Pinellas Recovers program<\/a> has approved $110 million in funding, with $24 million paid out.<\/p>\nAnother $86 million has been committed but has yet to reach recipients.<\/p>\n
For Madeira Beach resident Bill Nelson, the wait has been frustrating. Nelson\u2019s home was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene. Insurance covered part of his $151,000 repair bill, but he said he is still facing $88,000 in costs he can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n
He has been working with Pinellas Recovers for months, hoping to qualify for assistance. In the meantime, he said his contractor is threatening to put a lien on his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t get some help, I will have to make the ultimate sacrifice and sell it,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
County officials said they must adhere to strict federal guidelines during the disbursement process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reimbursement-based program. HUD does not just write us a check for $813 million,\u201d said Anastasia Sarioglou, Pinellas County\u2019s disaster recovery compliance manager. \u201cWe spend it and then show them with receipts that we have legitimately spent this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarioglou said permitting requirements and environmental reviews are among the biggest bottlenecks. The county is currently managing nearly 3,500 active cases.<\/p>\n
More than 2,700 applications have also been deemed ineligible, with common reasons including properties that aren\u2019t primary residences, applicants exceeding income limits and homes located outside Pinellas County.<\/p>\n
The Pinellas County Division of Inspector General recently completed its first audit of the recovery program. Auditors examined 57 awarded cases totaling $4.3 million and found no issues in the sample reviewed, according to Assistant Inspector General Darcy Eckert.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are independent. We don\u2019t have a stake either way,\u201d Eckert said.<\/p>\n
Her office plans to conduct additional audits and provides independent reviews for certain denied applications. HUD also monitors how the federal funding is spent.<\/p>\n
Pinellas isn\u2019t the only Tampa Bay county navigating the complicated process. Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties also received direct federal recovery allocations and oversee their own programs.<\/p>\n
In smaller counties like Citrus, however, the process is different. Federal disaster recovery money is distributed through the Florida Department of Commerce rather than a county-run program.<\/p>\n
Citrus County Housing Services Director Michelle Alford said that can make securing assistance more challenging for communities still recovering from significant storm damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the communities most impacted should be the ones that have the automatic access to these funds,\u201d Alford said.<\/p>\n
Pinellas County has six years to distribute its $813 million allocation and is roughly one year into that process. The same goes for Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties.<\/p>\n
For Nelson, the concern is whether help will arrive before it\u2019s too late. He is determined to save the Madeira Beach home he\u2019s owned for 27 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Two years after back-to-back hurricanes devastated parts of Tampa Bay, hundreds of millions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1564,3140,2161,1846,2287,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,12166,135,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-423483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-angie-angers","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-government","tag-hurricane","tag-local-politics","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-storm-season","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423483","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=423483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}