ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG) is speaking publicly for the first time about its ongoing audit into Rebuild Florida’s Hurricane Irma’s Repair and Replacement program. 

It’s a state-run hurricane recovery program designed to help homeowners impacted by Hurricane Irma. The federal watchdog confirms the audit, which launched after a series of investigative reports by our team, is expected to be completed this fall.

“Your reporting certainly helped inform the way we’re seeing the issue,” said Stephen Begg, Deputy Inspector General at HUD OIG. “The work you all have done in highlighting the concerns from the individuals in the community has definitely been helpful context for us in thinking about how we would approach the issue.”

This is the second federal audit focused specifically on how Florida handled the $780 million in Irma recovery funds. The first audit, which examined just seven properties, identified cases of significant overspending.

For more than a year now, our investigation uncovered similar problems on a broader scale after reviewing dozens of homes where repair costs doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. Some recipients are still displaced nearly eight years after Hurricane Irma made landfall. Others who have returned to their homes have reported poor-quality repairs, including electrical issues and black mold.

“The goal of this audit is to assess the progress that the Florida Department of Commerce has made in their program. So we’re focused primarily on the outcomes that are being generated with the funding available. And then we’re also going to take a look at the quality of the homes that have been built by looking at a selection of them and assessing whether they meet quality standards both at HUD’s requirement level and at the local county code level. That’s the gist of it.”

He confirms that they are looking at many more properties than the first audit. We previously reported how Sean Moulton from the non-partisan watchdog group the Policy on Government Oversight thought in the first audit, there was a small sample of properties for the program’s size.

“I can tell you this is an important program for HUD and it’s an important program for us and so, you know, that’s why we initiated the audit and and HUD certainly does a range of oversight, that it is designed to assist the most impacted and distressed from the hurricane, and it’s designed to impact low and moderate income families, and so we understand the vulnerability, and that’s why it’s important for us to use our tools to to put whatever spotlight we can and hopefully identify ways that we can speed up the delivery of the services that the the people in need really deserve.”

The state allocated $480 million to the Hurricane Irma Housing Repair and Replacement Program under Rebuild Florida.

“Our risk assessment is multi-factored,” Begg said. “And public reporting on issues is certainly a part of that.”

Begg emphasized that the Inspector General’s office wants to hear from more homeowners and residents affected by the program.

Anyone with relevant information is urged to contact the HUD OIG hotline at 1-800-347-3735.