Tampa leaders approve $3.2M in funding to help homeowners recover from hurricanes
TAMPA, Fla. - It’s been almost four months since Hurricane Milton destroyed lives across Tampa Bay. It came on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region as a whole.
Dig deeper:
On Thursday, the Tampa City Council unanimously approved a little more than $3.2 million in funding from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program to help homeowners recover from the storms.
Thursday's Tampa City Council meeting that approved $3.2 million in hurricane recovery aid.
"We have a lot of residents who are paying two rents," Abbye Feeley, the Development and Economic Opportunity administrator, said. "Or, they’re paying their mortgage, and then they’re paying to stay somewhere else. So, this will allow for mortgage assistance up to $5,000."
The backstory:
The funding is aimed at helping homeowners with mortgage payments, home repairs, and insurance deductibles.
"If you hired a contractor, you already paid for your repairs, you permitted them, you’ll be able to get some reimbursement for that," Feeley said.
The city says homeowners can apply for up to $5,000 in mortgage assistance, $20,000 in home repair assistance and $10,000 in insurance deductible reimbursement.
It says each eligible household will be able to receive up to $20,000 in total.
Hurricane flooding on roads in the Tampa Bay region.
Although councilors unanimously approved the funding, they voiced frustrations about the need for more funding and an expedited process.
"It’s taken us 125 days to get here for $3 million," Councilor Luis Viera said.
Viera has pushed for more hurricane recovery resources and funding, particularly for neighborhoods in North Tampa and the university area.
Big picture view:
Many people are still displaced from their homes, and some cannot afford to rebuild and move back into their homes.
"The people that I talked to, they’re really going through hell, still," Viera said.
The storm damage is spread throughout the city. After Hurricane Milton, neighborhoods around Port Tampa were also underwater. City leaders questioned how thin the funding could be spread.
"It’s not enough," Councilor Bill Carlson said. "It’s barely going to touch anybody."
Carlson also emphasized the need to rebuild stronger to help prevent this type of hurricane damage in the future.
"We’ve got to put every dollar we can towards maintenance because even if we pay for people to renovate their homes, floods are going to come right back in and hit them," Carlson said. "We’ve got to fix the underlying problem."
What's next:
City leaders hope this funding is a step toward rebuilding and recovery, which will take much longer.
Councilor Lynn Hurtak also pressed city officials on how soon homeowners would be able to access the funding.
"A timeline for how long it will take," Hurtak said. "This partner had to come up with a phone number for folks to reach out to, because the question I keep getting asked is, ‘What's next?’"
City officials say they’re working to create a pre-application screening process for residents and a phone number people can call to get information about the funding.
Hurricane flooding in a Tampa neighborhood.
They also say they’re working to designate a space where people can visit in person to get information or apply for funding.
They hope to have information on the funding and how to apply for it by mid-March.
City leaders recommend that people organize documents such as mortgage information, income statements, pay stubs, and receipts.
The Source: FOX 13's Kylie Jones collected the information in this story.
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