More than 430,000 people registered for FEMA aid after Hurricane Milton. 19,966 of those households for a total of more than 32,500 people specifically registered for FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance with destroyed homes. It sounds sweeping, but it was far from all inclusive even at the time.
Thousands more didn’t know they were eligible to apply. Many thousands more relied on family and friends for shelter and awaited their insurance claims, expecting a short return to normalcy, and missed the application deadline when those claims went short-changed or unpaid at all. For all those thousands and the many who did not qualify for FEMA’s extensions, there is no assistance now while their lives remain upside down.
Project Milton represents volunteer advocates tracking persistent problems from Hurricane Milton in Florida’s Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties, which have all experienced perceptible increases in homelessness and demonstrable increases in housing and food assistance needs. They provide intervention for housing support and partner with us for food assistance for those same families.
This updated picture was taken June 26 and represents one of 18 buildings being tracked by the project. The community started repairs right away, getting a loan to begin and wait out the insurance claim payment. But that payment never came. Mediation with the insurance company continues to this day, with all work stopped six months ago.
Every one of these 40 units has a no access sticker on the door, and every displaced owner in this lower middle class development has struggled to pay their mortgages, HOA fees, and for transitional housing for 9 months now with no end in sight. 17 of those families received no assistance at all with only 6 of their individual insurance claims still open for mediation. They continue to need help until the community’s overall situation is resolved.
Thousands of individual homeowners and single family home rentals have suffered a similar fate, still at the mercy of the insurance companies, or having received settlements that are not enough to facilitate repairs, or having been completely denied.
In nearly all of these long term cases, the continued drain is causing financial devastation. The project is tracking 147 homes in the most desperate need throughout the four counties for both continued transitional housing and food assistance.
Donations for this effort go directly to Project Milton. Approximately 20% comes back to us from them for continued food support. In all cases 100% of the funds go directly to those affected by Hurricane Milton.
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