The Department of State Treasurer is notifying local governments that it is ready to disperse the 2026 round of Cash Flow loans for Hurricane Helene affected communities. The legislature appropriated $20 million dollars in this year’s budget for cities and counties who need additional funding due to the extent of their damages and ongoing cleanup and cashflow needs while seeking resources through more traditional means, like FEMA.
“We are quickly approaching two years since this devastating storm ravaged our mountain communities, and many are still far from being made whole,” said Treasurer Brad Briner. “My team continues to work as quickly as possible to get some needed financial resources to our neighbors in Western NC as they work to rebuild.”
To date, the Department has allocated $150 million in interest free loans to these communities in need. For the first two rounds of these loans, local governments did not have to go through the process of applying for these - instead, DST is able to use the local government’s emergency request paperwork to calculate loan needs. The only step local governments had to take was to approve acceptance of the money.
For round three, there will be a simple application process. Awards of the loan money will be based on demonstrated need, as determined by the Department of State Treasurer. Priority consideration will be given to (in order):
- Projects addressing public health and public safety needs;
- Projects for which the local government has already requested reimbursement from FEMA or another funding source, demonstrating that the need has already been documented; and
- Regionalization projects.
Loans awarded during the 2026 round of Cashflow Loans will have a due date for repayment of June 30, 2030 or when the unit receives FEMA reimbursement for their projects.