Dozens of Chapel Hill residents are still staying in hotels nearly two months after Tropical Storm Chantal caused major property damage to parts of Orange County.
Community organizers in recent weeks have advocated for local governments to provide more support to these residents while they wait to return home or find new homes to live in. In late August, Triangle Tenant Union demanded that officials help extend hotel stays for displaced residents who lived in privately owned properties since funding was expected to run out before the end of the month.
Since then, the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted last week to transfer $20,000 from the county's Social Justice Reserve to provide assistance to those residents. State funds are now being used to extend hotel stays for displaced residents through Sept. 30, said Wil Glenn, Orange County's community relations director. He also added that as of Sept. 4, they are supporting residents staying in eight hotel rooms.
C.R. Clark, an organizer with Triangle Tenant Union, said many residents who were forced to evacuate from Camelot Village are waiting on apartment applications to be approved and to receive their keys, which the hotel extension will help with. However, some still don't have new homes lined up and they could still face homelessness. Several displaced residents are elderly or have disabilities, he added.
"They've now been there seven, eight weeks in the hotel," Clark said. "I think a lot of folks are struggling, kind of languishing really with the mental and physical toll that this has taken and the uncertainty of not having a place to stay."
The town of Chapel Hill is also funding hotel accommodations for 27 households among two of its public housing units, South Estes Drive and Airport Gardens. Chapel Hill Communications Manager Alex Carrasquillo said in an email that repairs for Airport Gardens, which mainly experienced damage from a fallen tree, are nearly complete and residents will return this month. The South Estes Drive complex experienced more substantial damage and residents are expected to return later to the property.
Staff from the Orange County Department of Social Services and Housing Department will also be meeting displaced residents Friday at the Comfort Inn on Mount Moriah Road to provide meals, prepaid phones, legal aid services, medical resources, and other needs. Clark said that Triangle Tenant Union had been asking for this kind of support for the past month.
For those impacted by Chantal, the deadline for applying for individual assistance from the state was recently extended to Friday, Sept. 12.
Community members can also help displaced residents by donating to the Orange County Community Giving Fund and Triangle Mutual Aid. Triangle Mutual Aid has also been providing rides for medical appointments and helping residents move to new homes. Also, a group of young refugees in late July began a hot meals operation to help feed families living at the South Estes public housing units.
