A good part of the HUD block grants are supposed to help with repairs by uninsured homeowners.
Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: Jan. 10, 2024
Host: On the heels of a storm season of historic proportions, the federal government announced it will pump more than $460 million into Sarasota and Manatee County for mitigation and recovery. That comes after a previous $200 million-plus for a hurricane two years ago that are now beginning to flow into Sarasota County. These monies are supposed to flow in part into the depleted bank accounts of uninsured property owners, to cover repairs. At a press conference on Thursday, Sarasota County staffers provided some details about how the fresh money will be allocated.
HUD video: This phase of recovery requires the input of everybody — state and local governments, engineers, business leaders, and local citizens. These plans can include protecting neighborhoods and families from future storms, moving them from harm’s way, and making communities even stronger and more livable than before.
Johannes Werner: This is from a video produced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — otherwise known as HUD — that explains their disaster recovery program.
Florida has a long history of federal bailouts, and on a micro level, in slow-motion, this seems to be happening again right now in the Tampa Bay region. This week, HUD released a batch of $12 billion for the recovery of disaster-struck areas throughout the nation. Of that, Florida was one of the biggest beneficiaries. Manatee County received nearly $253 million, Hillsborough more than $700 million, and Pinellas $813 million.
More than $210 million in federal transfer payments have been allocated for Sarasota County, which has been hit hard by a series of storms. Two years ago, it was Hurricane Ian, which wrecked the southern part of the county. More recently, it was Hurricane Idalia in 2023, and Debby, Helene and Milton last year, with repeated and widespread flooding, and a direct hit by a Category 3.
On Thursday, Sarasota County staffers announced the new HUD block grants. The money aims to help with recovery and mitigation from the 2023 and 24 storms.
That is on top of $201.5 million in HUD block grants for Hurricane Ian that have already been flowing into the county.
The funding is meant for “activities related to disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization and mitigation in the most impacted and distressed areas”.
A good chunk of it – in the case of the Ian recovery funds it was $55 million – will go directly into the depleted bank accounts of homeowners who were uninsured. More than 60% of recently flooded properties in Florida fall into that category.
Steve Hyatt is the county-employed accountant who heads Resilient SRQ, the program that was created to administer the Ian recovery funds. Resilient SRQ is in charge of funneling the new funds as well. He explains how homeowners can directly benefit.
Steve Hyatt
Steve Hyatt: Our current program and allocation from Hurricane Ian, the board had dedicated about $55 million worth of that allocation to benefiting homeowners. And what that entails is, funding set aside to reimburse homeowners for repairs to their homes, and then there’s a $40 million of that amount set aside for rehabilitation and reconstruction activities, which is performed by service to the county contractors.
And we’re excited here, the county, because we’re getting to the stage and those programs where that assistance, whether it’s financial assistance. So, checks in the amount of up to $50,000 may be provided to homeowners for reimbursement of their repairs are about to be issued here in the next few weeks. And then we also have our construction contractors engaged, and have developed scopes of works and have worked with those homeowners to replace the roofs or repair their windows, or in some cases, a full replacement of their home or their mobile home. And we have several of those currently in our workflow.
JW: Resilient SRQ wants to make sure individual beneficiaries are not flush in cash.
SH: We’re directly benefiting homeowners. We do have to collect income data IRS information, tax information to verify their household income, to make sure that they fall within that low to moderate income threshold.
JW: The HUD Block Grants can be used anywhere in the county, but 70% of the money must benefit low- to moderate-income households.
That’s key to the program. 
SH: That’s a key aspect of the program for infrastructure-type projects. It all amounts to the service area of that infrastructure. And so HUD has a way in which you can determine whether those infrastructure projects that we’re supporting are benefiting those low- to moderate-income areas of our community. And then, in some cases, they’re funding nonprofits or even municipal governments like the school board, with our prior allocation, that directly benefit beneficiaries that will receive the services of the project that we’re funding.
JW: To start the decision-making process on where the fresh federal dollars should go, the county is now reaching out to individuals, non-profits and cities and towns to develop projects and programs that best meet unmet needs of Sarasota County, with a focus on supporting low-to-moderate income households.
Staffers promise there will be several opportunities for individuals and organizations to provide input.
The Resilient SRQ website offers updates, information about events, and opportunities for immediate input. You can find it at resilientsrq.net.
Reporting for WSLR News, this is Johannes Werner.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.