A FEMA 'system error' stirs confusion, fear for Helene survivors staying at area hotels

USA Today

13-02-2025

Hear this story
AI-assisted summary
A FEMA "system error" extended hotel stays for Tropical Storm Helene survivors causing confusion and fear after the agency corrected it.
FEMA reversed course after pressure from officials, agreeing to honor the original extended check-out date.
Despite the reprieve, many survivors remain uncertain about their future housing options once their program eligibility ends.
ASHEVILLE – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is blaming a 'system error' for extending hotel stays for dozens of Tropical Storm Helene survivors participating in the agency's Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, even though the agency had earlier deemed the participants ineligible for an extension.
When FEMA corrected the error, it sparked widespread confusion and fear among program participants, many who told the Citizen Times they have no alternative housing options other than the hotels where they've been living.
Patricia Ball, 61, a TSA program participant staying at the Red Roof Inn in West Asheville, told the Citizen Times Feb. 12 that her family will likely become homeless when they're forced to check out.
Because of the error, many families, like Ball's, believed they would be able to stay at area hotels until March 7, only to later learn from hotel staff that FEMA would only pay for stays through Feb. 20, shaving two weeks off their stays and giving them only two weeks to find housing.
Front desk staff and management at several Asheville hotels noticed the change in their systems on Feb. 8 and began alerting guests, they told the Citizen Times on Feb. 12.
In January, the agency had agreed to provide TSA participants three weeks' notice if they were deemed ineligible for the program. The agency has also extended stays multiple times over the last few months, after pressure from elected officials like North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. The TSA program ends May 26.
According to FEMA, participating hotels also received notifications that stays had been extended. FEMA did not say when they sent these notifications.
Many of the affected program participants told the Citizen Times Feb. 12 they never heard from FEMA and only learned about the changes from hotel staff. They also said FEMA never told them that an error had been made regarding their program eligibility.
In response to questions from the Citizen Times sent Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, and a call from Rep. Chuck Edwards' office, the agency acknowledged that an error had been made and said it would honor the March 7 check-out date for affected households.
'Some households previously scheduled for a Feb. 20 final night inadvertently received a system notification through their online disaster account that they had been extended to March 7,' an agency spokesperson told the Citizen Times in a Feb. 12 email. 'FEMA will honor the March 7 final night for these households due to the system error.'
In a Feb. 12 email to the Citizen Times, Edwards, who represents North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, said he was pleased that FEMA 'agreed to make good on its error and allow these folks to stay in hotels until March 7.'
'At a time when people here in the mountains are hurting and picking up the pieces of their lives, a little compassion goes a long way,' he said.
Even with a temporary reprieve, program participants like Ball, who is recovering from a broken femur and unable to walk, still don't know what they will do when FEMA no longer pays for the hotel rooms they've called home for the last several months.
Ball, who was injured when a refrigerator fell on her after a landslide knocked her mobile home off its foundation, said she was previously told that FEMA would cover the cost of her family's hotel room at the Red Roof Inn through March 7, only to learn from hotel staff earlier this week that the stay had been cut short.
When Ball spoke to the Citizen Times Feb. 12, she didn't know FEMA had reversed course, deciding to honor the March 7 check-out date.
But the two-week extension will likely provide little solace to a family devastated by Helene.
Not only did the storm destroy Ball's Black Mountain home, but it also killed her 40-year-old daughter Marsha Lynn.
In Ball's second-floor hotel room, which she shares with her father, Samuel Craig, 87, her fiancé Richard Pack, 71, and two chihuahuas Sweetie Pie and Casper, a framed graduation photo of Marsha Lynn dressed in cap and gown is propped on the microwave.
'I need a home,' Ball said through tears.
'FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED!'
More than four months after the storm, it's unclear what type of additional assistance, if any, Ball and others like her, will receive from FEMA.
During a Feb. 8 visit to Western North Carolina, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested FEMA be replaced or reformed, echoing President Donald Trump's earlier remarks that the agency, overseen by DHS, be abolished and that states should manage their own disaster response using federal funds.
Noem, however, indicated that some FEMA programs, like TSA, which according to Buncombe County was providing assistance to 529 households in the county as of Feb. 12, would remain. "There is still a role for that program, and the need will still be there," Noem said. "And there's obviously assets that FEMA has that can be deployed."
But the future of FEMA remains in question after Trump again called for the agency to be shuttered in a Feb. 11 Truth Social post.
'FEMA spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry,' Trump wrote in response to a misleading claim from Elon Musk that the agency spent $59 million in disaster aid to house migrants in New York City hotels. 'It is now under review and investigation. THE BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A DISASTER. FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED!"
Lenora Ann Wells, who's staying at the Red Roof Inn with her cat Garfield, told the Citizen Times Feb. 12 that without the TSA program, she will likely become homeless when she's forced to check out March 7.
Although FEMA provides rental assistance to eligible survivors, Wells, 67, hasn't been approved, she said. Even if she were, she's unsure who would rent to her.
Several people staying at area hotels told the Citizen Times that they're receiving rental assistance from FEMA but are unable to find housing. As a result, they're using the funds to pay for hotel stays, threatening their program eligibility.
Wells, whose Swannanoa home was destroyed by Helene, said she had no idea what she would do when she loses her hotel room.
'I have nowhere to go, no means to do so,' she said. 'I understand what Trump is trying to do, but damn, give us something — a little ray of hope in the meantime as to where we're going to go.'
Helene survivors in need of assistance can contact the North Carolina Disaster Case Management Program at 844-746-2326.
More:3,500 WNC households deemed ineligible for Helene FEMA hotels; residents rush for housing
More:'Onto the street': In a month, 5,000 have left FEMA Helene hotels in WNC; over 700 remain
Jacob Biba is the Helene recovery reporter at the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [e-mail].