Hurricane Ian: One Year Later

2023 • HURRICANE IAN: ONE YEAR LATER • 15 adno=3901583-1 We made it through Hurricane Charley with you in 2004, We made it through Hurricane lan with you in 2022, And we will Continue to be here for you in the future. Barb Richardson Sun Correspondent SARASOTA — That Sarasota County has $201.5 million available to meet unmet needs resulting from Hurricane Ian, especially in South County, is no secret, but what those needs are depends upon who is defi ning them. Sarasota County staff, the people directly dealing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the source of the funds, have one idea. At least two county commissioners have their own ideas. And the 922 respondents during the public comment phase on the draft concept plan had an entirely different list of unmet needs. The county learned in May that it was one of a few Florida counties that would receive a direct block grant from HUD to meet the unmet needs resulting from the hurricane. But there are strings attached. According to HUD guidelines, the funds must be used to address an impact from the disaster and be an eligible activity linked to disaster relief, long-term recovery, infrastructure and housing restoration, and economic revitalization. In addition, proposed programs must: • Benefi t low- to moderate-income persons, have an urgent need or prevent or eliminate slum or blight. • Have a "tie back" to Hurricane Ian or respond to an unmet need arising from that disaster, unless using the 15% mitigation set aside that does not need a "tie back" to the disaster. • Use 70% of funds to benefi t low to moderate income persons. An analysis by HUD determined that 72% of the county's unmet needs were related to housing issues, and accordingly, the draft plan prepared by staff proposed to allocate $101.5 million to housing-related projects. The remainder of the funds would be divvied up among public facilities/ infrastructure, economic recovery, and administration. Among those categories, one specifi c project was mentioned — $25 million to improve South River Road. In the original version of the draft plan, no funding was allocated toward economic recovery, but Commissioner Mike Moran insisted on devoting $15 million to this "bucket" for career and job training. County staff later said this could qualify as an indirect unmet need from the storm. A huge majority of those responding during the public comment period stated that opening Midnight Pass linking Sarasota Bay with the Gulf of Mexico was the single most important unmet need from the storm. County staff rejected that out of hand as not meeting any of the HUD criteria, Division Manager Steve Hyatt told commissioners at the Aug. 12 meeting where commissioners approved the draft plan for submission to HUD. That meeting brought them to Commissioner Neil Rainford's list of unmet needs. Discarding much of what county staff was proposing, Rainford instead rearranged the funding buckets to allocate funds to more specifi c projects rather than broad categories. In his schematic, $68 million, only 34% of the funds would go toward housing with $5 million of those funds going specifi cally to Family Promise of South Sarasota County. His proposal shifted 57% or almost $114 million to a variety of infrastructure projects such as $1 million to clear Gottfried Creek in Englewood and $7 million to repair the Gene Matthews Boys & Girls Club in North Port. Rainford said his proposed spending plan refl ected the wishes of his constituents, but county staff pushed back. Program Manager Laurel Varnell said reminded commissioners that HUD had a single focus — housing. "The larger we stray away (from HUD's assessment) the more the risk of rejection and we have to start all over," Varnell said. For now, commissioners are locked in on the original spending plan that will be submitted to HUD by Sept. 20 for review they are hoping, approval by the end of the year. If that approval comes by year's end, then the county will begin accepting applications and the tussle over determining unmet needs will likely begin anew. Email: barbararichardson996@gmail.com Determining unmet needs from NATURAL DISASTER

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