St. Pete finally receives $173M in Hurricane Milton recovery funds after error

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The City of St. Petersburg announced it is receiving $173 million to help residents recover from damage caused by Hurricane Milton. The funding arrives two years later due to an allocation error.

City leaders announced on Friday that there was a geo-coding error, which caused the Sunrise St. Pete funding that was meant for the City of St. Petersburg to be allocated to Pinellas County, keeping St. Pete residents from being able to access that money.

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"The reason it's taken us almost two years is because HUD has never had this experience before, and they didn't have the legislative tools they needed to correct this issue," said Amy Foster with the City of St. Pete.

Now, two years later, the city is finally receiving that $173 million meant for Hurricane Milton recovery.

$126 million will go toward housing recovery and $47 million will be used for resiliency and flood mitigation projects.

Davida Wheeler lost her home and her cat during Hurricane Milton. She said it's something she will never forget.

"You never know when you walk out the door of your house that there's a chance it might not exist anymore," she said.

She said the funding would have been nice to have two years ago.

"It wasn't there, and we can't rewind the clock. It caused me to leave the city that I lived in for 15 years. It drove me out of my home and away from the friends that I had and my job and everything," said Wheeler.

City leaders said representatives will be contacting residents who previously applied for Sunrise St. Pete after Hurricane Milton and will be re-evaluating those applications.

City leaders said after all applications are reviewed, the program could re-open to residents.

"I mean, great. I feel like anybody in my position is appreciative for any extra little support that we can get," said Wheeler.