Disaster Recovery Housing Program - Chuck Lane Pasco County

Pasco County will start taking applications December 1st  for grants to homeowners who suffered damage in Hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton in 2023 and 2024. No area of the county escaped impact from recent storms. Owners of traditional, manufactured or mobile homes can apply for relief. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gorden Bird here beyond the News. Communities around Tampa Bay
have been standing up their programs to help homeowners with
repair and rebuilding after recent hurricanes, including for many of
us at Dalia, Helene, and Milton. Pasco County is opening
its disaster recovery housing program, the Better Future Individual Housing Program,

(00:21):
with six public information meetings all over the county starting
November eighteenth. Chuck Lane is the director of Pasco County's
Office of Disaster Recovery Resources, and he joins us now
on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Chuck Lane, welcome, thank you godon here.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
We appreciate it. First, if we could get the overview here,
where is the money coming from, how much is it available,
how much is available for homeowners and who's eligible to
access that?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
So, the county received five hundred and eighty five million
dollars from the federal government.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's from HUD and the money is.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
To be used to help our communities recover from impacts
from Hurricane Means Adali in twenty twenty three and Helene
and Milton last year. It's really an opportunity for us
to have transformative change in our communities.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And do you need to go to one of these
meetings before you file your application.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
No, we're hoping people do. We're encouraging people to come
to the meetings.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
There's going to be a lot of information shared at
these meetings, but they don't have to come to the
meeting in order to apply. We'll have information on our
website on how to apply for these meetings. We'll assign
people caseworkers so they can work directly with real people
on how to fill out an application and get to
a completed application.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
What are some of the questions you should be ready
to answer if you decide to apply for this program.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, this is income based.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Seventy percent of the funds have to be spent on
households that are earning less than seventy percent of the
area's median income. Now what that means is area meeting
income is established by HUD and it depends on the
size of your household. So, for example, a household of
four people would have if they have an income a
total income that exceeds eighty four thousand, four hundred and

(02:03):
fifty dollars, they would they that would be over income.
They have to have income less than that, and that
changes by household size. So we really have to focus
on that low income group as defined by HUT. So
that's where we're planning. That's who we're planning to help first.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
And what is the timetable and what's the deadline for
turning in your application.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
We don't have a deadline yet.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
We're going to we're working towards opening the application on
December first, we have we still have some work to
do to hit that deadline. But once that application is open,
it's going to be open until we expend the funds. Now,
of the five hundred and eighty five million dollars, we've
allocated two hundred and five million dollars to the individual
Housing program. Now, what that means is that money will

(02:45):
go towards repairs. There's a lot of repairs that haven't
been done. There's a lot of people that have repaired
their homes and maybe have a loan on those repairs,
and we're able to reimburse people for those expenses. There
are homes that are damaged to the point where they
shouldn't be repaired. They need to be demolished and rebuilt.
We can do that with these funds. These and this

(03:07):
program also applies not only to your traditionally built homes
like your stick built homes and your concrete block homes.
It also applies to manufactured homes. People in manufactured homes
or older mobile homes that are in disrepair we can replace.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
We can repair or replace those as well with this funding.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
So this is something where you can either apply for
reimbursement or apply for funding to start the project if
you haven't started already.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Correct, that's correct.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Now, what's the maximum amount? Is there a maximum amount
that you can receive under these grants.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Well, we're working through that, so I would call these
numbers draft at this point. But from on a traditionally
built home, we're looking at a maximum for a rehab
of one hundred and seventy five thousand, and then a
demolition in repair the maximum.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Would be three hundred and thirty thousand.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Now, we sell some work to do to really nail
down those numbers, but that's the ballpark in right now.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
To let everybody know, these public information meetings with your
Better Future Individual Housing Program are going to be taking
place literally all over the county between the week of
the eighteenth and the twenty fifth. There's one in Holiday
at the Recreation and Complex. There another one on the
nineteenth at the West Pasco Government Center, and one at

(04:22):
Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson on the twentieth, and then
Saturday in Zephyr Hills at the Community Center there, and
then the Pasco County Courthouse Monday and Tuesday. November twenty
fifth is the last one at the Land of Lakes
Recreation Complex on Cullier Parkway. These meetings are all over
the county and that sort of reflects the fact that
you have had different hurricanes impacting people all over the

(04:46):
county from the coast to all the way Inland.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
That's interesting you say.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
That one of the requirements of this program is you
identify the most impacted area in your county and funds
need to be spent there. Our entire county is considered
under the most impacted area. So we really were a
hit across the board, across the entire county on an
equal level. That you know, obviously the west side, who
is more in the lines of storm surge with Aleen,

(05:11):
and on the on the east side it was more
on the lines of flooding from rains from from from Milton.
But yes, this is a county wide issue and we're
trying to reach everybody. These meetings are strategically scheduled across
the county so people don't have to drive very far
to get to us. We're also going to keep a
robust amount of information on our website mypassco dot net

(05:33):
that that that website will be updated constantly. UH, the
latest information will be there. I encourage people to follow
us on that website UH and keep track of information.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And definitely thanks for getting that out. Mypassco dot net
is the place to go to keep up with that.
As this program evolves, as you mentioned, UH, there is
still a lot that is still being settled into place.
Chuck Lane, the director of Pasco Counties Office of Disaster
Recovery Resources, talking about a chance to help you with

(06:05):
home repair, rebuilding or replacement if you are impacted by
the recent hurricanes. Thank you very much for joining us
on Beyond the News