Sarasota County has $55 million for homeowners dealing with Ian damage

SARASOTA — A Sarasota County program with $55 million to distribute among homeowners still trying to recover from 2022's Hurricane Ian will begin accepting applications later this month.

Qualified owners of single-family and manufactured homes could be eligible to have their Ian-damaged residences repaired or rebuilt, or to be reimbursed up to $50,000 for repairs already made.

It's the next phase in the implementation of Resilient SRQ, the county's overall program for distributing $201.5 million in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds from the federal government.

The plan approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in November also includes programs for infrastructure, affordable housing, career training and housing buyouts.

Windows to apply for funding for infrastructure ($45 million) and multi-family affordable housing ($40 million) projects have already closed.

The county received 46 applications for infrastructure projects totaling about $187.6 million and 20 for multi-family affordable housing adding up to approximately $167.8 million, Resilient SRQ Program Manager Laurel Varnell said.

Staff recommendations of infrastructure proposals will be presented to the Sarasota County Commission for approval May 22, she said.

Multi-family project applications, which were accepted through Wednesday, are under staff review, with presentation to the Commission in July, she said.

Also over the summer, the Commission will be asked to make some policy decisions regarding a home buyout program that has $6.5 million in funding, she said.

Of the $55 million in the housing program, $40 million is for rehabilitation and reconstruction and $15 million is for reimbursement for work already completed, Varnell said.

Under HUD criteria, the funds must benefit homeowners who at or below 80% of area median income whose primary residence in Sarasota County was damaged by Ian.

A program implementation manager working for the county will hire subcontractors to perform approved work under HUD standards.

The plan is to use a single application for both the repair and the reimbursement elements of the housing program, Varnell said.

Details of the program are still being finalized, she said. People interested in applying for funds when the application period opens can sign up at ResilientSRQ.net to receive updates, she said.

"For me, the biggest thing is knowing there's still help that's coming," Varnell said.

Also coming online later this month will be a career training program that has $15 million to spend.

"The intention is to create a career trades training program in the construction fields," she told the Commission during a presentation on scoring criteria last month.

Money will be available for nonprofits, public entities and institutions of higher learning proposing to provide public services or to acquire land and construct a public facility, she said.

They, too, will need to be able to show they're serving low-to-medium income participants in Sarasota County.

In addition, the projects must include a mitigation component. HUD's only exception to the requirement that CDBG-DR funds be spent on recovery from Hurricane Ian is expenditures for mitigation.

Resilient SRQ also has a $25 million infrastructure allocation for the South River Road evacuation corridor. Varnell said the county's Public Works Department is beginning the planning process for the project.