Families turning to $813M Pinellas County program for post-hurricane help: 'I'm stuck'
Community feedback on storm fund
Many families are still displaced, waiting on FEMA funds or other programs that promised to help them recover from the back-to-back hurricanes. Genevieve Curtis reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Several months after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, there are still many families feeling left behind – displaced, waiting on FEMA funds or other programs that promised to help them recover.
It's left many wondering if they will even qualify for the $813 million Pinellas County received from HUD.
What they're saying:
"I can't even move forward with fixing my home, and it's been six months," said Tammy Marshall. She’s living in a camper in her St. Petersburg driveway after feet of raw sewage from Helene forced her to gut her home.
She says she barely makes too much to get help from FEMA and her insurance money hardly put a dent in her expenses. She’s applied to other programs and Elevate Florida, but she’s still waiting for assistance. She’s also stuck in the permitting process because of a building anomaly with her home’s garage conversion.
Pinellas County residents are learning more about how $813 million in funding could help communities in the aftermath of 2024's devastating hurricanes.
"So that's where it feels so frustrating. Where is a person supposed to turn?" Marshall said.
On St. Pete Beach, many residents are hoping to see infrastructure projects to address the sewage.
"If you're talking about inches of sewage. The smell was horrendous and literally everything has to be thrown out because of e. coli. We couldn't save anything," said Deborah Schechner.
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Dig deeper:
On Monday night, consultants explained various ways the funding could be applied to help families. Their goal is to take a "people-first approach."
Programs will include home rehabilitation, local landlord rehabilitation, lifting homes, small business and nonprofit assistance and homeownership assistance projects, among others.
Seventy percent of the program funds have to help families at low-to-moderate income levels.
Pinellas County residents are learning more about how $813 million in funding could help communities in the aftermath of 2024's devastating hurricanes.
"Thousands of people are still not back in their homes. It's a disaster area, and I am concerned so many houses are almost left abandoned because people can't get back to work on them," said Schechner.
The county says it's managing all the funds for the communities within the county as it tries to get the money out to people in need as soon as possible. But even with that, residents won’t likely see any of it until at least September.
"And here hurricane season comes again. So I guess I won't have to do mitigation if I flood again, because my house is ripped out," said Marshall.
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What's next:
There will be several more meetings on the issue.
The county also has a survey online, where you can give feedback. For more, click here.
The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis.
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