Volusia County homeowners who still need help recovering from Hurricanes Ian and Milton may be eligible for federal disaster relief.
Beginning Thursday, the county will hold five intake sessions at different regional libraries, where residents can get one-on-one help applying for relief funds from the county’s Transform386 Homeowner Recovery Program.
Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program. Volusia County has received more than $462 million of those federal grant funds, collectively, for both Ian and Milton.
The Transform386 funds can help eligible homeowners in a variety of ways, from funding home rehabilitation and reconstruction projects to reimbursing residents for qualifying repairs that are already finished. There are also voluntary buyout opportunities, for homeowners seeking to relocate away from areas known to experience high-risk flooding.
The program has already helped more than 300 households, according to the county, with hundreds more applicants moving through the pipeline.
Scott Davis is a Volusia County homeowner who benefitted from Transform386 funding. The program paid for the renovation of his home, which was badly damaged after Ian and Milton and would often take on floodwaters during rainstorms. Davis said he also received monthly stipends of $1,500 from the program, to cover living expenses for himself and his brother while construction was underway.
“They were spot on,” Davis said of program staff. “If I called and said, ‘Hey, we're out of money, you know, it's takin’ a little longer,’ they'd call me back next day: ‘We got a check for you, come get it.’”
Crews contracted by Transform386 to do the construction work were also phenomenal, Davis said. Today, the home where he cares for his brother is elevated two feet off the ground. He said they both feel so much safer living there now, compared to before Hurricane Ian.
Finishing the home renovation “took a little longer than what they expected,” partly due to time spent obtaining necessary building-related permits, Davis said. But given the end result and how smoothly the overall process went, he said the experience was “a thousand percent” worth the wait.
“Like I always tell everybody, I can make my brother a grilled cheese sandwich without using an umbrella,” Davis said with a chuckle. “That's a beautiful thing.”
Davis said he and his brother got the keys to their new, elevated home on Christmas Eve last year. “It was the best Christmas present ever.”
All five Transform386 intake sessions will take place on Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. at the following locations, according to Volusia County:
- Thursday, June 4 – New Smyrna Beach Regional Library, 1001 South Dixie Freeway
- Thursday, June 11 – Daytona Beach Regional Library, 105 Jackie Robinson Parkway
- Thursday, June 18 – Port Orange Regional Library, 1005 City Center Circle
- Thursday, June 25 – Ormond Beach Regional Library, 30 South Beach St.
- Wednesday, July 1 – Deltona Regional Library, 2150 Eustace Ave.
