WILMINGTON — After spending the last year living in hotel rooms, over a dozen displaced families will finally enjoy the comfort of sleeping in their own beds by the end of the month.

When Wilmington Housing Authority executive director Tyrone Garrett took the reins in May, he set the goal to get 20 mold-ridden units back online per month until 150 were remediated and livable by the end of the year. Of those, 14 are under construction, 31 need more extensive work, 16 can be handled in-house, and 89 will be rebuilt with the assistance of a city and county loan.

READ MORE: Per diem payouts to displaced families reduced to manage WHA’s depleting funds

Between organizing movers, deploying furniture from storage and inspecting the units — located in Creekwood, Woodbridge, Houston Moore and Hillcrest — the process to move a family back into their home varies depending on where they’re staying and the state of their belongings.

Furniture is being donated and stored for families who lost all their possessions due to mold. Some of it was destroyed when WHA previously tried to house items in non-climate-controlled areas, adding to the crisis.

“Our log jam will not be turning the units around,” Garrett told the WHA board at a meeting Tuesday. “Our log jam will be getting residents back into the units based on whatever their needs might be. That’s where we might slow down, helping to get furniture and different methods of support.”

WHA has a staff dedicated strictly to these efforts.

Of the 13 families moving home, the majority are single-family households. Larger families await openings in Creekwood, which has more expansive layouts and bedrooms.

Right now, 13 WHA families are living in corporate apartments, 14 are staying with family or friends and 123 are in hotels. Expenses were rising to $300,000 per week to cover the costs, including recently cut per diems allocated for daily meals.

The organization’s bank account was depleted last month, as the authority hoped to receive a $13-million emergency grant from the U.S. Department of Urban Housing and Development; it has been rerouted a dozen times. WHA operations rely almost solely on federal funding, which has been used to cover day-to-day expenses for displaced residents.

Last month, Garrett explained to the city, WHA was basically out of money and needed help. The city and county agreed to loan the housing authority $1.65-million each to help with capital costs.

The loan is being used to jumpstart progress. The board approved Tuesday for Garrett to hire four contractors: A1 Fire and Water Restoration, Paul Davis Restoration, Eastern Environmental, Inc. and APR Restoration. WHA is planning for their work to begin by July 25 and has set a limit to spend $25,000 per unit.

Sixteen of the 150 units needing remediation were identified by WHA to be handled in-house, as a limited scope of work is required. Garrett said utilizing their maintenance crews will save the authority money.

“That probably could have been done a year ago, but here we are,” Garrett said. 

Though unsure why some of these problems weren’t pinpointed by former WHA leadership, Garrett credited his “fresh perspective” as beneficial to analyzing the authority’s needs in a different way.

The goal is to have 16 more families moved in within 60 days.

An additional three dozen units need more extensive work, above and beyond Garrett’s initial $25,000 per-unit budget. To assist, WHA is applying for a $3-million North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency grant.

If awarded, the grant money will help cover 31 units that need to be stripped to studs and completely rehabbed. Garrett plans to secure separate contractors for this part of the plan but said he needs the funding in place prior to moving forward. The cost to completely remodel those units is upward of $80,000 each, he confirmed.

WHA hopes to have these units online by the end of the year.

To help get displaced families home more quickly, WWAY reported Feb. 25 the housing authority opened its housing voucher list in March; it had been closed since July 2018. As of Monday, there were 314 total families on the waiting list and Housing Choice Voucher director Zorya Elkins said 150 vouchers will be issued by the end of the month, with 38 going out by the end of this week. 

Ninety-eight displaced families have been added to the list and 22 have already received vouchers. This will allow families to be moved into properties not owned by authority. 

“This can help with turning units if we can get them into permanent units outside of our public housing portfolio,” Garrett said at the meeting. “It slows down the pressure on us.”

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