With money to spend, Pinellas County wants help finding unmet needs after hurricanes

When will it ever end? When will it get easier? When will normal return?

Those are some of the questions Nan and Woody Woodring ask themselves daily, months after Hurricane Helene flooded their Dunedin mobile home.

“It’s a hard time,” Nan said. “It’s a hard time for a lot of people.”

They are still fighting Pinellas County after their home was labeled substantially damaged. The process has been daunting and frustrating.

WATCH Pinellas County wants help finding unmet needs after hurricanes

“We have a problem. We’re trying to solve a problem, and we’re turning to the county and asking for help,” Woody said. “Every time we jump through one hoop, we get another one. So, it’s tough.”

However, since their home is a vacation home and not a primary residence, they consider themselves lucky compared to so many others, including dozens of their neighbors.

“They’re still worried that they’re going to lose their place, or they’re going to be told that they have to do these astronomical elevation changes for their homes, which they can’t afford,” Woody said.

Six months after Helene, the unmet need across Pinellas County is still great, according to Commission Chair Brian Scott.

“Even driving through my own neighborhood, you know, the vast majority of those homes got flooded,” Scott said.

Scott believes the county can step in to offer more help, because the county was recently awarded $813 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to Scott, at least 70% of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds must be spent on low- and moderate-income households and communities.

“This money is intended to help people recover. It is not intended to help the government. This does not go to the bottom line of our budget,” he said. “We want this money to help as many people as it possibly can.”

Scott said the funding could be used to help people elevate homes. It could help provide loans to small businesses or rental assistance to people who lost housing. It could also help mobile home owners whose homes have been labeled substantially damaged.

“We may be in a situation looking back in four or five years, and we may say, you know, what, these storms were perhaps some of the best things that happened to some of these mobile home parks because it may be an opportunity for them to really get some significant upgrades,” he said.

However, the county needs input before any of those programs can be administered and before any money can be sent to storm victims.

An online survey is now live at this link. In the coming weeks, the county will host three public input meetings:

• April 7
  
  • 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Lealman Exchange
    
    • Ray Neri Room
    • 5175 45th St. N., St. Petersburg

• April 10
  
  • 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • City of Dunedin
    
    • City Hall Commission Chambers
    • 737 Louden Avenue, Dunedin

• April 24,
  
  • 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Harbor Hall/White Chapel
    
    • 1190 Georgia Avenue, Palm Harbor

“We need to hear from the community. We need to know what they’re dealing with — what the unmet needs are,” Scott said.

As for the Woodrings, they hope the funding will have a big impact and protect friends and neighbors, some of whom are on the verge of homelessness after receiving substantial damage letters.

“That assistance is definitely needed for a lot of people,” Woody said.

According to Scott, once feedback is collected from the public, county staff will draw up a written action plan for the $813 million, which will need approval from both the Board of County Commissioners and HUD.

“Realistically speaking, from a timeframe perspective, it’s probably going to be late summer before we’re actually getting money into people’s hands,” he said.

In 2023, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Lee County received roughly $1.1 billion from HUD. Of those funds, roughly $642 million was allocated toward housing needs through various programs, and $136 million was set aside for critical infrastructure needs.