Why is it taking Manatee County so long to distribute hurricane relief funds?

More than a year after Manatee County Government received $252 million in federal disaster relief, none of that money has been distributed to residents.

Manatee is among several Florida counties that were awarded a piece of $12 billion in federal disaster relief following 2024’s devastating hurricane season. Hurricanes Helene, Debby and Milton brought record-breaking weather to Florida, including Manatee County, leaving many residents with destroyed or damaged homes.

Manatee County will open pre-applications Friday for its $75 million Home Recovery Program, which is designed to help low to moderate income households pay for hurricane home repairs with forgivable loans. The county is also preparing to spend $125 million of the grant on infrastructure improvement projects, with additional funds set aside for other programs.

But other Florida counties have managed to distribute their federal relief funds much faster than Manatee County.

Why is disaster relief taking longer in Manatee County?

For example, Sarasota County took applications for its Resilient SRQ Housing Recovery Program from May through July of last year, and home reconstructions are already underway. Pinellas County opened applications for its People First Homeowner Rehabilitation and Reconstruction program in October, and home reconstructions are also underway there.

Home repairs under Manatee County’s program are not expected to begin until January 2027, according to staff.

But unlike neighboring counties, this is Manatee County Government’s first time directly receiving and administering a disaster recovery grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Both Sarasota and Pinellas County already had disaster recovery programs established because they received grant funding tied to previous hurricanes.

County officials say distributing a grant for the first time comes with unique challenges, including building a grant team from scratch and following strict federal guidelines.

“It’s certainly not as fast as anyone in this county would like, but I do believe we’re working as fast as we possibly can, as accurately as we can,” said Stephanie Garrison, director of the county’s Government Relations Department, at a recent county commission meeting.

“We’ve never done it before. So you’ve got a whole team learning how to pioneer a HUD disaster recovery team inside of Manatee County that never existed before,” Garrison said.

The county’s grant division also recently underwent a leadership change, but staff say that has not impacted the timeline of the hurricane relief programs.

Reached for comment, Manatee County spokesperson Casey Zempel said the county recently promoted Ashley Schnitker to the role of Grants Division Manager, following the resignation of the previous manager.

“Ashley most recently managed the County’s FEMA Public Assistance Grants and brings extensive experience on both the grantee and grantmaking side, including work with FEMA, USAID, the U.S. Department of Labor, UNDP, and private foundations,” Zempel said in an email. “Her background in grant administration and disaster recovery positions her well to lead the division moving forward.”

Sarasota County helping Manatee with relief program

Commissioners also raised questions about the delay in the grant distribution.

“Can we expect this to be shorter in the future?” Commissioner Tal Siddique asked. “Let’s just pretend that we get this type of funding in the future.”

“I recognize this took a lot longer just because this is our first time getting it,” he added.

Garrison responded that all of the pieces would be in place to make the process faster should the county receive similar funding again.

“That’s something that our other counties, like Sarasota neighboring us, has an advantage over us,” Garrison said. “They have received (disaster relief) funds from HUD before. We have not. So all last year, learning how to do an action plan, building a team .... all of that would be in place should we have the unfortunate circumstance to receive that, because that would again mean that we’ve suffered another catastrophic storm.”

Garrison said Sarasota County Government staff have shared their knowledge of the process to help Manatee County along.

“They’ve been wonderful partners to us,” Garrison said.

Possible reimbursement funding farther out

For now, the Home Recovery Program will only cover repairs for homes that are still damaged from 2024’s hurricanes. It will not provide reimbursements for residents who have already completed repairs.

At the board meeting, commissioners said they would like staff to create a plan for adding reimbursements as an option since many homeowners have already done repairs.

Staff said it would take about 30 days to amend the county’s grant plan to allow reimbursements, adding another possible delay in the distribution process.

During public comment, Parrish resident and Manatee County Planning Commissioner Anthony Sciullo shared a mix of praise and concern about the county’s rollout of the disaster relief.

“This is a great program, I’ve been following along with it,” Sciullo said. “I really am concerned about this reimbursement thing though,” he added.

“Then it would be ... years some of these folks have been just sort of struggling to pull this through,” Sciullo said. “I just look at a couple of my neighbors specifically that they’re still struggling with it, and they have to live in their front yards.”

How to apply

Manatee County residents who are interested in applying for the Home Recovery Program and other hurricane relief programs can visit LastingManatee.org.

“We remain focused on delivering these recovery resources as quickly and effectively as possible for Manatee County residents,” Zempel said.