EDITORIAL: Housing is next critical step in Irma recovery

Oct. 11--For Collier County to advance in the long recovery from Hurricane Irma, the housing needs of those who lost or sustained severe damage to their home is the next critical step.

Most of the post-storm complaining seems to be directed at piles of dead trees and horticultural debris lining streets. But who would trade coping with that situation over a few weeks for the alternative of living in a potentially unsafe place -- or worse, no place to call home -- a month after Irma's Sept. 10 landfall in Collier?

The plight for members of more than 1,000 households who lost or sustained severe damage to their homes is the next urgent challenge for federal, state and local governments. Collier commissioners were up to the task Tuesday by approving a local housing repair and replacement plan. So we hope federal and state agencies also deliver -- sooner, not later.

As of this week, among those 66,000 in Collier inquiring about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aid, about 42,000 people had been referred for housing help ranging from rental assistance to emergency repairs, officials said.

Nearly 75 households had destroyed homes and more than 1,000 others had major structural damage, meaning more than 60 percent of a home's value, the Naples Daily News recently reported.

Close to home

Collier officials said they're frustrated that more than 250 households are approved for recreational vehicles that FEMA will provide to displaced folks but those RVs still aren't in place, even though they're Florida purchases.

"I'm not satisfied with the progress," Dan Summers, director of the county's emergency services bureau, told commissioners who agreed Tuesday to send a letter to state and federal officials to express the county's dismay at the slow pace.

A search for available pads for RVs or mobile trailers at more than 40 parks turned up fewer than 10 vacancies, county emergency managers told commissioners Tuesday. With season coming, that wouldn't surprise anyone remotely familiar with Collier County so it would seem to be wasted time for a futile search. Those people who are displaced -- residents of Everglades City, for example -- would rather put an RV in their driveway than be removed to a park many miles from their identifiable home. We'd suggest that any neighbors who would object under such circumstances in a stricken area like Everglades City should just get over it.

Solutions

To their credit, county leaders aren't just waiting for federal and state governments to solve all of Collier's post-Irma housing emergencies.

County staff and commissioners have agreed to redirect money that comes back to Collier from a state housing trust fund that collects documentary stamp taxes on sold property. If that sounds familiar, it's the affordable housing trust fund that the Legislature significantly raids every year to help balance the state's budget.

So while Collier hasn't received but a portion of the trust money it should have under the state-approved formula in recent years, county leaders still have agreed to shift more than $3.3 million from affordable housing programs to housing disaster recovery. County staff expects to be able to assist more than 140 families with repairs, demolition and replacement.

Some important points:

+ The redirected money is available only while the area is under a disaster declaration, so there is urgency for organizations to help get word out to those who could qualify.

+ There are income restrictions. Any household making more than 120 percent of the area's median income can't qualify (for example, that's up to $75,300 annually for a family of three, county staff said.) The pot of money is split up not just for those wage earners but also for the poorest households, those earning under 50 percent of the median income (for example, $31,400 yearly for a three-person household).

+ It can't be used for expenses that insurance or a FEMA program would cover.

+ Each county program has a dollar maximum per household, with the highest figure set at $75,000 to demolish and replace a hurricane-damaged mobile or manufactured home.

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