CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Adjutant General Jim Hoyer says the RISE West Virginia long-term flood recovery program spent most of the week on administrative functions that will allow the program to move forward in the months to come.
Hoyer’s weekly update includes information about discussions with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that awarded the state a $150 million grant last year to help victims who lost their homes in the 2016 flood. A very small percentage of the grant has been spent. Only 16 cases have been completed more than two years after the flood.
Two amendments to the action plan are being proposed to HUD including allowing for double-wide mobile home placements and allowing sub-grant work on home rehabilitation and individual and community bridge replacements.
“We believe that by working with HUD, we should have the sub-grant process in place by the end of the week,” Friday’s update said.
Hoyer also announced the RISE office in White Sulphur Springs would close at the end of the month. His office issued a statement to the Beckley Register-Herald:
“The office will be closing on July 31. Those who are still requiring case management services will continue to receive assistance through VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) as they begin visiting homes as a part of their case management services, as well as through the VOAD hotline number, and through the assistance of faith based groups in the area. If people are still in need of assistance, we urge them to contact the hotline number at 304-220-2570.”
The number of outstanding cases in RISE is at 434, down just one from the previous week.
Of the remaining outstanding cases, 130 cases require total reconstruction, 109 some form of rehabilitation, 106 require the placement of a new mobile home unit, while 89 cases have undefined needs with reviews taking place.
There are 50 homes still in construction under the original contracts.
The funds were released by HUD this past February. HUD has classified the state in the “slow spender” category for the funds. In recent week, the Justice administration has announced a new agreement with the agency in hopes of clearing up some of the issues with consulting contracts originally agreed to by the Department of Commerce when it ran the program. The Justice administration put the program on hold in February because of the questions. Hoyer was appointed by the governor in June to run the program.