Just 75 days after Donna and Keith Wyatt packed up and left their Helene-damaged home, they were handed the keys to a brand-new one on the same property they've called home for nearly 30 years. Gov. Josh Stein shared the news Tuesday, crediting the state's Renew NC program with turning around a rebuild that for thousands of other North Carolina families has stretched on for two years and counting.
“With help from Renew NC, just 75 days after Donna and Keith Wyatt moved out of their Helene-damaged home, they had the keys to a new one,” Governor Josh Stein
wrote on X. “Donna and Keith have been on this property for nearly 30 years, and now they're making this house their own,” he added.
What Renew NC Is Built To Do
Renew NC was created to rebuild, repair and replace homes damaged by Tropical Storm Helene, according to WRAL, and it's funded through a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program prioritizes projects involving children, seniors over 62, people with disabilities, lower-income households, and homes in the counties hit hardest by the storm, the station reports. On average, the program says reconstructions take about 80 days, repairs about 30 days, and replacements about 44 days — timelines that make the Wyatts' 75-day turnaround notably fast for a full rebuild.
The program's reach is statewide in scope: it serves 29 North Carolina counties affected by the storm, per 828 News NOW. In Buncombe County alone, 2,151 homeowners applied, and 763 of those applications remained active, the outlet reported, citing program data. Statewide, the N.C. Department of Commerce is overseeing $1.4 billion in federal recovery funds covering housing, infrastructure and community development, according to the same WRAL report.
Thousands Still Waiting, Numbers Vary By Source
The Wyatts' fast turnaround stands out against a much slower backdrop for most applicants. As of Sept. 25, WRAL's reporting showed 2,211 active Renew NC applications, with 329 either completed or under construction — about 15% of single-family housing projects in the program. The outlet also noted that 7,924 applications had been submitted overall, though most were inactive or had been deemed ineligible.
Other outlets reported different snapshots of the same sprawling program around the same time. WYFF reported 7,924 applications with 159 completed, while The News & Observer put the completed count at 156 homes with 2,228 active applications as of Sept. 23. WYFF also reported that 38 families remained in Temporary Relocation Assistance housing at the time of its reporting. A fact sheet from the Office of the Governor of North Carolina cited yet another set of figures — more than 150 homes completed, 158 under construction and more than 618 in pre-construction as of Sept. 21 — though that detail carries lower confidence in the available reporting. The discrepancies underscore how fluid the numbers are in a recovery effort still processing thousands of cases.
Other Families Who've Made It Home
The Wyatts aren't the only Renew NC success story to surface in recent weeks. In Hendersonville, the Davis family was reportedly about halfway through construction on their replacement home as of Sept. 18, with the family expecting to get their keys the following month, according to WLOS. That same report noted the program had received nearly 8,000 applications and completed roughly 150 projects by that date.
In Asheville, Velma Chapman received the keys to her own rebuilt home through the program, with the project taking about three and a half months from start to finish, 828 News NOW reported. A separate governor's office item, flagged as lower-confidence in available reporting, referenced Gov. Stein presenting Leicester homeowner Dennis Fultz with keys to a new Renew NC home as well. Together with the Wyatts, those stories point to a program slowly delivering completed homes even as the bulk of its caseload remains in earlier stages — inactive, under review, or still waiting for construction crews to break ground.
