Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration had $100 million in hurricane disaster relief money to spend.
Where did it go?
According to the New York Post, a sizable chunk went to affordable housing projects whose residents didn’t even have to be hurricane victims.
Under Cooper’s watch, the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) sent $100 million for affordable housing as the $1 billion agency was suffering from a gaping budget shortfall...
One project highlighted by the Post was Starway Village, a 278-unit development that received $9 million.
And here’s the kicker:
Critically, those affordable housing projects do not require applicants to be hurricane victims.
Meanwhile, North Carolinians whose homes were actually damaged by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence were still waiting.
Years after those two storms ripped through North Carolina, a report by WHQR found that over a thousand families were still left without rebuilt or repaired homes.
NCORR defended the spending, telling the Post that HUD encourages states to maintain a “varied program portfolio” and arguing:
“Due to the storm impacts experienced by both homeowners and renters, housing availability is considered a key component of community recovery.”
The agency also said its ReBuild NC program returned 4,240 families to “safer, more resilient homes.”
But Cooper left office with plenty of work unfinished. The Post reports that a state audit found more than 1,100 home reconstruction projects remained incomplete, while 3,522 had been rebuilt.
And then there’s this:
During his tenure, the Tar Heel State took an average of 138 days to make a decision on whether someone was eligible for reconstruction funds...
According to the Post, after applicants were finally deemed eligible, construction took an average of four years to begin.
Seems like great work.
And now he's running for the U.S. Senate.
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