The city delegation spoke with Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis and Representatives David Rouzer, David Price, and Alma Adams, and other federal officials
Mayor Bill Saffo and Councilmembers Clifford Barnett and Luke Waddell traveled to Washington D.C. this week to advocate on behalf of the City for a number of issues affecting our community.
They spoke with Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis and Representatives David Rouzer, David Price, and Alma Adams, and other federal officials to discuss funding for infrastructure and flood resilience improvements as well as strengthening coordination with the government to prevent future flooding issues.
However, the visit’s top priority was to seek funding to deal with ongoing mold remediation issues at the Wilmington Housing Authority that has displaced approximately 100 families from their homes for over a year.
The city delegation spoke with officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and requested up to $32 million for the repair work.
“All of the elected leaders and HUD officials are very much aware of the situation today, right now. They inquired about a lot of different things and I’m sure they will want some additional information,” Saffo said. “We hope to get some emergency appropriations from HUD as soon as possible. We’re doing everything we can as local, elected leaders advocating for our citizens and our residents.”
About 100 of the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) units have been fully remediated but need to be rebuilt.
“They’re sitting there ready to go, we have contractors lined up ready to start work, we just need the money,” Waddell said. “We were able to really drive that point home and bring in the human aspect, too. There’s 350 plus children in hotels, falling behind in school…that’s when [HUD officials] began to see how serious this issue is.”
HUD officials have agreed to send a team to Wilmington next week to examine the WHA units.