Families turning to $813M Pinellas County program for post-hurricane help: 'I'm stuck'
The Brief
Pinellas County is holding a series of meetings on $813 million in funding to help with hurricane relief.
Some say they're feeling stuck, even several months after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
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.
"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.
PREVIOUS: Pinellas County wants input on how to spend $813M in storm relief funding
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.
"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.
READ: Could Pinellas County soon have a county mayor? Proposal would create new top office
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.
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The Source
Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis.
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