WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd sent a letter to President Biden demanding that he deploy all available federal disaster recovery resources, including direct temporary housing assistance, so families impacted by Hurricane Helene are out of hotels and back on their property in a warm and safe home for the winter.
“As we have said since Hurricane Helene made landfall, this is an unprecedented storm that requires an unprecedented response. To date, the State of North Carolina has allocated more than $1.1 billion to the Hurricane Helene Fund. Likewise, we worked with our colleagues in Congress to pass the American Relief Act of 2025 to provide billions of dollars in disaster relief funding to North Carolina which you signed into law on December 21, 2024. This funding is critical to Western North Carolina’s survival, but again, we must respond differently,” the senators wrote.
“While more than 5,600 North Carolina households are currently enrolled in FEMA Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) hotels, FEMA has made little to no progress in deploying direct temporary housing resources. Now, 103 days after Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, only 93 families have been placed in FEMA direct housing. For comparison, at this same point after Hurricane Florence devastated Eastern North Carolina in 2018, FEMA had placed 413 families in direct temporary housing. This is unacceptable,” the senators continued.
“The people of Western North Carolina cannot wait any longer for assistance. Therefore, we again demand you deploy all available federal disaster recovery resources, especially direct temporary housing assistance, and waive any undue regulatory burdens that may impede progress toward getting families out of hotels and back on their property in a warm and safe home for the winter. We appreciate your prompt consideration of this request and stand ready to work with you to correct course and deliver long-overdue assistance to Hurricane Helene survivors,” the senators concluded.
Full text of the letter is available HERE.
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