From Tents to Tiny Homes: One Woman's Mission After Helene

What happens when disaster strikes and the world moves on, but families are still living in tents? Brittany Roland refused to look away.

When Hurricane Helene devastated Henderson County, Brittany's journey began with a simple act—opening her home to two disaster relief workers. This spark of generosity ignited a grassroots movement that continues nearly a year later, transforming the lives of countless families who lost everything.

From the makeshift hub at Refuge Baptist Church, Brittany coordinated supply deliveries to communities cut off by washed-out roads and bridges. But she quickly recognized that immediate relief wasn't enough. Discovering people still living in tents months after the storm, she declared: "No one should be living in a tent." This conviction drove her to source campers and tiny homes, creating dignified temporary housing for displaced families.

The challenges proved relentless. When 35 families faced homelessness after their FEMA vouchers expired at a local motel, Brittany mobilized private investors to cover accommodation costs while finding longer-term solutions. Her "Blessing Box" initiative now provides ongoing access to food, toiletries, and essential supplies in community locations, restocked regularly through donations.

What makes Brittany's story remarkable is that she herself was a hurricane victim. While dealing with her own recovery, she chose to focus on those who had lost everything. Without forming an official organization, she's channeled resources directly to families through social media, personal connections, and an Amazon wish list—proving that sometimes the most effective disaster response comes from within the community itself.

As Henderson County approaches the one-year mark since Helene, Brittany continues her daily mission—securing propane for winter heating, arranging water tanks for tiny homes, and ensuring no neighbor is forgotten in what she calls "a marathon" of recovery. Her story reminds us that when disaster fades from headlines, true heroes emerge in the long, quiet work of rebuilding lives.

Want to support hurricane recovery efforts in your community? Follow Brittany's example and look for the gaps where ongoing needs aren't being met. Sometimes the smallest blessing box can make the biggest difference.

Transcript

Introducing the Hometown Hero Series

Speaker 1 0:00

The George Real Estate Group radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio, live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450 and streaming online at WHkpcom. Each Friday morning at 845,. The George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 845, and it's always time on Friday mornings at 845 to check in with our Hometown Heroes series and the George Real Estate Group Hometown Heroes series. And Noah always joins us from the George Real Estate Group with positive news on the real estate market. How you doing, noah?

Speaker 2 1:02

Well, so much to be thankful for and happy Friday. And certainly our Hometown Heroes series is the highlight of the week. You and I always come around the mics and get to hear some incredible men and women share their stories People doing incredible work in this community.

Current Real Estate Market Update

Speaker 1 1:18

We really do and we enjoy it so much. It's, like you said, the highlight of the week when we get together to do this. Now we also get to check in with you on the current market conditions with real estate. So tell us what's going on.

Speaker 2 1:35

Well, be careful about the news they're trying to promote. The sky's falling and you know nothing's happening. But that's just not the case. Henderson County is still averaging 126 single family homes a month selling. Now inventory levels are higher, which means there's more choices for buyers, and sellers are going to have to be a little bit more patient.

Speaker 2 1:54

Days on markets, closer to 60 days on the market, when it used to be, you know, 20 and 30 days on the market was more average, but it has taken. It takes a little bit more time on average, but when you price your home correctly you can really stand out from the other homes for sale and in some cases you'll end up getting more than starting high and chasing it down, which we tend to see. But again, it seems counterintuitive. But when you price it where it should be, you're still getting. We're still seeing multiple offers happen. There's still a lot of buyers on the market. Interest rates have been coming down, so it's becoming more of a balanced market, not necessarily a seller's or a buyer's market, but it's a more balanced market than what we experienced over the last few years here in.

Speaker 2 2:40

Henderson County.

Speaker 1 2:42

And I keep hearing that. And from a layman's standpoint looking in on the real estate market, I keep hearing if you price it right, that seems to be the common. Well, that's always the case.

Speaker 2 2:52

But if you price it right, it will move and the truth is you'll end up getting more up front at the beginning than waiting and chasing it down, and then buyers think there's something wrong with it and then they want to beat you up and you know, and so there's a whole psychological piece to that. But it it is possible. By the way, over 1500 homes have sold in the last 12 months. That's 126 homes a month selling henderson county. There's some. There's actually 701 active homes on the market.

Speaker 2 3:16

Again, the market is healthy, it's stable, you know it's. There's no need for panic or concern. I mean it's, it's softening, but the sky is not falling and again, you got to be careful with the news and what they're putting out there. But interest rates are coming down. It is what it is and we live in such an incredible place. People want to live here for the quality of life, the incredible community and this is one of the reasons we sponsored the Hometown Heroes series because, again, the incredible men and women that live and serve in this community and all types of aspects, whether it's small businesses or law enforcement or teachers or our volunteers, and just men and women that make our community what it is and it's contagious. People want to live here in Henderson County and call it home and call it home.

