Hurricane victims — with their pets — scramble to find housing as shelter closes

Daniel Brandt found himself huddling inside an Econo Lodge Tuesday with his cats Snowball and Miss Pretty — bound to a wheelchair and technically homeless six weeks after Hurricane Florence.

He took up these temporary digs on Monday after the Red Cross shelter closed in Morehead City, sending him and roughly 20 storm victims scrambling for housing. He felt grateful for a short-term roof over his head, but he stood no closer to home than the day Florence wrecked his house.

“By a miracle, they found a pet-friendly room,” said Brandt, 50, navigating the hotel with his leg in a cast. “But the sidewalks around here go up and down like a kids’ roller coaster.”

The Red Cross notified Carteret County that it would close its shelter at the Leon Mann Center for senior citizens on Sunday, promising to meet one-on-one and find at least temporary spots for the storm victims who remained.

The shelter was originally scheduled to close on Oct. 8, which would have put about 40 people out. When The News & Observer inquired then about the shelter closing, the Red Cross reversed its decision and a spokeswoman said it remain open as long as refuge was needed.

On Tuesday, Brittany Jennings, a regional spokeswoman for the relief agency, said 16 people remained in the shelter Friday night and three on Saturday night. The Carteret County News-Times reported the total at 26 on Saturday.

Everyone inside found at least temporary homes through family and friends, a hotel as a “bridge” or a state program aimed at helping the homeless, Jennings said.

“We’re not set up to be open forever,” she added.

Brandt said hotel rooms with wheelchair access were scarce. His ankle is broken, and before he found a spot, he rejected an earlier offer for a room on the second floor because the hotel has no elevator. Others weren’t so lucky.

“Some of them just got mad and said, ‘I’m out of here,’ “ he said. “They shoved some of them into the battered women’s shelter.”

Another long-term tenant at the Morehead shelter, 60-year-old Alex Carrias, drove to Chocowinity with his terrier, Gus. Also confined to a wheelchair, Carrias lost his rented mobile home in Newport and rode out Florence inside his truck. Brandt said his companion at the shelter has no family in Chocowinity, but was directed there when the shelter closed.

“That’s the closest one where they told him he could have his itty-bitty dog,” Brandt said.

The Red Cross’ Web still operates three shelters in the state, one each in New Bern, Jacksonville and Wilmington, housing 126 people in total.

Meanwhile, victims who remain homeless have begun to collect relief money from FEMA, but some report it has been insufficient.

Brandt said his FEMA check covered one month’s rent and a security deposit, but most rentals want a deposit, first and last month’s rent plus another deposit to turn on utilities. He has worked as a handyman and chef but injured himself shortly after the hurricane when he fell off a ladder.

Rooms for one person are hard to come by, he said. To get more FEMA funding, Brandt said, he will have to find an apartment and present a receipt for the first month, a process he called daunting for a man in a wheelchair.

“Finding inexpensive housing in this town for one person right now is nonexistent,” he said.

After the storm, Gov. Roy Cooper announced a $12 million program aimed at getting victims out of shelters and into stable housing. But Brandt said those funds, known as Back@Home, are available only when FEMA money runs out.

According to the governor’s description of the plan, Back@Home is intended for people who do not qualify for FEMA aid or are receiving limited amounts of federal aid.