{"id":357669,"date":"2026-07-30T15:31:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357669\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:31:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:31:53","slug":"pinellas-homebuyer-assistance-program-closing-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357669\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinellas homebuyer assistance program closing Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 A unique disaster recovery program is helping residents do something different: buy a new home.<\/p>\n

The Pinellas Recovers Homebuyer Assistance Program<\/a> is accepting applications through Friday, offering eligible residents up to $80,000 in down payment assistance using federal disaster recovery funds.<\/p>\n

Lisa Dunaway said she and her husband never imagined homeownership would be possible after the 2024 hurricanes damaged their apartment and she was injured while cleaning up afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we had to get out of where we were,\u201d Dunaway said. \u201cIt was just so expensive to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their real estate agent told them about the county\u2019s homebuyer assistance program, which provides up to $80,000 toward the purchase of a home. The couple applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at the closing and the attorney came in and said the check from the county came\u2026 your $80,000 is here,\u201d Dunaway said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding comes from federal disaster recovery dollars administered by Pinellas County through Pinellas Recovers. The Homebuyer Assistance Program is one of five programs that\u2019s distributing funds to those hit by the recent hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To qualify, applicants must have lived in Pinellas County during Hurricanes Idalia, Helene, or Milton, cannot already own a home, and must meet household income limits. Those limits are up to 120% of the area\u2019s median income, which equates to about $110,000 annually for a two-person household and roughly $137,000 for a family of four.<\/p>\n

Grant coordinator Mackenzie Bergstrom said this type of assistance is uncommon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not funding that HUD gives out every single day,\u201d Bergstrom said. \u201cThis is disaster relief funding, and not a lot of people get the opportunity to take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason the county can use disaster recovery funding for home purchases is that homes bought through the program must be located outside of a flood zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting families into homes that are out of the flood zone,\u201d Bergstrom said. \u201cWe\u2019re actively taking action to mitigate against having homes flood in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials said about 600 applications remain in the pipeline, with three to four home closings taking place each week. More than 50 buyers have already purchased homes through the program.<\/p>\n

That group includes Dunaway and her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program made it so I could get a house that wasn\u2019t just like, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re in a house,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deadline to submit an application for the Homebuyer Assistance Program is July 31 at 11:59 p.m. County officials said anyone who has already submitted an application before the deadline will continue through the review process.<\/p>\n

Friday is also the application deadline for renter reimbursement assistance through Pinellas Recovers. Additional programs that help homeowners repair storm damage and provide assistance to landlords remain open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 A unique disaster recovery program is helping residents do something different: buy a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1571,1564,274,558,770,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-357669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-affordable-housing","tag-angie-angers","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-community-news","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357669","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=357669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}