How GROW NC can learn from NCORR’s failures

Laura Hogshead, director of NCORR, at Hurricane Response and Recovery subcommittee meeting, Dec. 14, 2022.

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  • This article is the first of a two-part series on the lessons to date from NCORR, as NC GROW attempts to rebuild western North Carolina.

“You are not forgotten any longer.”

Those were the words spoken by President Donald Trump as he visited Swannanoa in western North Carolina on Friday, Jan. 24. Swannanoa was one of many communities devastated by Hurricane Helene in late September.

He said that all red tape involving things like permitting would be cut to expedite the recovery and rebuilding process. He also said he would overhaul or eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), leaving the states with more responsibility in handling natural disasters.

See More: Trump Names Four North Carolinians to New FEMA Oversight Council.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who was among those who met and toured the area with Trump, created the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC) and the Division of Community Revitalization within the Department of Commerce to focus on the recovery efforts in western North Carolina.

When asked if the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) would lend a hand in the recovery earlier this month at a press conference, Stein said no.

“No, NCORR has an important job to do, which is to finish its work in eastern North Carolina. We are not going to distract them from that job. They have mission one,” he told reporters at a press conference.

creation of NCORR

NCORR was formed in late 2018 by former Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, shortly after Hurricane Florence hit the state. Hurricane Matthew also caused severe damage to the same area in 2016.

The agency was tasked with administering US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds and state disaster recovery funds in an effort to help people fix or replace their homes that had been damaged or destroyed in the storms.

As of Jan. 24, 3,156 houses have been completed.

But nearly a decade later, over 1,100 homes still need to be completed. People who still do not have a home feel forgotten by the state.

Since September 2022, the North Carolina General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Hurricane Response and Recovery Subcommittee has held at least four hearings: September 2022, December 2022, March 2023, and November 2024.  Laura Hogshead, the former director of NCORR, apologized at each meeting for the agency’s slow progress, adding that things would get better and that the committee would have her word on it.

During the September 2022 hearing, it was revealed that just 789 out of 4,100 projects, or around 25% of homes, had been completed since the 2016 & 2018 storms. At that point, they were constructing five to six houses monthly, compared to twenty-eight per month in 2020 and fourteen per month in 2021.

She said several factors impacted construction, including the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, and contractor and labor shortages. But they were working on ways to streamline the process, including reducing the number of documentation requirements for eligibility from 12-14 to 3-4, bringing case management in-house, and paying contractors faster.

At the December 2022 hearing, the number of homes being built per month went from five to seventeen, or a 242% increase in production since September. A total of 889 homes were completed.

Lesley Wiseman Albritton, director of Disaster Relief Project attorneys at Legal Aid NC, testified that 650 residents asked Legal Aid for help with issues with ReBuild NC, a program that falls under NCORR.

Albritton said they had received only two award letters for new construction since the September 2022 hearing. 105 clients, including five from as far back as 2019, were still awaiting awards. 

NCORR had also taken over case management from professional services firm HORNE due to the end of its contract with the state.

NCORR’s project management problems

Lawmakers like Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, asked Hogshead how many of the 115 families would be in their homes for Christmas, as they had discussed in September 2022. Hogshead replied that 18 had returned home, 11 more were scheduled to come home this month, and another six may be in a home before the end of the month. 

“I’m extremely disappointed in that number,” Perry said. “That’s over 80% or so who aren’t home.”

Hogshead said NCORR had started a new escalation process in the last few months to ensure the most vulnerable would get their cases moved to the top of the list. Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, wasn’t so sure. He said commission staff paid a visit to 60 houses under construction and only encountered one contractor working on one of the homesites.

It was at that hearing that legislators would first ask Hogshead to resign or quit, saying that she would be fired if she worked in the private sector. They would continue to ask the same question at the next two hearings.

In January 2023, Richard Trumper, the director of disaster recovery at the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management (NCOSBM), was appointed as a senior advisor for disaster recovery for the NC Department of Public Safety and would work with Hogshead and NCORR to help speed up the process.

A North Carolina licensed general contractor, Trumper had more than 22 years of experience, including program management, construction management, disaster recovery, reconstruction and restoration, mitigation, and disaster damage assessment.

However, issues were still being reported at the March 2023 hearing.

Hogshead told legislators that they had completed 58 homes in February 2023 with the total amount of completed homes at 1067.

They also had begun working with the St. Bernard Project, a nationwide disaster recovery organization. Lawmakers heard from Col. J.R. Sanderson at the September 2022 hearing. He ran the South Carolina Disaster Recovery Program from 2015 to 2019. SBP has given NCORR recommendations like insourcing efforts, which she said has allowed for faster processing of applications.

Even though it was an improvement, it still wasn’t fast enough for legislators or homeowners.

Hogshead would go on to blame some counties for the lag time in getting permits, saying some of their environmental health departments are understaffed and suggested they use a third-party inspector.

Sen. Steve Jarvis, R-Davidson, said NCORR has a project management issue, not a permitting one. 

“It’s disingenuous to blame counties for delays in permits when other contractors in the private sector have it figured out and they can navigate the system,” he said. 

Jackson said he was disappointed in her answers.

“How are we, as members of this committee, as well as the public, have assurance have some peace of mind that the most vulnerable constituents are going to be taken care of?” he asked her.

Hogshead replied, “You have my word on that, and your staff has been briefed on this.”

Jackson said, “Well, nothing personal about what I’m fixing to say, but based off of prior history, your word is not worth a whole lot.”

a $319 million deficit

In addition to running severely behind in the completion of homes, at November’s hearing, it was revealed that the agency was in the hole to the tune of $221 million. Days later, according to legislators, that figure would jump to $319 million.

It didn’t come as much of a surprise shortly after when Hogshead’s departure came to fruition. Whether she resigned or was fired is still in question, but a social media post by state Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, said she was removed.

In December, NCORR ordered contractors to stop building new homes, and stopped paying contractors in the process of completing construction projects.

While construction has once again resumed, many questions remain, including, most importantly, when will all of the homes be completed?

Other important questions are: Why did NCORR fail when neighboring states like South Carolina and Florida have had such success stories? And what can the newly formed GROW NC learn from their successes and NCORR’s mistakes?

Those and other important questions are examined in next week’s part two on the lessons of NCORR.

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