Anderson County has completed 37 housing repair projects worth almost $750,000 for homeowners whose properties were damaged by Hurricane Helene, but county officials say many more residents are still waiting for help. The repairs, made through a disaster assistance partnership with the nonprofit Rebuild Upstate, are separate from the county's report that it completed repairs on 28 homes since 2025.
The program has leaned on a partnership Anderson County struck with Rebuild Upstate in 2025 to repair homes through the disaster assistance effort, as reported by WYFF. Steve Newton, the county's government affairs liaison, told the station that homeowners served by the program generally receive Social Security and live on fixed incomes, and that many lacked insurance or had insurance that wasn't enough to cover the damage Helene left behind.
Fixed Incomes, Big Repair Bills
For homeowners on a fixed income, even a single major repair can be overwhelming. Newton said a roof repair alone represents a large expense for people in that situation, underscoring why the county's disaster assistance program has focused heavily on exterior and structural fixes. The South Carolina Housing Office recognized the hardship many of these homeowners were enduring, Newton said, and responded by offering the county $500,000 through its disaster assistance program.
That state support came on top of the county's existing partnership with Rebuild Upstate, which had already completed repairs on 28 homes since 2025, per the county's account relayed to the station's report. Since then, the county has pushed the total higher, reporting 37 completed housing repair projects and nearly $750,000 in repair value, according to Newton. The South Carolina Housing Office has since awarded Anderson County additional funds to keep the repairs going, Newton said, though the exact size of that follow-up award was not specified.
A Program Rooted in 2023 Partnership
The county's relationship with Rebuild Upstate predates the hurricane. Anderson County first announced its partnership with the nonprofit in February 2023 to assist with repairs to qualified owner-occupied housing units, according to a county announcement that noted the county's building and codes department had more than 250 records of substandard housing units in its database at the time. That original partnership was funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME program, per the Anderson County government.
The post-Helene version of the effort has its own structure. The disaster assistance program provides up to $30,000 for eligible exterior repairs, including removing trees blocking access to a home, according to the Anderson Observer. Separately, Rebuild Upstate has reported that Anderson County was awarded $688,777 through the S.C. Housing Trust Fund Disaster Assistance Program for storm-related repairs, and that the nonprofit had completed disaster-assistance-eligible repairs on 20 homes. Those figures, along with a Greenville Journal account citing 34 roofs repaired across Anderson County, don't line up neatly with the county's reported 37 projects and nearly $750,000 figure, and the available reporting doesn't clarify whether the numbers reflect the same funding stream or time period.
Why Some Homes Still Sit Unfixed
Newton framed the county's motivation in personal terms, saying homeowners had worked hard and owned their homes, and that helping them with their problems was the county's purpose. He said without repairs, homes risked becoming uninhabitable and blighted across several neighborhoods, a concern that extends beyond any single property. Anderson County aims to help people remain in their homes and prevent structures from becoming community eyesores, Newton said, though he noted that abandoned, run-down homes remain a county problem because neighbors want substandard structures demolished.
Eligibility for the broader disaster-assistance funding requires storm-related damage, owner-occupied status, location in a FEMA disaster area, no foreclosures or liens, and income at or below 80% of the area median — a limit Rebuild Upstate cites as $48,800 for a one-person Anderson County household. The nonprofit has also said the funding can cover storm damage beyond what Helene specifically caused, according to WSPA.
A Small Piece of a Much Bigger Need
Anderson County's effort is a fraction of a much larger statewide recovery push. Hurricane Helene created $2.1 billion in unmet needs across South Carolina, with 81% of that tied to housing, and more than 440,000 South Carolinians applied for FEMA assistance after the storm, according to a separate WYFF report. The state didn't begin accepting applications for its broader housing assistance program until January 2026, nearly a year and a half after the hurricane, with the South Carolina Office of Resilience saying it was still moving cases through eligibility and damage assessments while ramping up construction activity.
That statewide Hurricane Helene Housing Recovery Program expects to serve approximately 700 homeowners, according to South Carolina Storm Recovery. Demand for repair help also remains high at the nonprofit level: Rebuild Upstate has said it receives about 40 applications a month, though not all applicants qualify, and its volunteers completed 718 repair projects on 165 homes across the Upstate region in 2025, according to the Greenville Journal. The nonprofit estimates that repairing an existing home costs about $10,000 on average, compared with roughly $150,000 to build a new affordable home using volunteer labor — a gap that helps explain why targeted repair programs remain central to the region's recovery strategy.
