DUNEDIN, Fla. (WFLA) — Diane Stephens hasn’t lived in her house in Dunedin sine Hurricane Helene forced a tree on top of it, making her home unlivable.

Stephens went to Dunedin City Hall Thursday hoping to learn about her options during a public input meeting for federal grant money to help residents recover from the storms.

“I was trying to find something, a grant or something that would help me because I’m ready to get in my home,” Stephens said. “This is my first time ever being displaced, and it’s not a good feeling.”

Pinellas County is using federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds worth $813,783,000 to launch programs that would address unmet needs following the hurricanes.

Their data shows 78% of the unmet needs come from housing.

“$800 million is a lot of money, we can all agree on that right? It’s still not enough. It’s not enough money to do everything we need to do for Pinellas County to recover,” said Matthew Spoor with the Pinellas County Administration.

Most of the money will go toward housing programs, like the five presented Thursday night for homeowner reimbursement, homeownership assistance, home rehabilitation or reconstruction, local landlord rehabilitation or reconstruction, and disaster relief payments.

The remaining funds would go to support the economy, public services, and infrastructure.

It’s not the immediate solution many were hoping for and asking about Thursday. Stephens said she’s trying to look at it in a positive way.

“I’m hoping that I can get assistance before this comes about. But at least I know they’ve got this coming as well,” Stephens said. “Finding these programs is kind of hard. Finding contractors is hard. So there is really no road map to tell you what you need to do.”

The next public input meeting will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 24 at Harbor Hall/White Chapel, located at 1190 Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor.

The goal is to have an action plan draft released in 13 days, then have it approved by county commissioners on May 6. On May 23, the plan will be submitted to Housing and Urban Development for approval. Once that’s complete, programs can begin rolling out in the fall.

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