March 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Pinellas County is holding in-person and virtual meetings to get public input on how to spend an $813-million grant from HUD to support recovery from Hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton. Gordon Byrd speaks with Deputy County Administrator Matthew Spoor.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Panella's County is
getting more than eight hundred million dollars from the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development and a block grant
to help support housing and business recovery from the hurricanes.
The county wants input on where that money should go,
and it's using an online survey and scheduling public meetings
to get that input. Assistant County Administrator Matthew spor is
(00:23):
overseeing that effort, and Joye is now on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome in, Sir Gordon, thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, first of all, this is certainly very important for
panelas because the county took such a hit from Hurricanes
Helene and Milton, and this is a huge amount of
money and much needed. What are you allowed to spend
the money on under federal law? What are the choices
that you have according to the requirements of the grant.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
From hud so, the US Department of Housing and Urban
Development requires that we spend it on housing, infrastructure, economic development,
and then there's some ancillary programs that we can do,
but those are the main programs that we're required to
spend it on. What is key for the public to
(01:12):
understand is that because this is a US Department of
Housing and Urban Development grant, it is a block grant
for disaster recovery. We are required to use seventy percent
of the funds towards load to moderate income areas, whether
that be housing, whether that be economic development and jobs
or infrastructure. So part of our due diligence and the
(01:37):
unmet needs analysis is to see where in Penelas County
we can utilize these funds in those LMI areas.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And it sounds like the kind of thing where you're
if you're asking the question, do we need support for residents?
Do we need support for businesses? Do we need support
for infrastructure? And the answer is yes. So there's there
there's a lot to work in as far as breaking
down what the community feels is top priority. Where are
(02:07):
the residents of Panelas County? Which areas are eligible for
the money? Is it just unincorporated county residents or does
it involve municipalities also, it is.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
All of Panelas County and every municipality. The only exception
is the city of Saint Petersburg. And the reason that
there's an exception there is because they received their own
allotment I think one hundred and sixty million dollars for
hurricanes Idalia and Helene. We received our allotment for hurricanes Adalia, Helene,
(02:39):
and Milton. So there's a nuance there that will work
through with the City of Saint Pete. But for the
benefit of the residents, it's best just to explain it
as all of Padalas County minus Saint Petersburg for these funds.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And when you talk about the kind of input you're
soliciting from the public, are you presenting a list of options,
is it multiple choice or what kind of feedback are
you looking for?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, great question. So this funding is known as the
funding of last resort. So it can be frustrating because
by time we receive this grant funding and by time
we are able to get it out to the residents,
it will be almost a year from the storms impacting
Penelas County. But that's by design. That's by design from
(03:30):
the federal government. They want FEMA to come in first,
they want private insurance to come in, they want other
grants and other opportunities to come in first, and this
to come in at the end. So what are we
looking for. We're looking for what are those unmet needs?
And that's the buzzword here. We do an analysis of
unmet needs, and our draft analysis shows that roughly seventy
(03:51):
eight percent of our unmet needs is in the housing.
It's in the housing realm, and so we really want
to hear from those most impact you know, here we
are several months from the storms. I don't know guests,
eighty five to ninety percent of our community has gone
back to business as usual, but there's there's a good
chunk of people out there that are still having to
(04:13):
make decisions of recovery decisions, and we want to hear
from them. We want to know what their biggest obstacles are,
what are their shortfalls. You know, I had talked to
a lady the other day who who has a roof
that was half blown off, and her insurance is only
going to cover roughly fifty percent of the cost to
put that roof on, and she does not have the
means to cover the other fifty percent. So there's a
(04:36):
blue tarp on her roof and there will be until
she finds a solution. So those are the types of
things we're looking for. On the infrastructure and mitigation side,
we work with our partners in cities and some nonprofits
to understand what those needs are. We also reached out
to the chambers and the business communities, especially along those
impacted areas our barrier islands, to see what those packs are.
(05:01):
So really all of that will be analyzed by our
team to put together a draft action plan for the
Border County Commission, and they will see that in early
May and really put together that plan of how we're
going to spend this money over the next six years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And it's easy to forget for the majority of us
who have returned to something resembling normalcy, that there are
still people who have blue tarp on their roofs or
who are still living in hotels because their housing is
still unlivable. Once you get this going, tell us about
(05:41):
the survey and the meetings. I understand there is the
survey online, there are in person meetings and zoom meetings
where you're taking input from the public.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Absolutely, we will have several means. We're required to have
at least three public meetings. I believe we have somewhere
around seven scheduled for early April through the middle of May.
