Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration redirected roughly $100 million meant for hurricane home repairs into affordable housing projects, even as storm victims remained in temporary housing.
Under Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s recovery office sent about $100 million the legislature earmarked to repair or replace homes wrecked by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018 into affordable housing instead, Breitbart reported, drawing on New York Post findings.
Hundreds of people hit by those storms were still living in temporary homes. Public radio station WHQR found in 2025 that a thousand families still lacked rebuilt or repaired houses, and that the recovery office had overrun its budget and run out of money.
Cooper left office at the end of his second term in 2025 and is now running for the U.S. Senate against Republican Michael Whatley. The funding choices made on his watch are drawing fresh scrutiny as he courts statewide voters.
The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, also called ReBUILD NC or NCORR, was created to help repair or replace homes damaged by Matthew and Florence. The free-market John Locke Foundation analyzed the agency and found it sent $100 million into affordable housing while the roughly $1 billion shop faced a gaping budget shortfall.
Those projects did not require applicants to be hurricane victims. One example was Starway Village, a $9 million, 278-unit complex about 12 miles from the beach. It opened to people earning $45,000 a year.
Eastern North Carolina families who lost roofs, walls, and floors waited. The money meant to put them back in permanent housing went to a broader low-income housing push that mixed storm recovery with other goals.
A state audit found construction on more than 1,100 homes unfinished when Cooper left office. Only 3,522 homes were in fact rebuilt. Cooper had said he “helped repair” or rebuild more than 14,000 homes.
NCORR offered a different figure. A spokesperson said the program returned 4,240 eastern North Carolina families to safer, more resilient homes. The gap between the governor’s boast, the agency’s count, and the audit’s rebuilt total left taxpayers with no clean scorecard.
Neither Cooper nor his team answered the Post’s requests for comment on the diversion and the unfinished work.
In July 2025, the North Carolina House Oversight and Reform Committee issued a report on the office’s unkept promises to eastern North Carolina. The committee stated the mission plainly, then named the failure:
The panel wrote:
“The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) was created to help repair or replace homes damaged by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 or Hurricane Florence in 2018. Lack of leadership and accountability, starting with Gov. Roy Cooper’s inattention, undermined good intentions.”
Lawmakers pointed to inattention at the top. Storm survivors got process. They did not get finished houses on the scale promised.
NCORR defended the affordable-housing spending. A spokesperson said the office worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set priorities in storm-hit areas and stay inside federal rules.
The spokesperson said:
“When determining program needs and funding, NCORR worked in collaboration with HUD [Department of Housing & Urban Development] to determine and prioritize needs in storm-impacted areas, while also ensuring full compliance with federal requirements for use of the funds.”
The same office argued housing stock matters for whole communities, not only owners:
“Due to the storm impacts experienced by both homeowners and renters, housing availability is considered a key component of community recovery.”
Officials also said HUD “strongly encourages” grantees to keep a varied program portfolio and requires a shown need before approving money in an action plan. They cited input from local governments, community groups, public comment, and roundtables when they chose affordable housing projects.
That defense frames low-income units as recovery. It does not explain why applicants for places like Starway Village did not have to prove they lost a home to Matthew or Florence while a thousand families still waited for repairs.
Cooper enters the 2026 Senate contest as the early favorite. The latest RealClearPolitics aggregate gave him a nine-point edge over Whatley.
Voters in the storm belt still have unfinished business from 2016 and 2018. The legislature aimed disaster dollars at damaged houses. Cooper’s recovery shop steered a nine-figure slice into affordable housing that did not require storm loss. Audits and local reporting later showed unfinished builds, a budget that ran dry, and far fewer rebuilt homes than the governor’s public claim.
Hurricane victims needed roofs. They got a policy experiment, a shortfall, and a political record now heading to a statewide race.
When leaders treat disaster money like a flexible social fund, the people who lost their homes pay first, and they keep paying long after the cameras leave.
