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 Transitional Shelter Assistance had about 1,953 households still in program status as of Feb. 7; 933 households had been approved for temporary housing; and FEMA was reviewing another 368 applications to determine placement or travel-trailer eligibility, with 164 site inspections for potential placements. For the state-managed travel-trailer program, Perkins reported three pending placements and 10 households placed so far.

Perkins also described Elevate Florida, the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s residential mitigation portal. She said it launched with heavy demand — about 1,250 applications in the first two business days — and that roughly 60% of applicants reported having National Flood Insurance Program coverage. Pinellas, Lee and Pasco counties together made up about 70% of the state’s early applications, with roughly 700 applications from Pinellas County alone (422 requests for elevation, 262 for mitigation/reconstruction, 18 for wind mitigation and four for acquisition).

“The registration started on Friday. Within two business days they had over 1,250 applications,” Perkins said. She described eligibility rules she read from the state guidance: applicants must be at least 18, U.S. citizens, legal property owners and able to contribute up to 25% of project costs (final homeowner share varies by eligibility).

Perkins summarized other recovery financial resources: the Small Business Administration was taking low-interest disaster-loan applications (physical damage loans through March 8) and the American Red Cross had provided rapid-distribution bridge loans and in-person registration; the Red Cross reported several hundred applicants and an estimated $2.5 million provided to date.

Safe-home inspections and permitting surge Kevin McAndrew, director of Building and Development Review Services (BDRS), gave an extended update on substantial-damage determinations, mobile-home impacts and permitting.

McAndrew said the county has determined 446 single-family detached homes to be substantially damaged (about 13% of those run through FEMA’s estimator tool), and that roughly 60% of property owners who received a substantial-damage determination have filed reassessments; about 44% of reassessments have been processed so far.

“Probably most relevant at this point is the fact that a little bit over 60 percent of those that have received that substantial-damage determination have filed and are in the process of the reassessment,” McAndrew said. He added that 47 reassessments processed to date have been reversed and none of those reversals remain designated as substantially damaged.

McAndrew described a separate, customized reassessment workflow for manufactured/mobile-home communities, where more than 95% of those units processed through FEMA’s estimator tool were deemed substantially damaged. To speed processing, the county added subject-matter experts on-site (cost estimators, certified appraisers and floodplain managers) to help owners complete paperwork and ACAV appraisals.

On permitting, McAndrew said the county issued its highest number of storm-repair permits last week and has issued nearly 2,600 storm-repair permits to date. He forecast the peak permitting volume would likely hold for three to four weeks while condominium common-element work and many individual unit permits move through the process.

“We’ve issued close to now 2,600 storm-repair permits,” McAndrew said. “We’re right at that peak that we all envisioned as far as the number of storm-repair permits being issued.”

McAndrew also described the Safe Home Inspection program, which inspects damaged homes for minimal functionality (running water, flushing toilet, power, cooling) and can issue on-the-spot permits for limited repairs and short-term residency certificates. He said temporary residency extensions are currently being granted through June 1, with the possibility of further extensions if homeowners demonstrate a plan for compliance.

Code-enforcement and after-the-fact work Commissioners asked how the county handles after-the-fact repairs. McAndrew said the county’s initial approach prioritizes education: properties that received substantial-damage letters are visited within two weeks and then monthly to monitor status and offer Safe Home inspections. For homeowners who already performed unpermitted repairs, McAndrew said the county is not penalizing if property owners come in to obtain permits and correct work; the enforcement approach remains graduated, with up to 30 days given to initiate a permit after a notice of violation.

Mobile-home challenges McAndrew emphasized that many mobile homes are decades old and may not be structurally viable for elevation; he said the county anticipates a substantial surge in reassessments and that mobile-home communities present distinct resource and demographic challenges.

Next steps for the board County staff said they will bring a resolution on Feb. 25 requesting the board continue a permit-fee waiver for storm-impacted residents and that the county will continue outreach and public meetings to support the HUD action-plan development. Commissioners asked staff to return with additional data — for example, counts on Safe Home Inspection permit applications — and staff said they would follow up.

Quotes and attributions in this article come from Kathy Perkins (Emergency Management), Kevin McAndrew (Director, Building and Development Review Services), Chris Rose (Office of Management and Budget) and statements by the county administrator made during the Feb. 11 meeting.

Ending: County staff reiterated that much of the recovery work — reassessments, temporary housing decisions, permitting flows and HUD plan preparation — remains active and that residents with storm-related needs should use FEMA registration (disasterassistance.gov), the state Elevate Florida portal, and county resources posted on the Pinellas County website.