The commissioners met with representatives of FEMA and other government agencies providing recovery assistance to discuss what the county’s role should be in helping residents and businesses rebound from destruction resulting from Hurricane Matthew.
“We need to get everyone on the same page,” Jerry Stephens, chairman of the county board, said during Monday’s special meeting of the commissioners and federal and state agencies. “Every one has their own regulations and requirements. I’d like to see us develop some way to track the progress that we all are making.”
Stephens requested that county officials be given updates from agencies as they move forward with efforts to help those who lost their homes and personal property and need assistance to get back on their feet.
In addition to FEMA, those present at Monday’s meeting included representatives of such agencies as the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Lumberton Housing Authority, and state emergency management officials. All agreed that disaster recovery in Robeson County is going to take years.
Jan Stout, a FEMA spokesperson, told the commissioners that there are 587 Robeson County families temporarily being sheltered in hotels and other temporary accommodations. She said that 15,361 individuals have registered with FEMA to receive some kind of financial and housing assistance totaling $16 million in claims.
FEMA and the Small Business Association have set up at one-stop shop at the former Kmart building on Roberts Avenue in Lumberton. Those who believe they have a claim to make can file it there.
The commissioners listened to presentations by the different agencies outlining what they hope to accomplish in both the short- and long-term recovery processes.
Commissioners David Edge and Roger Oxendine told the FEMA representatives that they are hearing complaints about how FEMA determines eligibility for long-term and short-term housing.
Stout said every claim is addressed individually and every letter explaining ineligibility needs to be read carefully. Ineligibility can be for numerous things, including a wrong Social Security number listed on the individual’s registration, she said.
Tract Aupperlee, individual assistance branch director for FEMA, said that eligibility for assistance from her agency is currently running at 40 percent. She said that a single household potentially could receive up to $33,300 in FEMA assistance.
Commissioner Tom Taylor said that small business owners like himself are not receiving assistance that they deserve.
“We’re not getting help,” he said. “We had money lost because people are not spending.”
Tamara Jackson, with the U.S. Small Business Administration, told Taylor that her agency provides loans to businesses of 4 percent. Loans are also available for qualifying individual homeowners and renters for as low as 1.563 percent, she said.
“Four percent is not helping us as small businesses,” Taylor said. “We can do better than that at a bank.”
Stephens told Taylor that the county’s first priority needs to be addressing issues related to residents who have been displaced from their homes.
“I’m more concerned with the folks in the hotels and their mental state,” he said. “I don’t want to focus first on those who just lost money.”
Ed Ellis, the leader of the HUD team working to getting displaced families in public housing back in their homes, said his agency is working closely with local public housing providers to get public housing available as soon as possible. He also said his agency is working closely with those disaster survivors from public housing to meet their housing needs.
Ellis said that those individuals living in public housing should contact their individual providers or HUD so that it can be determined how their needs can best be addressed.
Those who choose to contact HUD should call the agency’s field office in Greensboro at 336-547-4000, said Ellis.
Larry Russell, executive director of the Lumberton Housing Authority, said that 375 of the authority’s 729 apartments, located in five locations throughout the city, suffered damage during the hurricane.
Bob Shiles can be reached at 910-416-5165.
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