Pinellas County is one of, if not the first, local governments to complete a federally mandated action plan that will ensure it receives $813.8 million in disaster recovery funding.
County Commissioners approved the action plan Tuesday after extensive public outreach. It outlines several programs, including disaster relief payments, to help residents, businesses and communities rebound from a devastating hurricane season.
The plan remains available for public review and comment through May 23. Pinellas officials will then submit their recovery strategy to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for approval, with many initiatives set to launch in the fall.
“We are due to submit our action plan to HUD later this month, by June 1, and will likely be one of the first entities to do so based on the Jan. 21 notification,” said Matt Spoor, assistant county administrator. “Maui might be the other one. So, we’re right up there with them.”
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The funding stems from HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. Hawaii’s Maui County ($1.64 billion) is the only local government to receive more federal dollars than Pinellas.
HUD awarded St. Petersburg $159.9 million, and city leaders continue developing their Sunshine St. Pete initiative. Amy Foster, housing and neighborhood services administrator, told the Catalyst that the city would unveil its draft plan May 12 before conducting public workshops.
The combined $973.7 million local allocation surpasses the State of Florida ($925.4 million) and trails only Maui and the State of North Carolina ($1.43 billion). In late January, commissioners selected professional services and accounting firm Horne, as did St. Petersburg, to oversee the action plan’s development, which began Feb. 5.
“They’ve been great partners to work with for the past three months,” Spoor said Tuesday. “They’ve taught us a lot. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time.”
Over 3,200 residents and 44 businesses completed surveys and offered feedback regarding unmet needs. City officials from every municipality participated in stakeholder meetings.
Nearly 200 residents attended in-person discussions, and the county distributed over 3,400 flyers in English and Spanish. More than 2,300 people have signed up for email or text updates.
Pinellas will hold two final public meetings May 13 and May 15. Commissioners authorized County Administrator Barry Burton to update the plan according to additional public feedback or HUD requirements.
Horne consultant Ryan Flannery said his firm made a few recent plan modifications. Those include offering disaster relief payments.
Flannery said Horne “incorporated some data related to evictions and foreclosures into our unmet needs analysis” to support offering financial assistance “directly to individuals based on hardships they’ve experienced as a result of the hurricanes.”
At least 70% of the funding must benefit people with low to moderate incomes (LMI). Those households must earn less than 80% of the area median income (AMI) – $83,450 for a family of four.
Homeowners and renters earning up to 120% of the AMI – $125,160 for a family of four – can still qualify for many programs. However, Commissioner Chris Latvala noted that many devastated coastal communities would exceed those limits.
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Burton said about 20% of Treasure Island’s population would qualify as low to moderate earners. He said many seniors in those waterfront communities have owned their homes for 50 years and now rely on Social Security benefits.
“I think we’re going to learn a lot when we open up these programs and get applications,” Burton added. “How do we get the most back for our residents? That’s what we’re still trying to figure out on the other side, which is the (hazard) mitigation money we received.”
Flannery explained that the county would prioritize applicants according to several factors. Those include their age, whether they have dependents under 18 or over 65, if they have disabilities and their income.
“We recognize that there is a population that’s non-LMI that could still use this assistance,” Flannery said. “They’re not wealthy. They tapped into their savings. They scraped together what they could. We carved out a budget specifically for that population that doesn’t have the same prioritization criteria.”
The county will dedicate several million dollars to various programs, including:
- Home rehabilitation or construction
- Home repair reimbursements
- Homebuyer assistance
- Mobile homeowner relocation
- Local landlord affordable rental housing assistance
- Disaster relief payments (rent, mortgage, utilities)
- Small business and nonprofit assistance
- County and city storm mitigation projects
To view the plan, a slideshow of key aspects and leave public comments, visit the website here.
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
