordable housing in a city that is quickly pricing out low-and moderate-income residents.
Where’s the low-income housing?” Shakamie said in September, shortly after the people living in the encampment were told to move. “I tried to go rent an apartment. When you go rent the apartment — $1,600 — your monthly rent. Then they say I gotta pay three months or two months payment. The paycheck people making on them job — where you gonna’ get two- or three-months’ payment?”
(NC Newsline agreed not share Shakamie’s last name because of his fear of retribution for speaking out.)
As reported by Raleigh’s News & Observer, rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,260 a month in August, which is down 3.8% month-over-month and 9.4% from a year ago, according to Zumper’s recent rent report. The median rent for a two-bedroom unit was $1,560, which was down 2.5% from the previous month and 4.9% from 2023.
Latonya Agard, executive director of the N.C. Coalition to End Homelessness, told NC Newsline that improving the plight of unhoused people will require major shifts in policy and resources, Agard said.
Some locals pointed to strategies in Grants Pass, Oregon, the town whose ordinance banning camping in public spaces gave rise to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding such policies, as a possible solution for Raleigh. The Grants Pass city council agreed to set aside four sites for homeless campers.
Patrick O’Neill, a Wake County advocate for people experiencing homelessness, said Raleigh should explore such a solution for its homeless population in addition to increasing its supply of affordable housing, particularly for people on the low end of the earning scale.