Florida Commerce outlines $4.3 billion in CDBG-DR allocations and Rebuild Florida housing outcomes

Justin Domer, Deputy Secretary of Community Development at Florida Commerce, presented an overview of Rebuild Florida and the state’s management of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Domer said the state has received more than $4.3 billion in CDBG-DR allocations since 2017 to support housing, infrastructure, and mitigation projects in disaster-affected communities and that Florida Commerce administers these federal funds as the governor-designated state authority.

Domer summarized housing-specific figures: he said the Rebuild Florida Housing Repair and Replacement program has made $1.9 billion available to address unmet housing needs, listing program allocations that the presentation identified as ‘‘nearly $600,000,000’’ for Hurricane Irma, ‘‘more than $250,000,000’’ for Hurricane Michael, about $542,000,000 for Hurricane Ian and roughly $434,000,000 for the 2023–2024 storms allocation. He reported that to date the housing programs have completed 5,271 homes across multiple programs and that the Hurricane Michael program completed 979 homes in less than two years. Domer said the state recently opened applications for the 2023–2024 housing program on Oct. 6 and had received thousands of applications within the first week.

On infrastructure and mitigation, Domer described more than $2.1 billion distributed via grants to local governments across the state for infrastructure, economic development and mitigation projects, and highlighted specific projects by county (for example, sewer conversion in Alford and a seawater desalination plant in the Keys). Domer said the most recent HUD allocation for the 2023–2024 storms is $925 million to serve 47 counties; entitlement communities that received their own CDBG-DR funds are not eligible for the state-administered program but may receive technical assistance.

During questions, committee members pressed for implementation details. Domer said the $1.9 billion housing figure includes construction, engineering and temporary housing costs and that completed home examples shown in slides did not reflect the full average per-household program cost. He described implementation changes after a prior vendor performed poorly: the state ended the vendor relationship, imposed roughly $3.6 million in financial consequences, reassigned remaining projects to higher-performing general contractors and strengthened oversight and compliance monitoring. Domer said the total amended contract value for that vendor history was ‘‘upwards of $200,000,000’’ though the paid amount was substantially less.

Domer closed by reiterating that applications are open at rebuildflorida.gov and offering to provide follow-up details on counts and procurement questions.