Hurricane Ian devastated southwest Florida, making landfall on September 28, 2022 as a Category 4 hurricane with strong winds, heavy rainfall and severe flooding. It was followed by Hurricane Nicole nearly a month-and-a-half later. In March of 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an allocation of $2.7 billion to help underserved communities in hard hit areas throughout Florida recover from disasters. Orange County received a total of $219,712,000 in Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery funds (CDBG-DR), to include $191,054,000 for unmet needs and $28,658,000 for mitigation, to address community impacts and damages associated with Hurricane Ian.

CDBG-DR is HUD funding provided as a special appropriation by Congress to assist with long-term recovery following a Presidentially-declared disaster. It is a flexible set of funds that can be used to carry out a wide range of activities related to disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation. Based on the assessment of needs remaining after the hurricane events, Orange County budgeted its allocation of CDBG-DR funds for the following programs.

Program Budget

Program by Category Budgeted Amount % of Total Allocation National Objective Estimated Outcome
HOUSING
Homeowner Housing Rehabilitation and Reconstruction $35,000,000
Rental Housing Rehabilitation $13,000,000
Rental Assistance (Temporary) $150,000
New Affordable Housing Construction $60,596,160
Subtotal Housing $108,746,160 49.5% LMI TBD
INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC FACILITIES
Flood and Drainage Related Repairs and Improvements
Storm water Management Projects
Restoration of Damaged Infrastructure
Rehabilitation of Public Facilities
Subtotal Infrastructure/Public Facilities $59,322,240 27% LMI TBD
MITIGATION
Activities to increase resilience to future disasters and reduce or eliminate long- term risks 13% LMI TBD
Subtotal Mitigation $28,658,000
ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION $0 0% N/A N/A
PUBLIC SERVICES
Self-sufficiency Services (financial literacy, housing search and counseling, legal assistance) 2,000,000
Health Services/Mental Health Services 2,500,000
Job Training/Job Placement Services 2,000,000
Other economic recovery related services 500,000
Subtotal Public Services $7,000,000 3.2% LMI TBD
ADMINISTRATION $10,985,600 5% N/A N/A
PLANNING $5,000,000 2.3% N/A N/A
TOTAL CDBG-DR $219,712,000 100%