{"id":11835,"date":"2026-02-18T15:39:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/11835\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T15:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:39:36","slug":"displaced-hurricane-family-gets-new-home-in-new-bern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/11835\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaced hurricane family gets new home in New Bern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) &#8211; One of two families cut the ribbon on their newly built home, a long-awaited moment for those who were devastated by Hurricane Florence in 2018. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhen we came back to see what the aftermath was, it was not a pretty sight,\u201d said home recipient Myles Lewis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lewis and his mother, Shanta Franks, were one of 108 families displaced within the Trent Court area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Tuesday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the home on Walt Bellamy Drive, where New Bern City officials like Mayor Jeffrey Odham, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newbernha.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.newbernha.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Bern Housing Authority<\/a>, State Senator Bob Brinson, friends, and family stood out front to watch the family enter their new home. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With the help of the NBHA, the redevelopment commission, and the city of New Bern, the family is now able to call the new home theirs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI just want everyone to know that anyone who had a hand in this, a prayer, or even something nice to say, that I\u2019m very grateful,\u201d said Franks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The homes were purchased with FEMA public assistance and grant funding. They are the first step in the NBHA\u2019s multi-phase plan to demolish the flood-damaged Trent Court homes and replace them with 400+ homes for those impacted by Florence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">NBHA Chairwoman Jennell Riddick says the process has been long and complex, but the hope is to return more families home in the months and years ahead. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAnytime you\u2019re dealing with the government, it is a lengthy process, so it is amazing to see them move in here before Christmas,\u201d Riddick said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With a large goal of 400 homes, WITN asked for a timeline for just how many homes they hope to complete each year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">NBHA says they do not have a timeline and hope to complete them in phases as they secure funding and sites. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Riddick said she received a call about the anticipated competitive grants for the Housing and Urban Development\u2019s Choice Neighborhoods awards, which were approved for redeveloping distressed housing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WITN. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) &#8211; One of two families cut the ribbon on their newly built home, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,108,8838,8839,8840,8841,8837,107,8842,105,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-11835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bern","8":"tag-bern","9":"tag-craven-county","10":"tag-displaced-family","11":"tag-home","12":"tag-house","13":"tag-houses","14":"tag-hurricane-florence","15":"tag-new-bern","16":"tag-new-bern-housing-authority","17":"tag-witn","18":"tag-witn-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}