FloridaCommerce has announced a series of community workshops aimed at addressing the unmet disaster recovery needs following the storms of 2023 and 2024. These workshops will provide information on the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program and the upcoming State of Florida Action Plan, which will detail strategies for allocating funds to support long-term recovery in affected areas.
On January 16, 2025, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) confirmed that Florida will receive over $925 million in CDBG-DR funding. This financial support is intended to aid long-term resiliency and mitigation efforts across numerous counties including Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, Columbia, DeSoto, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Glades, Gulf, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Indian River among others.
HUD has also designated eleven entitlement communities—Broward County among them—to receive direct funding allocations separate from the state’s share. These communities are tasked with designing and managing their own programs to address local needs.
The scheduled community workshops will take place in Okeechobee County on February 24th; Charlotte County on March 3rd; Taylor County on March 6th; with virtual sessions available on March 7th. Each session includes a stakeholder workshop followed by a citizen workshop.
In addition to these workshops FloridaCommerce is organizing listening sessions in all counties eligible for funding due to impacts from Hurricanes Idalia Debby Helene Milton as well as North Florida tornadoes. These sessions aim to gather insights from city and county officials regarding long-term recovery requirements.
For further details interested parties can visit floridajobs.org/2023and2024Storms or email inquiries to 2023and2024Storms@commerce.fl.gov.
