… Funds are needed imminently to provide direct support for renters to prevent displacement and to small businesses owners to combat closure and bring payroll for thousands of workers up to pre-storm levels.

An economic catastrophe followed swiftly in the path of Helene’s destruction. Workers had hours cut or wages reduced. Local businesses found destroyed inventories, equipment and infrastructure, and denied insurance claims. An entire autumn tourist season was skipped, losing outside dollars that are relied upon by western North Carolinians for payroll, rent, and to keep up with business and personal debt.

An existing housing crisis dove further into strain because of reduced housing supply and increased demand for rebuild and repair. It also produced catastrophic consequences for renters. With a near-halt to the economy and basic services, rent collection continued undisturbed — well before electricity, roads, water, and commerce were restored. An unaccountable number of evictions occurred, with few rights or protections for the tenants who were uprooted.

Having passed 5 relief bills, the NC General Assembly has delivered virtually nothing to working western North Carolinians enduring the widespread and unavoidable economic impacts of the storm. To date, the NCGA has allocated a meager $1 Million in rental assistance to the entire region. By comparison, direct aid from one church — Grace Covenant Church — has surpassed the assistance from the State of North Carolina by 6 times, keeping countless people housed.

Grant support for small businesses — businesses that sustain the local economy and contribute tremendously to the commercial tax base of the state — has been completely left out of the relief packages. This fact has threatened the region’s economic sustainability, restricting the flow of income to local workers and renters, and accelerating the recession of a local economy. Despite rigorous advocacy from stakeholders in the region, the legislature has only offered qualifying businesses relief in the form of loans. For business owners who may be experiencing significant hardship, who are unsure about revenue in the coming year, and who may still be paying off loans from COVID, the prospect of accepting a new loan for relief is extremely risky.

In local commission meetings across rural western counties, representatives bragged about their lowball relief allocations, attributing them to a grand strategy in which the leaders of the state house would coax the federal government to pick up the bill, saving the state billions of dollars. As the months continued and the federal funding landscape changed dramatically, it became clear that NC state leaders dramatically overestimated the federal government’s willingness to fund meaningful disaster relief. By that point, the legislature had passed on multiple opportunities to correct their mistake, and we saw western North Carolinian survivors of Helene neglected, mocked, and used in political maneuvers by the people’s house.

One year after Helene, it is not too late for the North Carolina General Assembly, in coordination with the federal government or otherwise, to pass meaningful relief packages to promote sustainable and resilient economies for the disaster region, and put an end to the crawling decline in economic security that so many are facing. Whether through rental assistance, small business grants, or other initiatives that address the needs of working people, we are calling on our leaders to act. The state has the opportunity to set a new, opposite precedent, that when future disasters arrive affecting every community in North Carolina, which they will, the people’s government is there for the people.