Disaster Recovery

The North Carolina Department of Commerce administers certain grant programs to support businesses and communities during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

• The Motorsports Relief Fund, now closed, enabled local governments to support motorsports venues in their communities negatively impacted by the pandemic.
• A Dislocated Worker Grant program to support workers during the pandemic expired in March 2023.
• The discontinued Mortgage, Utility and Rent Relief (MURR) Program was designed to help certain businesses that have experienced extraordinary disruption and not been able to open due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
• Our agency managed the Job Retention Grant Program (JRG) supporting businesses or non-profit organizations.  Applications are no longer being accepted, however, as the law authorizing the program specified a deadline of September 1, 2020 for all applications to be received by our office.
• The federally funded Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Program (CDBG-CV) is no longer accepting applications, but continues to serve local governments as they respond to the pandemic in their communities.

When hurricanes or other natural disasters strike, it's not unusual for our Rural Grants team at the Department of Commerce to administer disaster recovery programs to help distribute state-provided recovery funds.

Currently, there are no active recovery programs in this category.  We update this page when new programs are announced.

For more information on state-funded disaster recovery programs, contact:

Melody Adams, Director, Rural Grant Programs 
Rural Economic Development Division 
NC Department of Commerce 
919-814-4661 (Office)
melody.adams@nccommerce.com

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides flexible disaster recovery grants to help cities, counties, and states recover from Presidentially declared disasters, especially in low-income areas and subject to the availability of supplemental funds.   Specialists from the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) help administer these federal funds during times when this money is available.

The federal funding most often arrives as additional Congressional appropriations to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, as Disaster Recovery grants to rebuild affected areas and provide crucial seed money to start the recovery process.

Although our agency administers several CDBG programs, the disaster recovery funds are now handled by NCORR, and you can learn more at their website.

The U.S. Department of Labor awarded North Carolina a Dislocated Worker Grant to help workers who lost their jobs due to the tragic December 2021 fire at the QVC distribution facility in Rocky Mount. The North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Workforce Solutions requested this grant.

To administer this grant, DWS is partnering with Turning Point Workforce Development Board (which serves Edgecombe, Nash, Halifax, Northampton and Wilson counties) and Rivers East Workforce Development Board (which serves Beaufort, Bertie, Hertford, Martin and Pitt counties).

Through the grant, eligible dislocated workers may receive:

• Career Services, to help them make informed decisions about reemployment and education, based on local and regional economic conditions;
• Training Services, including both On-the-Job Training (OJT) opportunities with area employers and classroom training at community colleges or other providers, to prepare for in-demand jobs; and
• Supportive Services, which can address barriers that may prevent individuals from participating in employment and training.  

Former QVC employees who are interested in receiving workforce services should contact their local NCWorks Career Center. Contact information can be found at www.ncworks.gov.