Orange County to receive $220 million in disaster relief funding: Here’s how you could benefit

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Nearly $220 million in disaster relief funding will soon come to Orange County to help with unmet needs from Hurricane Ian.

The money is coming from The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and will be dispersed through the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR).

The county is one of four Florida counties identified as being most impacted from Hurricane Ian and thus eligible for funds.

On Tuesday, county leaders laid out their plan for putting that money to use.

About 50 percent of those funds will go directly to low/median income homeowners who didn’t quite get enough from FEMA or their insurance to cover repairs to their homes.

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Another 40 percent will go to preventing future flooding through infrastructure and mitigation projects.

The county is considering projects like replacing sewers and roads, increasing stormwater capacity in flood areas, improving the capacity of flood shelters, and increasing resiliency of homes.

At least 70 percent of funds must benefit low to moderate income areas and households. For a family of 4 that benchmark is $70,200.

While the county has not pinpointed which areas will see infrastructure projects to alleviate flooding, possible areas that could benefit include Taft, Bonnie Brook, and Orlovista.

“We can use this money to try to improve the long-term resiliency of those neighborhoods,” explained Mitchell Glasser, Manager of Orange County’s Housing and Community Development Division.

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It could still be several months before an application process opens.

Infrastructure and public facility projects will be selected through a Request for Proposal Process.

Once the county begins taking applicant, individual homeowners can apply directly to the CDBG-DR website.

The county will formally submit their action plan to the federal government in January.

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Once it gets approved the county will have 6 years to sift through applications, allocate the money, and spend the funds.

The Draft CDBG-DR Action Plan is open for public comments (12/11/2023 - 1/11/2024). Click HERE to view the Draft Action Plan.

According to the county, there are currently state funds still available to help with some Hurricane Ian repairs.

For more information you can call Orange County’s Housing and Community Development Division at 407-836-5150. Ask to talk with someone about housing rehab.

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