More than 400 mobile home owners across Pinellas County have applied for a federally funded program that will tear down and rebuild homes left substantially damaged by the 2024 hurricanes, county officials confirmed Monday.
The Homeowner Rehabilitation and Reconstruction program, run through Pinellas Recovers, replaces qualifying mobile homes with new storm-grade units at no cost to the homeowner. The initiative is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“There’s a large need in Pinellas County for mobile home owners,” said Mackenzie Bergstrom, a grant coordinator with Pinellas County. “A lot of them are in floodways, and with this HUD funding, we’re really trying to mitigate what happened to them in 2024, when they were flooded, and it was very unexpected.”
The program targets homes that were deemed substantially damaged after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including dozens at the Gateway Mobile Home Park. Property manager Darna Lopez said more than 100 homes at Gateway still carry the substantial-damage designation. Residents have until the end of the year to appeal that status if they disagree with it.
Gateway resident Bonnie Sisco said her home survived the storms in good condition but failed FEMA’s 50% rule, a federal standard that limits repairs on structures with substantial damage, due to its age. Unable to afford a private rebuild, she applied for the county program.
Under the plan, Sisco’s current home will be demolished and replaced with a new manufactured unit elevated five to eight feet off the ground. She will need to vacate the property for up to three months during construction and said she remains anxious about logistics, including storage and temporary housing costs.
“We’re all seniors here, and it’s nerve-wracking,” Sisco said. “All of a sudden, they’re surveying here. We don’t know — is a bulldozer going to pull up some day, and they don’t tell us?”
Not all residents support the demolitions. Neighbor Jamie Divine, whose home also carries the substantial-damage designation, said she is contesting the classification.
“We’ve considered it, but our house is such a nice house even though it’s older,” Divine said. “I can’t get a comparable new home that’s as nice as my home.”
County officials said staffing has tripled to handle the volume of applications. New homes built under the program will meet Wind Zone 3 standards, the highest federal wind-safety rating for manufactured housing, and will be designed to withstand sustained winds up to 110 mph.
“We can really get them a new home that is hopefully going to withstand the test of time and any natural disaster that could be thrown at us this hurricane season,” Bergstrom said.
Officials noted that homes cannot be elevated indefinitely for safety reasons and said the county is developing a separate expansion of the program to offer relocation assistance to residents whose homes do not meet current elevation requirements.
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