‘Let’s get you home.’ Priorities for a new leader over troubled NC hurricane recovery

A new leader with the troubled hurricane Florence and Matthew recovery efforts says he wants to make changes, listen to new ideas and most of all, get people into their homes.

On Feb. 1, Richard Trumper joined the North Carolina Department of Public Safety as senior advisor for disaster recovery, a role, Trumper said, which will specifically focus on the efforts by the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

Previously, Trumper was executive director of disaster recovery with the Office of State Budget and Management, which manages state funds allocated for recovery efforts.

NCORR, also dubbed Rebuild NC, manages $778 million in federal recovery funds meant to repair and replace homes damaged by Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. It has faced intense scrutiny for its slow response as thousands of people remain without a home.

Trumper told The News & Observer that DPS Secretary Eddie Buffalo approached him for ideas on how to improve the Rebuild NC program. That idea exchange quickly evolved into a request: “Would you be willing to come here to DPS and give those good ideas internally,” and help families get home, Trumper said. It was an opportunity he said he could not pass up.

In a 30-minute interview in mid-February, Trumper shared his priorities for the new role and what he hopes to accomplish and change.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Now that it’s been two weeks, what does this new role entail and what are you going to focus on?

A: Not even quite two weeks, everybody keeps rounding up. Now this new role, we’re gonna put together a small team, it’ll be five people eventually to help advise the secretary on ideas that we have: small changes, big changes that may be able to be made, just looking at areas that could use a little bit of improvement, without affecting or changing the good things that are already happening.

Q: In terms of hierarchy, where would this role put you in terms of leadership within DPS and would that put you above Laura Hogshead?

(Hogshead, who has faced the brunt of public scrutiny, is the chief operating officer at Rebuild NC. Hogshead reports to DPS Chief of Staff Jane Gilchrist.)

A: Right now, I report directly to the secretary. Laura will continue to report through her chain of command up to the secretary. For the moment, for the foreseeable future, that’s the way things are gonna stay.

Q: You’ve mentioned this position is largely going to be focused on the Rebuild NC recovery efforts and that your position and Hogshead’s are separate, but I figure there will be overlap. So what is that going to look like?

A: Laura and I are both working very closely to identify those areas where we can make changes that will help get families home faster. It’s working side by side to help make those improvements.

We’ll have a small team. I’ll have a small team. Laura’s entire team are all part of those conversations.

Q: What are the practices that you think have gone well in terms of the Rebuild NC efforts thus far?

A: We definitely see there are real challenges that have existed over the last couple of years in construction as a whole. It doesn’t matter if they’re at Rebuild NC or at OSBM-DR or just in the retail construction market. Life’s not that easy.

So getting homes accomplished in that environment is a definite success. We’re hoping to have a little bit of input there and helping to increase the number of contractors participating in the program and help get more houses out quicker. And that’s one of our main focuses right now.

(As of Sept. 14, Rebuild NC had five general contractors actively working, and NCORR had 300 staff members.)

Q: Are there specific practices that you’re going to push to continue?

A: Things that are good is, we’ve moved away from using a vendor and bringing our staff internally.

At OSBM-DR we definitely saw the value of having our own employees interacting with families from start to finish. So that’s something we look to keep and build upon.

(Rebuild NC previously contracted with HORNE, a national firm for case management, but the state has since brought case management in-house.)

Q: A big complaint from people in the Rebuild NC program is the lack of access to information and continuous communication with their caseworkers. How did the in-house caseworkers at OSBM-DR work, and will any of the practices there be passed on to Rebuild NC?

A: In OSBM-DR, we were able to open regional offices for each of the new disasters we were tasked with. The office originally started with Hurricane Matthew recovery efforts and went on to incorporate Hurricane Florence, but not too long after came the earthquake in Allegheny County and Tropical Storm Fred, which affected 11 counties in Western North Carolina. And with both the earthquake and TS Fred we opened local regional offices with local employees who knew the community.

