Volusia County is setting aside $20 million in federal disaster recovery dollars to buy properties that flooded because of Hurricane Milton.
The funds are part of more than $133.5 million that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated to Volusia County. The purpose of the funds, which come in the form of a community development block grant, is to help the county recover from Hurricane Milton and strengthen the county against future storms.
The County Council unanimously approved its spending plan for the funds on Tuesday. The Hurricane Milton action plan has to be approved by HUD, and the county expects that to happen by July or August.
Homeowners can apply for the buyout program after HUD formally approves the action plan and the county crafts the details of the program, according to an email to the News-Journal from Volusia County spokesman Clayton Jackson.
The county plans to provide up to $400,000 for housing buyouts, with additional incentives possible. The county’s buyout offers will be based on “an independent appraisal of a property’s pre-storm value.”
How will Volusia County use $133.5M?
The county will spend most of the money on infrastructure, mitigation and housing buyouts. Mitigation refers to efforts to make a community stronger and can include things like “infrastructure, planning, housing and economic revitalization.”
Here’s the Hurricane Milton Action Plan (spending plan) budget:
Residents or property owners will apply for home repair and replacement, as they have done for Hurricane Ian damage. A retired Marine from Port Orange and his wife recently celebrated their new home built through the Transform386 initiative, which the county launched to manage federal disaster recovery dollars for Hurricane Ian. Transform386 is also handling the Hurricane Milton funds.
The infrastructure and mitigation funds will go to “local governments, non-profits and public housing authorities to repair existing damage caused by Hurricane Milton and create infrastructure to mitigate against future storms,” according to a county presentation.
Infrastructure projects can focus on, among things, roads and bridges and facilities for stormwater, sewer and drinking water.
The application process for the funds is likely to be competitive. The amount of matching funds that a city or other applicant brings will influence how competitive their application is, said Dona Butler, who is leading the Transform386 effort for the county. Another factor will be the income levels of the people the project serves.
“We’re going to have way more amount of projects and a dollar amount than we’re going to be able to fund,” Butler said.
Butler and her team focused more on infrastructure needs with this plan. County Council members had pushed for more spending on infrastructure instead of new housing.
HUD allocated over $328.9 million to Volusia County for Hurricane Ian recovery, which includes funding for new multi-family housing and other housing programs. As part of that effort, the County Council voted in February to spend over $10.4 million on 280 new affordable apartments ― the apartment development planned for the former Hotel Putnam site in DeLand is one of those.
The Hurricane Milton action plan includes funds for replacing homes, but does not include any money for the construction of new affordable housing. The county found that the Hurricane Ian recovery program will take care of enough of the housing needs.
“Since multi-family affordable housing lost in Hurricane Milton was also impacted by Hurricane Ian, those projects are already being addressed,” according to the county.
County councilmen celebrated the focus on infrastructure and supported giving priority to local governments that bring match funding to the table with their project applications.
“I believe our cities need to be partners, and they need to come with money,” District 4 Councilman Troy Kent said.
At-Large Representative Jake Johansson said he hopes the county will put the money where it’s needed most.
“We very often do a peanut butter spread of, ‘Oh, everybody’s got to get a little bit of money,'” he said.
The $133.5 million from HUD comes with a variety of requirements. One stipulation is that at least 70% of the money has to benefit people with low to moderate incomes.
A low-to-moderate income person makes up to 80 percent of the area’s median income. The income threshold varies by household size. A household of four people could make up to $72,300 and still be considered as having a moderate income.
Also, the funding is supposed to meet needs that haven’t been addressed “after all other assistance has been exhausted.” The county has six years to spend the funds.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia County OKs $20M for property buyouts to help Hurricane Milton recovery
Reporting by Sheldon Gardner, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
