Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said Monday the city has landed on a revised plan to preserve millions of dollars in Hurricane Sally disaster-recovery funding for housing after the City Council rejected an earlier proposal that would have shifted the money to port infrastructure.
The $5.8 million award is part of the federal Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery program, known as CDBG-DR — U.S. Housing and Urban Development disaster dollars administered in Florida through the state Department of Commerce. The money was intended to help low- and moderate-income households repair or replace storm-damaged homes.
Reeves told reporters the city was previously warned there was “0.0 chance” the state would grant more time to spend the money. But he said recent talks with state officials produced a new approach that he argued is both feasible under the deadline and more closely aligned with the grant’s original housing purpose…