CRAIG GARRETT

Sophia Brubaker wondered aloud if a windfall federal aid package would somehow help her and her friends in Sunshine Village in the Iona McGregor district near Sanibel Island. The park had lost 144 of its nearly 200 manufactured homes to Hurricane Ian, many owned by fixed-income retirees living their version of paradise she said.

Others at that public forum in North Fort Myers were concerned that the $1.1 billion Community Development Block Grant package would instead assist Florida’s undocumented population.

Still others at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center quietly absorbed a presentation by Lee County on disbursing the disaster relief package from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, which is directing the cash to those impacted by the mega-storm that still echoes with tens of thousands of people in Lee County nearly a year later.

Speculators and others had urged those in Sunshine Village to sell the land on which their homes had stood before Ian, to accept their losses with insurance buffers or to simply move on, Brubaker said, “but we don’t want to do that. We’d like some help,” adding that rebuilding a manufactured home in Sunshine Village would run two or three times the original cost.

Lee County soon will dole out more than $1.1 billion in federal aid to those impacted by Hurricane Ian. But its staff is first collecting suggestions from locals to include in a detailed commission package on spending to HUD officials. A final plan and disbursement dates are yet decided.

Thursday’s forum in North Fort Myers brought a dozen or so people to observe a short presentation by Jeannie Sutton, program manager for Lee County’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program, the agency compiling facts and figures for county commission approval.

Sutton was also soliciting ideas on how to shift $1.1 billion directly back to eligible homeowners, businesses and towns hit hardest by last September’s near Category 5 storm, a gift she termed as “fairly unusual” in the business of government.

Housing and public infrastructure were listed as HUD priorities on Thursday. At least 70% of the $1.1 billion grant goes to projects benefiting low-to-moderate income households, for example, which HUD defines at or below 80% of area median income, or roughly $65,000 for a family of four. Town leaders from Bonita to Cape Coral have also lobbied for a slice of the disaster funds.

How to apply and where the money goes was not yet decided, Sutton said, who also revisited Lee County’s draft of an action plan on spending disaster funds–developed by a county Recovery Task Force chaired by Commissioner Kevin Ruane. The county compiles those suggestions at the town halls or online and forwards them alongside Lee County’s spending plans by mid-September. It is “quite a long process,” Sutton said of getting a plan together for federal review and ultimate disbursement.

Listening intently and hopefully at Thursday’s hearing, Brubaker wasn’t convinced that in the end moderate-income retirees, losing their investments to Ian with little hope of rebuilding, would get a share of federal disaster assistance.

“We’re not saying a healthy portion shouldn’t help the poor,” she said of relief cash, “but what’s left over … it’s not going to be a lot of money.”

Lee County’s Hurricane Ian draft action plan is at leegov.com/recovery/cdbg-dr for review and comment through Aug. 31. Comments can be emailed to recovery@leegov.com, mailed to Lee County administration in care of the Office of Strategic Resources, 2115 Second St., Fort Myers, Fla. 33901 or provided during one of the public meetings.

Other public meetings scheduled:

• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16

Veterans Park, 55 Homestead Road, Lehigh Acres

• 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22

The Heights Center, 15570 Hagie Drive, Fort Myers

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23

City of Fort Myers/Stars Complex, 2980 Edison Ave., Fort Myers

• 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24,

Pine Island Elementary School, 5360 Ridgewood Drive, Bokeelia

• 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29

City of Sanibel/Big Arts Sanibel, 900 Dunlop Road, Sanibel

Lee County’s Office of Strategic Resources and Government Affairs has prepared a timeline describing the necessary steps and other information at leegov.com/recovery/cdbg-dr. This webpage will continue to serve as an informational resource for CDBG-DR activities. Interested parties are encouraged to visit this resource periodically for updates.