Speaker 1 4:02

And you see that all the time and you guys at the George Real Estate Group, your house full of agents have walked buyers and sellers through most every circumstance there is.

Speaker 2 4:12

Well, we continue to be.

Speaker 2 4:14

We certainly have experienced a lot, and don't pretend to see it all and I'm sure we'll never see it all, but we've had the experience of helping over 1,600 families with their real estate needs throughout the years. We have incredible staff, incredible team. We serve Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina, greenville and Spartanburg counties and we have agents in South Carolina. But we're grateful to serve the community through real estate. You can find us online at realestatebygregcom. We podcast all of our radio shows. You can call us directly at 828-393-0134 and connect with us. Follow us on social media. We have open houses. We have new listings. You can see we're also still hiring more agents. I mean, it's a great time to get into the industry.

Meeting Brittany Rowland

Speaker 1 4:54

That's great, that's great. Well, join me, noah, in welcoming Brittany Rowland to the studios. Brittany, scoot up to that mic and say good morning.

Speaker 3 5:04

Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 5:06

How are you?

Speaker 3 5:07

Good.

Speaker 1 5:08

We appreciate you coming in here today to talk with us. I'll be upfront and honest with you. Ms Pat Shepard and Johnny were the folks who said you should talk to Brittany, because Brittany's doing a lot in our community to help the victims of Helene and there are still people who need help right.

Speaker 3 5:30

Yes, it's still ongoing. We haven't stopped.

Speaker 1 5:35

Well, tell us a little bit about how you got started and what you're continuing to do.

Hurricane Relief Efforts Begin

Speaker 3 5:41

Okay. So it all started. I have a friend, whitney. She's from Nashville, tennessee. We're childhood best friends. She actually called me the following day of the hurricane and said she had a group of guys that were coming here CRR it's Crisis Recovery Relief Group. They're from up north. They come down and they kind of check out things. They have a whole crew that will help hurricane victims. And she actually had said I have two guys needing somewhere to stay. They can stay in their truck, but do you have anywhere for them to go? So I called my husband right away and I said Whitney would never put us in a situation. There's two guys that need somewhere to stay, can we have a hole upstairs? So they stayed with us. It was about 1030 at night they came, they stayed with us for a week, they went back home and then their whole crew came back and they stayed at Refuge Baptist Church in their community building. And that is where we started our hub. That is where, when everything people were donating, basically like phase one supplies all of your everyday essentials.

Speaker 3 6:53

We used the bottom of the church. Pastor Greg and Laura were so welcoming of us and letting us to use their hub for our community. So we started out there. We had, um, obviously, we were without power for two weeks. Power water you barely, I still remember you barely got any cell phone service. You had to like go out and once you had service, you're like, oh my gosh, I have service. You're like, oh my gosh, I have service. So we had friends from Georgia, tennessee, travelers, rest, coming up here with ATVs. They were taking supplies from our hub and going into communities. Roads were washed away, they had no bridges, they had no way to get out of their home, so we had that crew at first. Then I met a friend. I went over to swananoa area and, um, I had a friend, chris otaka. She has her own ministry and I met her and we started. We were finding people living in tents and my thing is no one should be living in a tent I don't care anyone, I mean especially all these people that lost everything.

Speaker 3 7:59

So we were, we teamed up together. We were finding um campers, tiny homes left and right, trying to get these families in out of tents and into something because they had lost everything, and that was another thing.

Speaker 3 8:13

A lot of people don't realize people that didn't own property or land, they had nowhere to go. So trying to find when we did have a camper, trying to find somewhere to put that camper, trying to find somewhere to put the tiny home, was very challenging on our part but we found some places. We had donations coming in. Um, we found some rv parks. We do have some families that are in tiny homes that were still. It was their property, so the tiny home is on their property.

Speaker 3 8:44

Christmas time rolled around. We had about 10 families that had lost everything in the community and we helped out. We helped do an Amazon wish list and people purchased off of them and we supplied all Christmas for these families. Then it was January. The beginning of January my aunt had called me and there were 35 families in the Best Western Motel that their vouchers, their FEMA vouchers, were ending. So I knew I had to do something. So we had donations coming in left and right. We paid for them to stay that full weekend and then I had some private investors. I had about four private investors that paid a week at a time, two weeks at a time for these families to stay there while we figured out, because that was another thing. Trying to find people to donate campers isn't as easy as you think it is.

Speaker 1 9:36

I can imagine.

Ongoing Support for Displaced Families

Speaker 3 9:37

We had all over. People were bringing their campers down, hiring trucking businesses to transport their campers. So we started doing that. We were getting people in campers, tiny homes, and that is another thing. I cannot say I'm doing this all by myself, because I'm not. It is one of those things where, say, chris and I got a camper for someone and then there were other hubs that donated the supplies or we had the supplies and they had the camper. So it's, we have a lot of people we work with in the community but we are still providing for these families. We're making sure they're stocked up.

