{"id":304451,"date":"2026-06-11T22:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304451\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:44:18","slug":"florida-official-says-elevate-florida-program-is-finally-starting-to-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304451\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida official says Elevate Florida program is finally starting to move"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETE, Fla. \u2014 After months of delays that have left homeowners frustrated<\/a> and projects stalled, a Florida top official now says the state’s Elevate Florida program is finally beginning to move.<\/p>\n

The update offers a measure of hope for applicants like Elisa Villa, whose Dunedin home flooded during Hurricane Helene and has remained vulnerable ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy home remains entirely vulnerable,\u201d Villa told Tampa Bay 28. \u201cIf there is flooding, I\u2019m going to be back to square one or even behind square one.<\/p>\n

Villa is currently living in Connecticut while she waits for the State of Florida to elevate her home through the Elevate Florida program, which was designed to help homeowners raise flood-prone houses using federal funding. The program will cover up to 75-percent of a project’s cost.<\/p>\n

When she was accepted into the program, she believed the process would move quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty grateful and pretty excited, and thought, \u2018Oh, this is great that I\u2019ll be back in my house in a matter of months, maybe,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI was pretty naive, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she joined hundreds of other homeowners caught in months of delays.<\/p>\n

Over the past several months, Tampa Bay 28 has documented those delays, speaking with homeowners living in RVs while they wait, contractors left without work, and families wondering when the program would finally move forward.<\/p>\n

Now, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management says there are signs of progress.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Executive Director Kevin Guthrie told Tampa Bay 28 that approximately 20 homeowner projects have received approvals over the last six to eight weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see a slow drip come out of the faucet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ELEVATE<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

Guthrie said many of the delays stemmed from bottlenecks in Washington<\/a>, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood, bad, or indifferent, a lot of things were held up at the federal government over the last 16-17 months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He specifically thanked new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for helping move projects forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Mullin, I want to just say thank you, secretary,\u201d Guthrie said. \u201cThings are moving. We\u2019re getting things out the door now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, he acknowledged there is still a substantial backlog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have over about 1,300-ish projects that are in a, for lack of a better term, a backlog at FEMA,\u201d Guthrie said.<\/p>\n

\"ELEVATE<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

He said both the secretary and FEMA leadership are committed to working through that backlog.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Guthrie said the state hopes between 1,000 and 1,300 applicants will receive assistance through the program.<\/p>\n

For Villa, Guthrie\u2019s update provides some encouragement, but not certainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does give me some hope, and I\u2019m glad he is giving you some specific information to report back to the public,\u201d Villa said. \u201cBut then again, I\u2019m not holding my breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her application remains under FEMA review.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much longer I\u2019m going to hang on, I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With another hurricane season underway and her home still waiting to be elevated, Villa says she is watching closely to see whether the recent progress continues.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Chad

Chad Mills calls Polk County home and has witnessed the area\u2019s growth firsthand. He is focused on sharing stories from his neighbors in Lakeland. You can use the form below to connect with Chad.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Family charged hundreds for car towed from paid lot during downtown Tampa event<\/p>\n

A family claims a 17-year-old was waved into a parking spot by an attendant, paid $45 to park, and still had her grandfather’s truck towed during a Lightning playoff game.<\/p>\n

Family charged hundreds for car towed from paid lot during downtown Tampa event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETE, Fla. \u2014 After months of delays that have left homeowners frustrated and projects stalled, a Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[10136,6204,127594,4785,40847,21637,13888,1618,2927,21636,127595,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-304451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-delays","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-dhc","tag-dunedin","tag-elevate-florida","tag-fdem","tag-fema","tag-fla","tag-flooding","tag-florida-division-of-emergency-management","tag-home-elevation","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}