It has been nearly two years since Hurricane Ian hit Volusia County , and Robert Arnold is among the property owners still living with the impacts of the flooding.
Arnold, 63, said his home at the Daytona Beach Golf & Country Club Condominiums has mold, and he is experiencing health issues. According to Arnold, the property tested positive for two types of mold. He's also living with unfinished repairs.
"I get some respiratory stuff that is just a lot of congestion stuff from it," he said. "Main thing really is it brings on depression, depression and anxiety and stuff .... from the not knowing. But I looked up symptoms of the black mold and depression is one of the symptoms of living in that."
Arnold turned to the Volusia County government for help through its Transform386 Hurricane Ian recovery effort but was denied. The reason? He lives in a condo complex with more than four units, so his property isn't considered a single-family home.
The Transform386 program is intended to help people recover from the storm, but the way it is set up has left Arnold out and could leave other condo owners out as well.
The county created the Transform386 program to manage nearly $329 million in Ian recovery funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The county has set aside $200 million of that for housing needs. Other funds are set aside for infrastructure, mitigation projects, planning, administration and job training.
Arnold applied for help through the Transform386 Single-Family Repair and Replacement Program.
Arnold's property is not considered a single-family home by HUD because he lives in a residence with more than four units, so he was denied, according to the county.
"It makes absolutely no sense," he said.
HUD guidelines don't prohibit the county from helping condo owners, according to HUD officials.
But county officials designed the housing part of Transform386 to focus on helping vulnerable people in single-family properties, according to county spokesman Clayton Jackson.
The Transform386 spending plan "was developed with a comprehensive approach to address the community’s most critical unmet needs," according to Jackson. "The plan’s primary objective is to ensure that the resources are allocated in a manner that maximizes the impact on those most severely affected by the disaster."
Volusia County house and duplex owners represented about 79 percent or 27,061 of Federal Emergency Management Agency registrants from Hurricane Ian, while condo owners represented about 6 percent or 2,080 residents, according to Jackson and the county's action plan. Those numbers represent "FEMA registrants that are owners, the home is their primary residence, and (they are) living in a CDBG-DR eligible house," according to the county's action plan.
"As the disaster affected a significantly higher proportion of single-family homes, the plan specifically prioritizes vulnerable populations in single-family structures to maximize the impact of the available funds," according to Jackson.
One of the requirements of the county's Single Family Repair and Replacement Program is that the property has to be considered a single-family home based on HUD definitions. The HUD definition of a single-family unit is a residence with four units or less.
Who does the county's Hurricane Ian recovery plan help?
The $200 million for housing in the Transform386 program is divided into the Single Family Repair and Replacement Program ($145 million), the Rental Repair Program ($5 million) and the Multi-Family New Construction Program ($50 million).
Each program has eligibility requirements, and all programs focus on benefiting people with low-to-moderate incomes.
The Multifamily New Construction Program is for public housing authorities and both nonprofit and for-profit housing developers. It's intended to provide funding that can be matched with other money to build new affordable multi-family housing such as apartments. It is not a rehab program for existing apartments or other multi-family units.
The other two programs are open to property owners of rentals and single-family homes.
The Rental Repair Program is open to owners of rentals with up to four attached units in each structure, individual rental houses or accessory dwelling units. The county will handle arranging the repairs. The owners have to agree to affordability requirements to get the repairs.
The Single Family Repair and Replacement Program, the one for which Arnold did not qualify, is designed to fund the following activities:
- Repairing or replacing single-family housing units. Work can include, among other things, bringing a property up to code and elevating the property.
- Replacing manufactured, modular and mobile homes.
- Buying houses in the (Special Flood Hazard Area).
- Providing temporary housing assistance.
Some of the programs have yet to be rolled out by the county.
What is Arnold doing now?
When Hurricane Ian came through, it brought with it nine inches of flooding inside Arnold's condo. He and his girlfriend at the time temporarily evacuated.
"We fought it, I mean, like crazy," he said.
Arnold did not have flood insurance. His property insurance firm covered a hotel stay for about a month, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave him about $13,500 total. Arnold estimated it would take another $10,000 to finish the work.
"Finishing the walls, it's just really barely started," he said.
Preparing for the worst: What would happen if a Category 5 hurricane hit Volusia County?
Arnold was still looking for a solution as of July 22. If no assistance comes in, he will have to do what he can when he can, he said.
"I don't know how long it's going to take to get it back (to what it was like before the storm)," Arnold said. "I mean, the trim pieces, I can buy them a couple at a time, a month at a time because I'm on Social Security, you know. So doing it that way, it's going to take a while."
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'It makes absolutely no sense': Man with mold in condo denied Ian recovery help by county
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