ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla — For nearly eight years, Christopher Corson and his wife have been living in a nightmare they thought would end when they joined the state’s Rebuild Florida program. Instead, the Atlantic Beach couple says the process has been “miserable.”

“Every bit of it is taxpayer dollars, and it’s been totally wasted,” Corson said. “It’s been hell. When we got rain like four or five days ago, we got water in our house again.”

The program, overseen by FloridaCommerce, was designed to help Floridians recover from hurricane damage. But Corson says years of botched repairs, poor communication and mounting costs have left him and his wife frustrated and exhausted.

How would he describe his experience with Rebuild Florida? Corson says, “Miserable.”

Corson joined the program in 2020 to repair damage Hurricane Irma caused to his home in 2017. But despite multiple repairs, he says problems persist.

“Our house still leaks. They’ve re-roofed this thing like four or five times,” he said. “They’ve done nothing but Band-Aid after Band-Aid after Band-Aid … and it’s made it worse.”

Corson says the state recently told him they will demolish his home and rebuild it.

Neither he nor the public knows how much has been spent on his home. Contracts that were once public have since been removed from the state’s website. First Coast News has requested those records multiple times, but FloridaCommerce has not provided them. The state says they are processing our request.

A spokesperson wrote, “While we are not able to discuss the details of Mr. Corson’s case, please be assured that the FloridaCommerce team continues to communicate directly with Mr. Corson and is actively working to address his concerns.”

Corson says new windows, roofing, gutters and other materials — all paid for by taxpayers — will now be destroyed when crews demolish his home.

“I said, ‘Is Rebuild gonna come and pull all these windows out, reuse it, or what?’ He said, ‘No, if it’s here when we demo the house, we’re taking it off.’ That’s thousands and thousands of dollars of taxpayer dollars wasted,” Corson said.

After we reached out to State Senator Clay Yarborough, who in turn contacted FloridaCommerce, Corson says progress was made.

“He made a phone call. The next day FloridaCommerce called us and told us that they were gonna demo our house,” Corson said.

Yarborough shared this response from FloridaCommerce: “The issue is that his house needs to be rebuilt, not simply repaired.”

Corson says he’s tired of waiting and just wants the nightmare to end.

“I’m totally disabled. I’ve had 32 surgeries in the last 9.5 years and we’re both 62 years old and this is ridiculous,” Corson said. “I just hope they fix it, make things right, not only for us but for other homeowners dealing with the same thing.”

According to an email sent to Yarborough, Corson’s home is expected to be completed in December 2025. He says he’s still asking for everything in writing.

Meanwhile, the Rebuild Florida program is under federal audit by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Inspector General’s Office.

Read more about the federal audit and see all our Rebuild Florida coverage at firstcoastnews.com/rebuild.