This Florida program offers money to increase houses. How does it work?

St. Petersburg – How thousands of other homeowners in Tampa Bay, Leonard Berner and his wife weigh what to do after more than one foot has flooded their Gulfport house during the Hurrikan Helene.

Raise your house? Tear down and start from the front? Pull away from the coast?

Berner hopes that a new program called Elevate Florida could be the answer.

The state program offers to pay at least 75% of the costs for reduction projects such as the cancellation of a house or tearing down and reconstruction of property. It promises to save the residents thousands, reduce their insurance and increase real estate values.

After Bernese took part in an information meeting at the beginning of this month, it is optimistic that the program can protect its home from future storms. But he fears that the federal money that the state has put for the program will not go far.

“It would be a dream,” he said.

The program is still in its infancy, and important questions remain: How long does the process take? Who are the contractors who deal with larger renovation work? And how many houses will the state select for the program?

We broke what we know so far.

What is Elevate Florida?

The Florida Division of Emergency Management – the agency that heads the project – describes Elevate Florida as a “nationwide program for reducing residential areas” with which houses are to be protected from flooding.

Kevin Guthrie, director of the agency, spoke on February 4 in front of the portal on February 4 with the Senators of Florida for applications.

“We will create a situation in which your future flood insurance is much less because we got it out of the flood,” said Guthrie.

As part of the program, residents can receive financial help For four types of projects: structure, reconstruction, hardening of wind damage or a local government acquire and destroy property.

Applicants must be an adult US citizen, have residential property in Florida and, according to the state, contribute up to 25% of the total costs of the project.

According to the state, the maximum federal cost shape for a reconstructed property is $ 220,000. Documents on the Florida website do not describe any further restrictions on grants.

The state assumes that, according to a webinar, which will be financed for Florida Counties in Florida on February 12. In Tampa Bay alone, Hurricanes damaged tens of thousands of houses last year.

The state said that the national flood insurance program, those that were essentially damaged, or those who are in flood zones regarded the prioritization of houses as repeated losses.

The state described it as the “first-iTS-JUGER” program.

Elevate Florida is similar to the program to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the Federal Management Agency. With this program, the districts are calling for the financing of individual properties, and approval is among the state and state governments.

Elevate Florida enables homeowners to apply for money themselves. In addition, residents would not compete with people from other states.

The program is to “significantly shorten the time required to apply the project,” said a frequently placed questioning document.

How is Elevate Florida financed?

The 400 million US dollar, which Guthrie said aside for Elevate Florida, dates from two FEMA subsidies: the program to increase the Hazard reduction grant and flood protection Swift Current. Both grants are available according to larger disasters.

In the middle of cuts in federal expenditure, Florida said that the program would not go forward.

The program uses a cost-shape model. The residents would have to pay up to 25% of the total costs of a project, although it may be lower If a property is considered to be repeated as part of the national flood insurance program. An applicant The part can also be covered by a loan for small business administration.

After completing the project, the participants must keep the national flood insurance program cover for the lifespan of the structure, according to the state. If an owner does not receive a cover or voluntarily deducts a project after his approval, the officials say that the owner must repay the federal share of the project to the state.

The Department of Emergency Management in Florida did not respond to several inquiries to get more information about Elevate Florida.

In the County webinar, the officials said that they received more than 1,500 applications. Pinella's County was by far the largest proportion of applicants, about 75%.

Guthrie told the senators that the financing could grow if the counties decide to re -assign part of their scholarships to reduce danger By Helene and Milton. These grants are typically used to plan and rebuild more resistant according to natural disasters.

Pinellas County received around 300 million US dollars from these grants, said Guthrie.

In an e -e -mail to the Times, the district said that the decision to use the scholarship money corresponds to a working group of the local reduction strategy that has not yet decided to use Florida.

What is the timeline?

According to the state's forecasts, an Elevate Florida project could take Between seven months And one and a half years from the beginning of an application to the project.

The lower end of this estimate would have the projects in the Peak Hurricane season.

At the top of this projection, the process would end after the end of the 2025 season, although it would probably be much faster than other federal options.

For example, Monroe County applied for the support of the Fema in 2021. The grants that the county planned to increase several houses, are still being checked, said Mike Lalbachan, the district's damage limit administrator and former Fema project manager.

Although the district received approval for other states Grants to increase the houses was forced to return the money because it could not find any contractors who were willing to travel to the keys, said Lalbachan.

Who are the contractors who work under Elevate Florida?

The state says Only licensed and approved contractors Can increase Florida projects.

On March 13, the state began offering contractors to offer “inspection and evaluation services”. The application states that the officials will select the contractors in mid -April to submit applications from the residents more than two months after the state had started.

A document “scope of the work” states that contractors are expected To help the state to optimize the reduction projects and expect it to prevent a “kickoff meeting” within a week after selecting contractors.

Lalbachan said the number of potential Elevate Florida projects will cite contractors. While his district only had a few houses that wanted to increase, over 900 would be one in the state Greater incentive for workers to come to Florida.

Will Florida be enough?

Elevate Florida may still not be fast enough for the residents who are preparing for this year's hurricane season – who begins on June 1 – or for those who are still tumbling from the last.

Helene's flood flooded Jack Doughertys Riviera Bay at the end of September. Since then, he and his wife have spent months in Tampa Bay all over Tampa Bay.

Dougherty said he applied for a hurry Florida Within an hour after opening the portal. He is not sure whether the program can help him in time.

“I'm going so well with the process,” said Dougherty.

Since his application, Dougherty said that the state had assigned some different case managers to him. He had to use at least two large documents because case managers could not access them via the portal.

In the meantime, his home sits empty like many others and grazes to the bones.

“Only based on the current process … it could take four months for me to be told, no, and then I would start from first place,” said Dougherty.

He and his wife want to stay in Riviera Bay. Dougherty loves to live on the water and he said the community is worth staying.

Even without Florida, Dougherty hopes to raise his house until the end of this year.

“I couldn't do that again,” said Dougherty about his flooded home. “That definitely removed years from my life.”