Sarasota County on a tighter clock to come up with plan for federal hurricane funds
Local officials will have a shorter timeline than they did after Hurricane Ian to figure out how to distribute about $210 million in federal recovery funds for the trio of Gulf storms that slammed Sarasota County last autumn.
The county has 90 days to submit a spending plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on how to spend the money, half of the time given for the previous round of funding.
The Resilient SRQ program was launched to spend the $201 million received from HUD to recover after Hurricane Ian. and to protect against future disasters.
For that funding, the county had had about six months to formulate an spending plan to present to federal authorities. For the funding HUD grant following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the timetable has been cut in half.
Steve Hyatt, who oversees the Resilient SRQ program for Sarasota County, said in an email to the Herald-Tribune that the accelerated timeline was a HUD initiative to quicken community aid.
'We see HUD's 90-day requirement as a goal to see funding reach disaster survivors as quickly as possible while improving program efficiency,' Hyatt said.
Sarasota County has received about $411 million in federal funds for four storms over three years.
There are also several HUD criteria the county must meet as it disburses the money. Seventy percent of the funding – about $147 million – must benefit Sarasota County households with an income of $64,506 or less, while 85% must 'tie back' to Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, or otherwise be used to build resiliency for future storms. All of the funds must also be used within six years of project approval.
He said at an earlier meeting the process would involve collaboration with local nonprofits, business groups, neighborhood organizations, and municipalities, including Sarasota, Venice, and North Port as occurred in distributing Hurricane Ian funding.
County officials seemed confident the program would ultimately meet federal approval, despite the recent upheaval in Washington, D.C., over federal funding.
County officials took about two months to develop a draft plan for spending federal funds in 2023 and another two months for the County Commission to approve it last September.
This time officials anticipate having a plan to present to the commission by February. After that, there will be about two months for public comment and response to that input the plan would be approved and passed up the chain to HUD, which would approve the plan by June.
The county held four public meetings and also surveyed Sarasota County residents, businesses, and nonprofits on how they would want to see the money spent.
Hyatt said the top priorities for most respondents were infrastructure – such as road and bridge repair, improved evacuation corridors and stormwater improvements – and housing assistance.
Public Services, such as healthcare and childcare, and economic revitalization ranked near the bottom.
Sarasota County's allotment is part of a $12 billion round of recovery funding for 23 states, 15 counties, eight cities, and one territory.
The initial round of federal funding fell short of full compensating for the damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022. The county found after that storm there were about $700 million to $800 million in unmet needs, but only $201 million from HUD to address them.
Christian Casale covers local government for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Email him at ccasale@gannett.com or christiancasale@protonmail.com
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota County on shorter timeline to plan Resilient SRQ distribution
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