- Tara Kenchen, Initiative CEO
The Initiative has been awarded nearly $4 million to help affordable housing developers, rental property owners, and small business owners recover from Hurricane Matthew and other recent weather-related disasters.
Many of the families hit the hardest by last fall’s hurricane lived in rental housing, and thus can’t access federal relief dollars on their own. These funds to support the replacement of affordable rental housing and to fund “shovel ready” projects to create additional affordable housing stock will help address a serious housing shortage in these counties.
Amidst all the coverage of the hurricane, other recent weather-related disasters, including tropical storms and western NC wildfires, have received less attention. The third element of our Resilient Communities Loan Program will provide relief for small businesses struggling to recover from those disasters.
To help with recovery from Matthew, the Initiative received a $3 million grant from the North Carolina State Division of Emergency Management to rehabilitate and construct affordable housing. This funding will target areas still struggling to recover from the hurricane which devastated so many communities across eastern NC last fall.
Repair/Replace: Create New – Two Affordable Housing Loan Pipelines
Funding from Emergency Management will be directed to two distinct loan programs: The Affordable Housing loan products offer loans to nonprofit developers to repair and replace damaged affordable housing stock in flood-affected counties. Loan funding is also available to rental property owners to repair their units.
Small Business Disaster Recovery –
The Initiative also received $750,000 from the Golden Leaf Foundation to help small businesses in NC counties impacted by Hurricane Matthew, western wildfires, Tropical Storm Julia or Tropical Storm Hermine. Support includes gap financing, pre-development and new construction, rehabilitation, and working capital.
The Initiative is proud to have this opportunity to work with Emergency Management and with the Golden Leaf Foundation to do this critical work. We expect these partnerships to create a solid foundation to build sustainable communities across the state. We are committed to moving quickly and putting these funds to good use. We also understand that these funds are only a start toward solving a larger affordable housing crisis and lack of resources for small businesses in NC. We are committed to strategically investing these limited resources to ensure maximum impact.
To learn more about these loan products and whether you might be eligible click here.