Speaker 3 10:26

Now we're about to go into winter months where they're going to need propane, all of that type of stuff, and a lot of people don't realize with campers in the winter months there's a lot to do to campers and I learned that you got to winterize them. No idea you have. I mean, it's a lot to do. So we're still helping families. We are. I did start a blessing box in Dana, our community, at the community park and I started that back in March to help out some families in our community. Um, my goal is I want to put up more blessing box boxes in Henderson County, but that is where my heart is right now. Um, so yeah.

Speaker 2 11:12

Incredible, I mean by the way you, you, I mean you are. You experienced a hurricane, like all of us, right, yeah?

Speaker 3 11:18

Yourself.

Speaker 2 11:19

Yeah, but what was within you? You said I have to do something, like I mean, was there a catalyst? I mean the phone calls just coming in the phone calls.

Speaker 3 11:29

The text, I mean it was left and right people wanting to help and I knew in my heart this is where God led me and wanted me to be.

Speaker 2 11:38

And you showed up.

Speaker 3 11:39

Yeah, and still going almost a year later. And it's not. I mean a lot of people don't realize there are still bridges being put in in different communities. People are still living in campers. Campers obviously are not a long-term situation, but when you have no family around, you have no property. I mean it's better than living out on the streets in a tent. Yeah, it's perspective, right.

Speaker 2 12:07

Was there any? Was this done? And this was organically. This was done. I mean maybe unofficially. I mean, did you guys end up setting up a nonprofit?

Speaker 3 12:15

Or I mean you've just been sharing resources and connecting people that need things and what we would do is we would post there are other connections that we have that like the other side of North Carolina. His name's Wayne. He owns Deep River Farms. He's a YouTuber. His name's Wayne, he owns Deep River Farms, he's a YouTuber and he does YouTube videos and puts Chris her information, my information, and we have an Amazon wish list and people just purchase and they will donate funds to help us and it's all.

Speaker 2 12:45

And then you're getting it to the people.

Speaker 1 12:47

To the families, yeah, you talked about blessing boxes.

Speaker 3 12:51

Yes.

Speaker 1 12:51

What are blessing boxes?

Speaker 3 12:53

So a blessing box is basically your everyday essential needs, from non-perishable item, foods to diapers, to toiletry items. I've also put in some like little toys for kids.

Speaker 3 13:10

Little toys for kids, it's just everything and anything you think of that you may need and that you could use in an everyday scenario. So that is for anyone to take and we restock it every two to three days from Refuge Baptist Church. That's where we get our supplies from and our hub is still there. It is not open to the public, but that's where I mean. Like I said, we restock every two to three days.

Speaker 1 13:39

Is that where folks could take items?

Speaker 3 13:42

Yes, people can take and I've had a lot of people because obviously I've posted it on my Facebook page, people have shared it, people know about it, so you can take an item and then there's always people that are bringing stuff like if you have canned food or if you have extra of anything laying around that you don't need go put it in the blessing box, because I think our community.

Speaker 2 14:03

it's hard to believe but this is still a long road of recovery and a marathon ahead of us and even though we're coming up on a year I mean every single day you're still working through this and helping people.

Speaker 3 14:14

Today, a year later, and there's still families Like the one family that's in a tiny home. We had to get electricity for her. We had to get water to her tiny home so we had to get one of those huge water I don't know what they're exactly called, those water tanks so we've had to do stuff like that. We're still we're helping out families paying rent at campgrounds, at their spots. I mean, because a lot of people, yeah, they are going back to work, but they've lost so much and that's what people don't realize how much they've lost. They've literally lost everything.

The Blessing Box Initiative

Speaker 1 14:48

Brittany, that's fantastic. We just thank you so much for what you're doing and thank all all the people that are contributing to you to make sure it gets to the, to the victims. Uh, we're so grateful uh, and we are continuing to highlight the folks around our area. Next week on our uh george real estate group hometown hero series, we'll have lynn and mark staten with Bat Cave Disaster Relief with us. And Noah, we've got a certificate for Brittany here.

Speaker 2 15:18

Thank you so much for all you've done. And again we just have a couple seconds, but what's the best way for people to get hold of you if they want to donate or give?

Speaker 3 15:28

I'm on Facebook. Yes, I'm in the process of putting together a Facebook page for the Blessing Box, thank you so much.

Episode Wrap-up and Contact Information

Speaker 1 15:35

Join us next week for our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, north Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygregcom. Real Estate by Gregcom. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, flat Rock, north Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 10.05 am on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 am, or stream online at whkpcom or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George real estate group brings you the WHKP hometown hero series every Friday morning at eight 45.

Speaker 2 16:29

Maybe the house feels a little too big these days, the stairs a little steeper, the pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go. It was about making space For peace, for freedom, for what matters most? At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to right-size, simplify or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group Local, trusted, proven. Call us today 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygregcom, because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.