Pinellas County approves CDBG-DR action plan; staff detailed mobile-home reassessments and program changes

Pinellas County commissioners voted unanimously May 6 to approve a resolution adopting the county's Community Development Block Grant'Disaster Recovery (CDBG'DR) action plan and to authorize submission to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

County staff told commissioners the plan is on schedule for a HUD submission before June 1 and for anticipated HUD approval and execution of a grant agreement by mid-July, with program implementation in fall 2025.

The action plan is the county's blueprint for spending federal disaster-recovery dollars from HUD. Ryan Flannery, a consultant with Horn working with the county, told the board the draft incorporates three substantive modifications since an April presentation: added analysis to support disaster relief payments direct to individuals, clarified disaster-related language for a homebuyer assistance program and added an option allowing non-federal match payments to be used with the single-family housing rehabilitation/reconstruction program if timing and eligibility permit.

Flannery said, “We actually incorporated some additional data related to evictions and foreclosures into our unmet needs analysis that we really do think helps support the idea of disaster relief payments going directly to individuals based on hardships they've experienced as a result of the hurricanes.”

Why it matters: HUD requires that at least 70% of CDBG'DR funds benefit low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. Staff said the plan is designed to meet that requirement while also reserving limited funding for non-LMI urgent-need households and for infrastructure in LMI areas.

County staff and consultants described program design elements included in the plan: a homeowner rehabilitation and reconstruction program with prioritization tiers tied to age, disability and household composition; a reimbursement bucket for residents who paid out of pocket; an infrastructure program; and a relocation and revitalization program initially budgeted at $10 million to address complex situations in manufactured/mobile home communities.

Kevin McAndrew, director of Building and Development Review Services, presented results of the county's work on substantial-damage assessments for mobile homes and single-family houses. He said the county has been conducting repeated community meetings and has taken steps to provide targeted reassessments and permitting support.

McAndrew gave these figures from the county's review: 25 mobile-home parks in unincorporated Pinellas contain about 16,000 units countywide; roughly 1,300 units were part of the substantial-damage assessment after the storms (about 8% of the countywide mobile-home inventory); about 5% of the total mobile-home inventory was found substantially damaged. He said the county focused intensive outreach on seven parks where most of the assessed units were located.

McAndrew said county staff identified about 300 mobile-home units for a detailed reassessment and that concurrent FEMA guidance and local analysis resulted in 75 units being removed from the substantial-damage pool. He said the county has issued 4,150 storm-repair permits for single-family homes and condominiums and that reassessments reversed 216 single-family substantial-damage determinations but only 16 mobile-home reversals to date.

On outreach and case management, Commissioner LaValle said residents who hold title but not deed (for example, homes placed in relatives' names) will need help: “The persons whose name is on the deed is the person who has to make application for help,” she said, and staff responded that case management will be a key component of individual assistance programs.

Commission discussion also focused on coordination with state programs such as Elevate Florida and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Staff said a match option in the plan would allow combining state or non-federal match funds with CDBG'DR in certain circumstances, but policy choices about whether match money would be restricted to LMI households would be decided later.

The board approved the action plan and gave the county administrator authority to make non-substantial changes and to execute HUD grant agreements when the award is ready. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Flowers and passed unanimously.

Next steps staff outlined include two remaining virtual public hearings, finalizing the plan for HUD submittal later this month, and beginning program implementation in fall 2025 if HUD approves the grant agreement.

Ending: County staff asked commissioners to expect a busy summer of outreach and program design, with detailed application and bidding materials to follow before the county begins disbursing CDBG'DR program funds to homeowners, renters and community infrastructure projects.