Asheville – “Now seeking eligible acquisition and elevation projects statewide with unprecedented funding levels expected from Helene & Potential Tropical Cyclone 8,” reads the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) website. Although funding for Helene-related damages is available for public infrastructure and commercial or vacant properties as well, Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said she is focusing on encouraging homeowners to apply to the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).
Most remarkably, the government is offering to buy real estate. Through the Acquisition Project, homeowners are being offered payment in full for the value of their homes the day before they sustained damage related to Hurricane Helene. Homes need only be in a state wherein the president declared a disaster; they don’t have to be in federally declared counties.
It sounds like another “land grab,” a case of government cannibalizing itself by taking land out of the hands of private-sector producers and off the tax rolls. FEMA, however, explains, “Mitigation planning and actions break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.”
In North Carolina, the federal government will pay 75%, and the state will pay a 25% match for qualified HMGP projects. Homeowners would be on the hook for “basic repair work necessary to make their homes habitable.” The federal funds are coming through FEMA, and the NCDPS’s Division of Emergency Management is the project’s administrator.
The home sale would close once the homeowner moves into a new permanent residence. Buncombe County will then become the owner of the property, and government agencies will see to the demolition of the home and any ancillary buildings and appurtenances, the removal of foundations, and the capping or removal of all utilities. Lastly, the land will be deed-restricted as greenspace in perpetuity.
Those who think a home is a terrible thing to waste may opt for the Elevation Project. If this option is chosen, HMGP will move the home off its foundation, with all fixtures and furnishings in place, demolishing the old foundation and building a new one that will raise the living space of the house two feet above the 100-year flood elevation. The government will pay for temporary housing for the inhabitants while construction is underway.
Should contracted engineers determine that a house is not fit for elevation, homeowners may select the Mitigation Reconstruction Project. With this option, the government will pay for temporary lodging for the inhabitants and storage for their belongings. The house will be demolished, and the government will supply a standard home that can be raised two feet above the 100-year flood elevation.
To apply, citizens need only fill out an online questionnaire, supplying contact information, the grant subtype requested, and a short description of the situation motivating their inquiry. Individuals are not allowed to apply for assistance directly. One reason is it is more conventional to make greenways or wildlife sanctuaries on large tracts of land, rather than in blips and blotches scattered through a neighborhood of elevated houses. Individuals instead must apply through Buncombe County, which reserves the right to refuse any property offered for a buyout.
The appropriateness of parcels for buyout is informed by the Buncombe Madison Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan. It must be rewritten every five years, and the current version, dated April 2021, is 517 pages long.
The county will sift through individual applications and prioritize the houses they wish to include in the jurisdictional application they forward to FEMA. After FEMA makes a determination, “based on “cost-effectiveness, technical feasibility and environmental planning, and historic preservation compliance,” funds will flow back down through the state and local jurisdiction for application to individual homes.
Pinder said that applications will be accepted for a year. To date, the county has collected about 200, and over 150 are for buyouts. Applications will be evaluated in tranches, the first of which will likely be evaluated next month.
A final public notice put out by FEMA acknowledged that regulatory guidelines require federal agencies to solicit public input, weigh alternatives, and give deference to “social, economic, historic, environmental, legal, and safety considerations.” Executive orders require them to “further address the need to achieve environmental justice and equity across the federal government and to tackle the ongoing climate crisis.”
The agency’s response to all that was, “FEMA has determined that the only practicable alternative is to fund these mitigation projects as quickly as possible to provide relief to the socioeconomic challenges property owners are experiencing before, during, and after disasters.”