Federal support for western North Carolina residents whose homes were destroyed and damaged during Hurricane Helene will soon expire, even as many have yet to find permanent shelter. 

FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program, which has provided free temporary housing to thousands of hurricane victims in western North Carolina, is set to end on Jan. 25. 

The government relief was originally set to expire on Tuesday, as state estimates showed approximately 12,000 western North Carolina residents remain homeless after the storm swept through in September. However, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials announced late Monday evening it would move the date back 11 days after the agency faced intense pressure, including from North Carolina’s governor, to extend the deadline. 

The program currently provides more than 5,600 households in Western North Carolina with temporary accommodations. Over half of them, around 3,500, will face the streets when the TSAP expires, according to the Citizen Times. 

Housing is a key issue for western North Carolina residents because “in disaster-declared counties, 40.8% of households earn less than 80% of the area median income,” the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management wrote in December. 

Joy Rockett, an 80-year-old Hendersonville resident, is one of the many people who relied on the TSAP program after her apartment flooded. 

With little savings and being unable to cover the flood damage to her home, Rockett told a local news outlet she’s “scare[d] to death” of what will happen once TSAP expires. 

“It worries me,” she said. “I’ve never been in the street.”

In early January, Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) signed an executive order issuing 1,000 travel trailers to displaced residents.

FEMA has placed 93 households in temporary housing units such as campers. Hundreds more are still living outside in tents, even as temperatures dip below freezing.

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As the region grapples with the aftermath of one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever touch their community, grassroots relief efforts have helped put many residents on the path to recovery.  

Meanwhile, the Federal Highway Administration announced on Monday it would give $352.6 million in emergency funding to repair roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane in Tennessee and North Carolina.