You can see all the information you want to see
at recover dot Penelus dot gov. That's recover dot Penelus
dot gov. We have an online survey that is active
(06:13):
right now, so residents can go on and take the
online survey and let us know what their unmet needs are.
We will have public meetings in South County, Mid County,
North County will also have virtual meetings. We recognize we
may have some residents that we're impacted that are living
with relatives somewhere else in the state of Florida and
they are not able to come back to their homes
(06:34):
right now, so we will have virtual meetings for those individuals,
and then of course the BCC, the Bord of County Commissioners,
will have several meetings where they continue to talk about this.
Our first meeting is April seventh, that is at the
Lolman Exchange. All of those meeting dates are on the
recover dot Penelas dot gov along with the online.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Survey and yeah some Monday April is seventh in Liylman
and then also meetings in Dunedin and Palm Harbor and
clear Water as well as the ZOOM meetings. Do you
need to register in advance for any of those meetings?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
For the Zoom meetings, we asked that you register it
online so that we can track who's on those meetings.
But the in person meetings, individuals can show up. We
will have different ways to take their input. We will
have a presentation about the program. We will talk about
kind of some of the draft analysis that's been done
(07:27):
and the draft program thoughts. It's keep in mind for
this is a lot of money. You mentioned that earlier, Gordon.
This is eight hundred million dollars that needs to be
spent over the next six years. It's reimbursable by HUT,
which means we're not frontloaded any money. This is not
like the ARP of funds, which, to give you an idea,
(07:47):
the ARP of funds were two hundred million dollars one
hundred and ninety million to be exact, and that was
over a five to six year period, but that was
front loaded. So this is roughly four times that dollar amount.
So as we work through these programs, there will be
different programs turn on at different points in time. Our
number one goal is to get the housing help out
(08:07):
there first, so as soon as we have the action plan,
as soon as HUD approves the action plan, which would
be later this summer, sometime in July or August, once
we have an agreement with the federal government to actually
spend these grant dollars, the first programs you will see
turn on are housing related programs.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And to emphasize also for the people who would like
to take part in these meetings, most of them are
taking place during the early evening hours after the business day,
so people who are working during the day will have
an opportunity to participate. And once again, that website where
people can find out more information is I hope I'm correct.
Here we cover dotpanelas dot gov.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That's it, Gordon, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Matthew Spoor, the assistant county administrator who is overseeing the
block grant from hud to help us with hurricane recovery
in Panellas County. Matthew spor thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Panella's County is
getting more than eight hundred million dollars from the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development and a block grant
to help support housing and business recovery from the hurricanes.
The county wants input on where that money should go,
and it's using an online survey and scheduling public meetings
to get that input. Assistant County Administrator Matthew spor is
(00:23):
overseeing that effort, and Joye is now on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome in, Sir Gordon, thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, first of all, this is certainly very important for
panelas because the county took such a hit from Hurricanes
Helene and Milton, and this is a huge amount of
money and much needed. What are you allowed to spend
the money on under federal law? What are the choices
that you have according to the requirements of the grant.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
From hud so, the US Department of Housing and Urban
Development requires that we spend it on housing, infrastructure, economic development,
and then there's some ancillary programs that we can do,
but those are the main programs that we're required to
spend it on. What is key for the public to
(01:12):
understand is that because this is a US Department of
Housing and Urban Development grant, it is a block grant
for disaster recovery. We are required to use seventy percent
of the funds towards load to moderate income areas, whether
that be housing, whether that be economic development and jobs
or infrastructure. So part of our due diligence and the
(01:37):
unmet needs analysis is to see where in Penelas County
we can utilize these funds in those LMI areas.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And it sounds like the kind of thing where you're
if you're asking the question, do we need support for residents?
Do we need support for businesses? Do we need support
for infrastructure? And the answer is yes. So there's there
there's a lot to work in as far as breaking
down what the community feels is top priority. Where are
(02:07):
the residents of Panelas County? Which areas are eligible for
the money? Is it just unincorporated county residents or does
it involve municipalities also, it is.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
All of Panelas County and every municipality. The only exception
is the city of Saint Petersburg. And the reason that
there's an exception there is because they received their own
allotment I think one hundred and sixty million dollars for
hurricanes Idalia and Helene. We received our allotment for hurricanes Adalia, Helene,
(02:39):
and Milton. So there's a nuance there that will work
through with the City of Saint Pete. But for the
benefit of the residents, it's best just to explain it
as all of Padalas County minus Saint Petersburg for these funds.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And when you talk about the kind of input you're
soliciting from the public, are you presenting a list of options,
is it multiple choice or what kind of feedback are
you looking for?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, great question. So this funding is known as the
funding of last resort. So it can be frustrating because
by time we receive this grant funding and by time
we are able to get it out to the residents,
it will be almost a year from the storms impacting
Penelas County. But that's by design. That's by design from
(03:30):
the federal government. They want FEMA to come in first,
they want private insurance to come in, they want other
grants and other opportunities to come in first, and this
to come in at the end. So what are we
looking for. We're looking for what are those unmet needs?