We know Rebuild NC is a little bit different than OSBM-DR was, but getting back to having our centers in Eastern North Carolina where families can come in and talk to somebody, have some face time with a caseworker and not have to just pick up the phone and try to call somebody. We think that’s going to be a big step in our path forward.

(During a September legislative meeting, where Trumper was called to testify, he said OSBM-DR manages more than $50 million in state funds allocated for recovery efforts through state laws known as Disaster Recovery Acts for Matthew and Florence and over $136 million in other disaster recovery funds.)

Q: How many regional offices does Rebuild NC currently have?

A: There are 12 of them right now. They’re open on varying, different days and there’s another 12 centers coming online. Actually most have been open for about a month now.

(To view the offices online, search for ReBuild NC Centers. Currently the site shows 12 centers across Eastern North Carolina.)

Q: In addition to the lack of communication from caseworkers, what other issues are you hoping to tackle and what changes will you make to address those?

A: I like being out of the office. I want to be more visible. Whether it’s myself, my team, we want to see the Rebuild team be out in the field more seeing things with our own eyes.

We’re not taking anything off the table. We’re open to new ideas that come from within or external from our contractors and our partners in the counties to listen to anything that they say that will help us get families home.

Q: An issue that was referenced a lot in the hurricane response and recovery subcommittee meetings was the difficulty in getting contractors. Is there anything that you’re looking to implement to get more contractors able to work on homes?

(A General Assembly hurricane response and recovery oversight subcommittee met last September and December to discuss delays in use of federal funds for Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.)

A: One of the successes that the OSBM-DR program saw was utilizing small, local contractors.

While we need the large national disaster recovery firms, we can’t forget about the small local contractors and their role that will be played in this disaster recovery process, as well as our volunteer partners, getting them reengaged and helping families we see those as specific benefits or additions to the systems that are already in place.

Q: Are you thinking of any particular method for achieving that, and do you have a goal in mind?

A: We started this job, myself and my operation manager, we started on Wednesday, Feb. 1. On that following Tuesday, I was in the car myself meeting with general contractors, meeting with families, meeting with our county partners.

So the idea of trying to make it happen — we’re already making it happen. We’re out in the field already. I’ve had multiple phone calls today with some of our volunteer group partners. They’re getting reengaged now.

Q: Have you been able to find local contractors already?

A: Absolutely. I don’t have the roster right in front of me from the last pre-bid meeting for new home constructions. But I believe three new contractors that had never participated before, chose to participate in this pre-bid meeting because of the requests we made.

Q: In the committee meetings, it was discussed that smaller contractors may be intimidated by some of the requirements in the bidding process. Are there changes to help with that?

A: I think you’ve identified one of the areas of things that are working well today. The current Rebuild NC team has put in place at the procurement side, folks to help these new contractors prepare their bid documents, as well as on the back end after they’ve won a bid, done the work, there’s now a team in place to help those contractors prepare their invoicing so that it’s submitted appropriately the first time, so it’s paid as quickly as it can be.

It is a newer process. I don’t have a date in front of me to give you, but it’s being implemented in the last few weeks and months and broadened as we move forward.

Q: I’ve also heard the permitting process can be tough with counties. Any potential solutions?

(There are eight steps in the application process, running from intake, eligibility and personal information review, through inspections, award determination, contracting, construction and completion. As of December, of 4,313 projects, 811 people were struck in the inspection and environmental review step)

A: Each county has their own nuances to the permitting process and getting our contractors to understand how one county varies from another. We’re actively trying to help them navigate through that. I’m personally reaching out to folks that we’ve had partnerships with in the past, whether it’s the building inspectors themselves or the planning directors, and finding out what we can do to make sure that our contractors are giving them the information that they require when they’re submitting for a permit so that they get approved in a timely manner. There’s going to be a lot of in-person, go visit, make sure that we’re not missing something, type of meetings in my near future.

Q: Why do you think the Rebuild NC efforts have so far not met expectations and not been able to help many families?

A: It’s a combination of factors I think. It has been a complete shortage of materials and labor shortages. We all feel those every single day.

