Governor Ron DeSantis announced more help for Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton today, that includes housing assistance and measures ahead of elections.
FEMA has approved Florida’s request for transitional sheltering assistance also called TSA, helping Floridians who have lost their roofs or their homes during Hurricane Milton.
Governor Ron DeSantis said the federal program, approved Wednesday, helps pay for stays in hotels and motels while repairs are made.
“This is a FEMA program which allows for temporary, short-term accommodations when other housing options are not available after a declared disaster,” DeSantis said.
In total, the governor and First Lady Casey DeSantis passed out over a million dollars today in assistance from the Florida Disaster Fund to nonprofits helping Floridians recover from Hurricane Milton.
Along with assistance for housing, the governor wants to make sure voting in the state of Florida can go as smoothly as possible ahead of November elections despite two back-to-back hurricanes.
Watch the governor's press conference on TSA here:
Election preparations
Speaking in Sarasota, he urged supervisors of elections in the counties hardest hit by Hurricane Milton to make changes to polling sites as needed, including those still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Under his executive order, supervisors will be able to change polling locations, drop boxes and vote-by-mail procedures if there is significant damage or flooding in their region.
The governor issued a similar executive order after Hurricane Helene which applied to Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota and Taylor counties.
In response to Milton, he’s including Collier, Glades, Highlands, Indian River, Manatee, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota and St. Lucie counties to that list.
DeSantis said this allows “the supervisors of elections to make reasonable, modest, but reasonable accommodations if they have had damage to any of their voting sites.”
Watch the governor's press conference on voting changes here:
These changes come days after Florida’s supervisors of elections sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Cory Byrd asking for greater flexibility ahead of the November election due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall, advocates had asked the governor to extend the voter registration deadline, which he denied.
Read the governor's executive order here: