How Pinellas plans to spend $800 million in hurricane recovery aid
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A resident begins the cleanup process in Pass-a-Grille after Hurricane Helene. Photo: Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Pinellas residents have two more weeks to weigh in on how the county plans to spend more than $800 million in hurricane recovery grant funding.
Why it matters: The money will fund programs to help with home rehabilitation, resident relocation, small business and nonprofit assistance, and more, according to a draft plan published last month.
The big picture: The $813,783,000 disaster recovery fund was allocated to the county by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help with recovery from Hurricane Idalia in 2023 and hurricanes Helene and Milton last year.
- At least 70% of the funds will be designated for low- and moderate-income households countywide, except for residents in St. Petersburg, which received its own grant.
- The draft plan arose from more than 3,000 responses to a survey asking residents how the money should be spent and from a review of recovery needs that other funding sources don't cover.
Zoom in: Housing assistance was by far the biggest need, county officials determined. The draft plan calls for $600 million of grant funding to go toward housing programs, including:
- Up to $375,000 per household for homeowners or landlords to rehabilitate or rebuild their properties.
- Up to $50,000 per household to reimburse homeowners for repairs or rebuilds not covered by insurance, FEMA or other sources.
- Up to $80,000 per household for down payment, closing costs and other homebuying costs for first-time homebuyers.
- Moving assistance for manufactured housing residents in flood-prone areas.
The plan calls for the remaining grant money to go toward reimbursement for household expenses, like rent and utilities; small business and nonprofit aid; local government storm resilience projects; and administrative costs.
The fine print: Each program has certain qualifying requirements based on income, geography and other factors.
State of play: County commissioners unanimously approved the draft spending plan at Tuesday's commission meeting.
- Residents can tune in to Zoom meetings on Tuesday or Thursday next week to learn more and can submit their public comments online here until May 23.
What's next: County officials expect to incorporate the remaining public comments and submit the plan to HUD for approval at the end of the month.
- If the federal government approves the plan as expected in June or July, the earliest county officials can start rolling out programs is this fall.
Zoom out: Along with St. Pete, Tampa Bay governments including Hillsborough, Pasco, Sarasota and Manatee counties were also awarded HUD funds for hurricane recovery.
- Some are still working on their spending plans and accepting public input.