Nearly three years after Hurricane Ian destroyed thousands of homes across Lee County, many survivors are still living in trailers, battling red tape and bureaucracy as they try to rebuild. Now, as officials move tens of millions of dollars away from housing relief and into infrastructure projects, residents are organizing and demanding change.
At the heart of the conflict is an amendment to Lee County’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Action Plan, which reallocates $82.4 million from housing programs, some of which had zero recipients according to the county, to infrastructure and public facilities. That decision sparked outrage among survivors and advocacy groups who say the county is turning its back on its most vulnerable residents.
To hurricane survivor Tara Boyd, this is the “storm after the storm.” Boyd says her story is like many others. She lost her home in Fort Myers Beach during Hurricane Ian and spent more than eight hours in floodwaters with her husband. “I would rather tread water than have to navigate the system that has failed all of us,” she said…