PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The mobile home located just minutes from the Dunedin Causeway was supposed to be Linda and Steve Lounsbury’s Florida Dream.
Their mobile home at Sun Retreats in Dunedin was supposed to be a reliable place for the snowbirds to vacation and spend half the year to escape the cold of Ontario, Canada.
“We love it, obviously,” Linda said through tears. “You know, that’s why it’s so hurtful.”
Soon, Linda and her husband might have to abandon their Florida Dream.
Their mobile home—and dozens of others at the Sun Retreats—flooded during Hurricane Helene. Along with a thousand others across the county, the mobile homes were labeled “substantially damaged.”
Under the FEMA rule, adopted by Pinellas County, a home is deemed substantially damaged if the cost to repair the home is 49% or more of its value without the land. A substantially damaged home will either have to be relocated or elevated to current flood elevations.
While some homes in the mobile home park were clearly damaged beyond repair, other homes show few signs of damage, yet they are still being impacted.
“I was in shock, really, when I saw that we were 83% damaged,” Linda said. “I was in total shock.”
Linda said her home only took on an inch of water and only needed a new AC unit and flooring after Helene.
Others in her mobile home park tell the same painful story, including Aliecia Kuhfahl.
“We’re all going to be homeless real soon,” Kuhfahl said.
She and others believe Pinellas County is overestimating the damage to their homes and underestimating their homes’ cash values, which means their mobile homes are easily pushed over the threshold of the 49% Rule and either have to be relocated or elevated.
Most frustrating, they argue the county is not being fully transparent.
“They’re giving us very high repair cost estimates without itemizing what these repairs are and refusing to talk to us when we come in there and say, ‘Hey, we need some explanations. We need to know why you’re claiming this is substantially damaged,’” Kuhfahl said.
In a meeting last week, Pinellas County staff members said the county is trying to help, as mobile home owners across the county face uncertain futures.
“We’re making every effort we can to work with these residents,” said Kevin McAndrew, the director of the county’s Building & Development Review Services.
In a follow-up email, Ashley Giovannetti, a communications coordinator with Pinellas County, told ABC Action News that mobile homeowners with specific questions about their initial substantial damage determinations can email the county at mh_sddeterminations@pinellas.gov.
Giovannetti said impacted homeowners can continue to seek reassessments by visiting the county office in Clearwater at 440 Court St. You can visit Pinellas.gov/sdreassessmentmh/ for detailed mobile home reassessment instructions.
Despite complaints about inaccurate initial substantial damage determinations, she said inspections are generally supporting the county’s findings.
“In many instances, homes are still livable, not having taken on water inundation but have damages underneath the units (e.g., AC duct repair, electrical repair, insulation, vapor barrier, skirting, etc.) that in aggregate exceed the 49% threshold of the unit value,” Giovannetti wrote. “Many of the homes are older (pre-1984) and have significantly depreciated.”
“The costs to repair are required to include the entire scope, including labor and material,” she continued. “The costs need to include items such as debris removal associated with repair, cleaning, and labor costs for re-use of existing materials, etc. These items are often not initially identified.”
Homeowners like Jason Pickering, however, are not convinced.
“We just want to go on with our lives,” he said. “We’re getting NADA values for our places — Blue Book values — and then we’re being held to the standards of a regular single-family home.”
Linda and Steve Lounsbury aren’t convinced either.
“I don’t even know where these costs are coming from,” a tearful Linda said. “I want transparency.”
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