Pinellas County officials outline recovery plan, HUD action plan and surge in storm-related permitting

Pinellas County officials updated the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 11 about ongoing storm recovery work, saying they are preparing a HUD action plan to secure federal disaster funds, will seek a Feb. 25 resolution to continue a permit-fee waiver for impacted residents, and are managing a surge in substantial-damage reassessments and storm-repair permits.

County administrators and staff told commissioners the HUD action plan — required to request federal recovery dollars — must be completed on a tight schedule and will need municipal input before the county submits it to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval. County emergency-management staff also highlighted a newly opened state program, Elevate Florida, intended to help homeowners elevate substantially damaged dwellings and pursue other mitigation projects.

“We’re going to be talking to you about this in the coming days. There’s a lot that goes into this plan and with anything there’s a lot of federal requirements,” county staff said, noting the plan has a very tight timeframe for public outreach and municipal coordination.

Why it matters: The action plan will unlock millions of dollars targeted to residents most in need after the storms. At the same time, local permitting, damage determinations and short-term housing efforts are in active, high-volume stages — decisions that affect whether homeowners can repair, elevate, find temporary housing or pursue buyouts.

FEMA, SBA, Red Cross and state program numbers Kathy Perkins, Emergency Management, gave the latest application counts from federal programs and state efforts. She said FEMA individual-assistance applications for the three storms total 274,768 (98,339 for Helene and 176,429 for Milton), and reminded residents that FEMA registration remains open at disasterassistance.gov.

Perkins said some state temporary assistance programs are scheduled to end in April and described multiple housing pathways: FEMA’s…