HUD Upgrades Classification Of North Carolina Disaster Relief Spending

A new federal report says North Carolina's allocation of disaster relief money is finally “on pace.” 

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has upgraded its classification of how the state is spending relief money for victims of 2016's Hurricane Matthew and 2018's Hurricane Florence.

The News And Observer reports that both politicians and hurricane survivors have been frustrated with the speed of relief allocation. HUD has consistently classified the state as a “slow spender.”

But that classification was recently upgraded to “on pace,” with the state releasing over $12 million in the past three months.

Laura Hogshead is the chief operating officer of the newly founded N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency. Hogshead says spending is faster thanks to the legislated creation of that office, which provided a dedicated staff and infrastructure for relief allocation.

A previous report from the legislature's Program Evaluation Division cited a lack of expertise as a key reason for the slow pace of disaster spending.