And that's the buzzword here. We do an analysis of
unmet needs, and our draft analysis shows that roughly seventy
(03:51):
eight percent of our unmet needs is in the housing.
It's in the housing realm, and so we really want
to hear from those most impact you know, here we
are several months from the storms. I don't know guests,
eighty five to ninety percent of our community has gone
back to business as usual, but there's there's a good
chunk of people out there that are still having to
(04:13):
make decisions of recovery decisions, and we want to hear
from them. We want to know what their biggest obstacles are,
what are their shortfalls. You know, I had talked to
a lady the other day who who has a roof
that was half blown off, and her insurance is only
going to cover roughly fifty percent of the cost to
put that roof on, and she does not have the
means to cover the other fifty percent. So there's a
(04:36):
blue tarp on her roof and there will be until
she finds a solution. So those are the types of
things we're looking for. On the infrastructure and mitigation side,
we work with our partners in cities and some nonprofits
to understand what those needs are. We also reached out
to the chambers and the business communities, especially along those
impacted areas our barrier islands, to see what those packs are.
(05:01):
So really all of that will be analyzed by our
team to put together a draft action plan for the
Border County Commission, and they will see that in early
May and really put together that plan of how we're
going to spend this money over the next six years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And it's easy to forget for the majority of us
who have returned to something resembling normalcy, that there are
still people who have blue tarp on their roofs or
who are still living in hotels because their housing is
still unlivable. Once you get this going, tell us about
(05:41):
the survey and the meetings. I understand there is the
survey online, there are in person meetings and zoom meetings
where you're taking input from the public.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Absolutely, we will have several means. We're required to have
at least three public meetings. I believe we have somewhere
around seven scheduled for early April through the middle of May.
You can see all the information you want to see
at recover dot Penelus dot gov. That's recover dot Penelus
dot gov. We have an online survey that is active
(06:13):
right now, so residents can go on and take the
online survey and let us know what their unmet needs are.
We will have public meetings in South County, Mid County,
North County will also have virtual meetings. We recognize we
may have some residents that we're impacted that are living
with relatives somewhere else in the state of Florida and
they are not able to come back to their homes
(06:34):
right now, so we will have virtual meetings for those individuals,
and then of course the BCC, the Bord of County Commissioners,
will have several meetings where they continue to talk about this.
Our first meeting is April seventh, that is at the
Lolman Exchange. All of those meeting dates are on the
recover dot Penelas dot gov along with the online.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Survey and yeah some Monday April is seventh in Liylman
and then also meetings in Dunedin and Palm Harbor and
clear Water as well as the ZOOM meetings. Do you
need to register in advance for any of those meetings?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
For the Zoom meetings, we asked that you register it
online so that we can track who's on those meetings.
But the in person meetings, individuals can show up. We
will have different ways to take their input. We will
have a presentation about the program. We will talk about
kind of some of the draft analysis that's been done
(07:27):
and the draft program thoughts. It's keep in mind for
this is a lot of money. You mentioned that earlier, Gordon.
This is eight hundred million dollars that needs to be
spent over the next six years. It's reimbursable by HUT,
which means we're not frontloaded any money. This is not
like the ARP of funds, which, to give you an idea,
(07:47):
the ARP of funds were two hundred million dollars one
hundred and ninety million to be exact, and that was
over a five to six year period, but that was
front loaded. So this is roughly four times that dollar amount.
So as we work through these programs, there will be
different programs turn on at different points in time. Our
number one goal is to get the housing help out
(08:07):
there first, so as soon as we have the action plan,
as soon as HUD approves the action plan, which would
be later this summer, sometime in July or August, once
we have an agreement with the federal government to actually
spend these grant dollars, the first programs you will see
turn on are housing related programs.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And to emphasize also for the people who would like
to take part in these meetings, most of them are
taking place during the early evening hours after the business day,
so people who are working during the day will have
an opportunity to participate. And once again, that website where
people can find out more information is I hope I'm correct.
Here we cover dotpanelas dot gov.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That's it, Gordon, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Matthew Spoor, the assistant county administrator who is overseeing the
block grant from hud to help us with hurricane recovery
in Panellas County. Matthew spor thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.