Again, whether it’s us at the government level or the private sector, but these HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and long-term recovery funds, they come with a long, complex list of requirements that must be followed. You know, our goal definitely is effective, fast, but it has to be compliant with policies and procedures, and working through those is taking a little bit of time.”

Q: For comparison purposes, in the September subcommittee session, you presented some numbers that showed OSBM-DR had very high success rates in comparison to Rebuild. So why this big difference?

(As of December, OSBM-DR had helped 903 families, of 927 impacted by the hurricanes, with housing recovery services. It had spent 82.2% of disaster recovery funds, turned down just over 100 applicants and had 13 staff members. Meanwhile, Rebuild NC had completed 889 out of 4,313 homes.)

A: A great example of one of the benefits of OSBM-DR is Hurricane Florence. It happened in late 2018 and we had funds in June of 2019.

Rebuild NC, working through a HUD program, didn’t have those funds for many, or even access to the program funds, for months and months after that.

We were able to get out and help families sooner so that allowed our numbers of completed projects to jump ahead before the Rebuild team could even begin their projects.

Q: Still, it has been years between when they were able to use these funds and now, so there’s a difference in the success rate. Why do you think there’s been that level of difference?

A: Being again only on the team for such a short period of time here, I haven’t stopped to take a look to make those comparisons.

Just trying to focus on looking forward right now and how we can increase those numbers, not really looking back and trying to determine exactly why they haven’t moved as fast but how we can make those numbers grow moving forward.

Q: There are really devastating and sad stories from people. Will people be home within the next few months or even just 2023?

A: I want to say absolutely. We’re going to see families get home. That’s the primary goal of everybody here. There are sad stories. You’re absolutely right, and to say that that doesn’t bother any of us, it isn’t the case. It bothers everybody here to not have all of these families in safe housing already. We’re going to be working as hard as we can to get these families home.

Q: Lots of families live in hotels and motels via the temporary relocation assistance program, which is untenable as many don’t have kitchens and more. Are you going to look at that program and see if there are further ways to improve it?

(TRA funds come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In North Carolina, this aid, which pays for moving, housing and rental costs, has been offered to applicants in the construction process. Many people have waited months and years and are not at this stage.)

A: We are looking at that program right now and how to make sure that families, if they are going to be in hotels, will have access to more services. That’s absolutely a priority.

Q: Would that be like being able to have a kitchen, or what are some things that are being considered?

A: Yeah, having a kitchenette obviously is an ideal scenario. But you’re trying to balance that with distance from where the family home is, distance from where children may go to school. And some families may have to choose between having that kitchenette or be closer to the school, the bus stop.

And we’re trying to find a balance of all of those things that solve as many of those problems as we can. There’s a limited number of hotels with kitchenettes so you’re already choosing from a small pool, and we would look toward apartments but that means families may have to move their furniture multiple times. Move in to an apartment temporarily to back out of that apartment. That’s not always possible. So we’re trying to find a balance between all of those choices.

Q: TRA is only available once a person or family is in the construction stage, meaning people have to make do until then. Is there an alternative option for people to get help as they wait?

A: We are always trying to recommend families that are not yet at the award stage.

We’re trying to pair them with a local partner, a volunteer group, Long-Term Recovery Groups, someone that can help them in that interim stage.

(Find volunteer help groups here: https://www.ncvoad.org/coads-ltrgs/)

Q: Is there another alternative being considered beyond the volunteer groups? I’ve heard some people have fallen through the cracks and are living in less than ideal situations, including some people becoming homeless.

A: Other options beyond the TRA program would be other state-funded programs.

And we’ll continue to see if there are other state funds that are available and could help some of these families.

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?

A: I’m absolutely hoping there are no more storms and we work ourselves out of jobs and we don’t have to try to work to get families home. I want to know that everybody’s home and I completely work myself out of a job.

(Trumper added that at OSBM-DR their internal mantra was “let’s get you eligible.”)

“I think here in this role, the motto is going to become, let’s get you home.That’s gonna be my focus every single day when I come to work, getting families home.”