St. Pete officials reveal $160M disaster recovery plan to help victims of the 2024 hurricanes

Yahoo

14-06-2025

The Brief
St. Pete City Council approved a draft Disaster Recovery Action Plan.
The city is receiving a HUD grant for almost $160M for Helene and Idalia recovery.
The city is accepting public comments on the draft plan until June 23.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The city of St. Pete moved closer to securing a grant for nearly $160 million for hurricane recovery.
St. Pete City Council approved a draft of its Disaster Recovery Action Plan for Hurricanes Idalia and Helene on Thursday night.
The plan allocates money from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant to storm recovery.
The backstory
It's been almost nine months since Hurricane Helene, but some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in St. Pete still have a long way to go in the rebuilding process.
"It's tragic," Kevin Batdorf, the Shore Acres Civics Association President said. "It's horrifying. 11,000 homes had water in them."
Batdorf says more than 2,000 of those homes around the city that flooded are in Shore Acres. He says this accounts for 82% of the homes in the neighborhoods.
READ:St. Pete approves projects to make sewer system more resilient
"People were made homeless after Helene," Batdorf said.
A lot of the homes in Shore Acres on now for sale, and many others are still under construction as homeowners repair or build up.
"A lot of people are still not here and we're all in transition," Matt Thorn, who lives in Shore Acres said. "So, it has that little eerie aspect to it."
The HUD grant designates $159.8 million for long-term storm recovery efforts from Helene and Idalia.
READ:St. Pete playwright writes kid's audiobook to help navigate hurricane stress during storm season
In the city's draft of the Disaster Recovery Action Plan, it proposes allocating about 66% of the HUD grant for housing needs.
"This disaster money should go to those who suffered the disaster," Batdorf said. "The entire city didn't suffer like we did, like Riviera Bay and some other communities."
By the numbers
The plan also allocates about 16% of the grant funding for infrastructure projects, 12% to public services, 5% to administration and 1% to planning.
City officials say HUD requires the majority of the funding to go towards low- to moderate-income households, which includes households of four that earn less than $83,450 annually.
What they're saying
"When you restrict how the money is spent in a certain way, it has to be diverted to folks that may or may not have been affected by the storm," Batdorf said.
The city says the funding could be used for things like housing repairs, reconstruction for homes damaged by the disaster, public infrastructure improvements, economic recovery efforts, multifamily affordable housing developments for low- and moderate-income families and rental assistance.
Batdorf says his neighborhood is made up of a lot of workforce housing, but he worries that some of the grant eligibility requirements will keep the money from some of the people who need it the most.
"It's never enough over here," he said. "This pot of money should be used for this pot of projects. It needs to help people get their homes out of harm's way."
READ: St. Pete City Council unanimously approves $5 million for Tropicana Field repairs
Homeowners hope that neighborhoods like Shore Acres aren't forgotten about, as time continues to pass and the rebuild continues.
"We're going to build back stronger than ever," Batdorf said. "And we're just going to keep fighting to get the money that's going to help us do that."
What you can do
The city says public input was used to help draft this plan.
The community had the opportunity to provide feedback on what should be included in the draft action plan at the March 2025 City Hall on Tour event. We encourage residents to read the draft Action Plan and submit written comments until June 23.
The city says once the public comment period closes, a final action plan will be submitted to HUD. It expects to submit the plan to HUD in July.
If approved by HUD, the city will move forward with beginning the grant program.
The Source
This story was written with information collected by FOX 13's Kylie Jones.
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV
Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android
Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines
Download the SkyTower Radar app
Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Follow FOX 13 on YouTube