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Housing Call: March 4, 2025

Federal Funding Webinar Debrief

On Friday, February 28 and Monday, March 3 we hosted webinars focused on Federal Resource updates and impacts. During our webinar we gave an overview of what’s going on, answered your questions, and gave updates on the federal threats, their impacts, and the importance of collectively working together in this moment.

We had over 140 people sign up for the webinar on Friday with less than 24 hours notice

On Monday March 3 we had over 300 people sign up.

Webinar Survey Stats (2/28 + 3/3)

  • 350 attendees
  • 286 organizations
  • Almost every county represented
  • 176,000+ families served
  • $626 million+ in public funding
  • $21 million+ currently owed

Fields represented included local governments, advocacy groups, healthcare agencies, homelessness service providers, Habitat affiliates, CDCs, universities, foundation partners, financial institutions, local reporters, women’s and children’s advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and more.

We ended the webinar by answering questions and lifting up the importance of the following calls to action, especially with the impending funding deadline of March 14.

Calls to Action from Webinar

  • For the next week – call Senator Ted Budd and Thom Thillis, and reach out to your Congressperson.
  • You can find their contact information here.
  • Then, reach out to 2-3 of your top supporters of your work or organization – and ask them to do the same.
  • Let us know what you are seeing! We cannot rely solely on the national communications – tell us by filling out this brief form here.

Talking Points & Key Messages

  • The decision to hold up federal funds and eliminate federal staff will cost people their homes.
  • The problem wasn’t waste, fraud, and abuse, the problem was always NOT HAVING ENOUGH RESOURCES.
  • Talk about the scale of the impact on your organization, but do not forget to make a direct connection to the impact on people and communities you serve.

Advocacy Letter Update

  • We sent a letter to our congressional delegation on February 21, 2025 with over 400 signatures from individuals, organizations, and community groups across the state. With representation from all 100 counties.
  • You can still sign on to the letter by clicking here.

REGISTER for Housing Day 2025 – April 9, 2025

Federal Updates

Last Wednesday, HUD notified several housing technical assistance providers that it intends to terminate technical assistance grants. They cited DEI content on websites and senior leadership LinkedIn profiles as the reason. This includes Enterprise, TAC, LISC, CSH, and others. 

Congress has until March 14 (when the current Continuing Resolution expires) to pass a budget or pass another Continuing Resolution to avoid a government shutdown.  The House and Senate both passed separate budget resolutions, but must now work through the reconciliation process to hopefully come to an agreement on the budget.

Last week, Wednesday, HUD Secretary Scott Turner formally announced plans to end the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. He plans to replace it with a weakened interim rule that only asks housing providers to self-attest their commitment to fair housing. In response, our colleagues at NLIHC are working closely with fair housing advocates to fight for full implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to promote fair housing and inclusive communities.

State & Local Updates

NC General Assembly Updates

Meetings we are watching or tracking this week March 3, 2025 – March 7, 2025

  • Tuesday March 4, 2025
    • House Judiciary 1 Committee – 1:00PM – to consider HB222 – COOPER Act – Funding for the completion of recovery in Eastern North Carolina
  • Various Joint Appropriations Committee Meetings on Tuesday March 4 and Wednesday March 5, that will likely include discussion about HB47, as well as other proposed bills with relief and funding for recovery.
  • Thursday March 6, 2025
    • Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, Subcommittee on Hurricane Response & Recovery at 9:00AM

2025-2026 Bill Tracker for NC General Assembly

So far, over 500 bills have been filed this session. To see which bills we are tracking check out our bill tracker for the 2025-2026 legislative session, click here.

Disaster Recovery

First Disaster Recovery Bill of 2025 Passes in the House

HB 47 passed in the House last Tuesday and is now in the Senate. The bill provides some much-needed relief; it falls short of Gov. Josh Stein’s request to the General Assembly last month for an additional $1.07B to meet immediate needs in WNC.

The bill directs the transfer of $275M from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund (SERDF) to the Helene Fund. This brings the total amount of unappropriated funds in the Helene Fund to $500M (Legislation passed in December (SL 2024-57) left $225M unallocated). The bill then appropriates the $500M in the following ways:

  • $125M – NC Commerce Division of Community Revitalization – Home Reconstruction & Repair Program
  • $75M – NC Agriculture Division of Soil & Water Conservation – Agricultural restoration projects
  • $75M – NC Agriculture – Hurricane Helene Agricultural Crop Loss Program
  • $100M – NC Emergency Management – Repairing and replacing private roads and bridges
  • $55M – NC Commerce – Small Business Infrastructure Grant Program
  • $20M – Office of State Budget & Management – Debris cleanup
  • $15M – Golden L.E.A.F. – Small Business Revitalization Grant Program
  • $10M – NC Emergency Management – Grants to support Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster Recovery (VOAD) member organizations doing work in WNC
  • $10M – Office of the State Fire Marshal – Grants to support small and volunteer fire departments getting back online
  • $10M – NC DHHS Division of Social Services – Rental assistance payments
  • $5M – NC Commerce – Tourism marketing

The bill also amends SL 2024-57 to make $100M in loans to local governments forgivable.

Additional RUSH Funding from HUD

Last week, HUD announced an additional $1.9M allocation to the State of NC for the  Rapid Unsheltered Survivor Housing (RUSH) Program. RUSH assists households experiencing or at risk of homelessness in the wake of disasters.

An initial allocation of $3M was deployed in October to meet immediate needs. This second round is intended to address the need for rental units for very low-income households and any additional unmet needs this population faces that are not met by other programs.

Local Updates

Events

Reports & Resources

In the News

Recommended read

Housing Call: February 25, 2025

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