ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The St. Pete City Council approved its disaster recovery action plan.
It will allocate nearly $160 million to help residents rebuild over the next six years.
“It’s anticipated to achieve two significant outcomes,” remarked St. Pete City Council Chair Copley Gerdes. “First, it provides a direct infusion of funds to both single-family and multifamily residences for mitigation and resilience efforts—and even offers reimbursement for some storm-related expenditures. Additionally, there’s a $20 million allocation for infrastructure.”
Out of $159,884,000, 70% will go toward housing, 17% toward infrastructure and 13% to public services.
The plan specifies Hurricanes Idalia and Helene being covered, but what about Hurricane Milton?
“Having gone through these storms, which occurred just 10 days apart, we all understand the situation,” stated St. Pete Strategic Initiatives and Grants Director Aubrey Phillips. “We won’t attempt to determine whether it was ‘Storm A’ or ‘Storm B,’ as this would lead to an endless cycle of bureaucratic obstacles.”
So with the majority of funds going toward housing, what does that really look like?
Here’s a breakdown.
Residents would see:
- The rehabilitation of 98 storm-damaged houses
- Reimbursements for repairs made at 288 homes
- Assistance for 70 first-time home buyers
- 582 new affordable housing units
- Housing reimbursements for 784 people displaced after the storms
- The city would buy and demolish 14 homes severely damaged by the storms
That money that will come from the federal government as a reimbursement to the city.
St. Pete City Council Member Brandi Gabbard asked, “We’re looking at a program that is $159 million; where are we going to get that money?”
“Thankfully, we won’t need to disburse $158 million immediately, as the programs are designed to allocate funds over a six-year period,” explained St. Pete Assistant City Administrator Tom Greene. “It’s structured like a line of credit, so after incurring expenses, we’ll submit them to HUD for reimbursement, with expectations that the process should take about three days.”
