ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Arthur and his wife Anya Finegold’s home suffered a lot of damage from Hurricane Helene, their walls stripped and furniture gone.

“We were prepared for maybe a foot, but we got three feet of water,” Arthur said.

Arthur said they applied for Elevate Florida, a program designed to help homeowners raise their homes above flood risk.

He lives in Shore Acres, a neighborhood prone to flooding, and he felt their odds of getting relief were better.
“Last week, we heard on Tuesday, we got the email that I think a lot of other people got that said our application was denied,” Arthur said.
Based upon the numbers, statewide, more than 12,000 Floridians applied. But the budget covers about 2,000 homes, meaning most were never going to get the green light.
“As it turns out, we didn’t hear until August. So, we lost more months, and you know, if you talk to builders who are elevating homes, they’ll tell you that their costs have gone up because of the price of steel, because they had gone up because of the tariffs,” Finegold said.
At least 550 homeowners applied in their neighborhood. Kevin Batdorf, president of the neighborhood civic association, questioned how the state prioritized applications when repeat flood victims were denied — a threshold that should have qualified them under the program’s own rules.
“But there’s only so many grants to go around,” Batdorf said.
It’s also a qualification that Arthur and Anya met, but they are still among the hundreds told no.
“They couldn’t tell us why other than they did their prioritization and we didn’t make the cut, and that the decision was final,” Arthur said.