HUD Mapping Error Fixed: St. Petersburg Gets $173 Million in Hurricane Milton Recovery Money

St. Petersburg will receive an additional $173 million in federal disaster recovery money for Hurricane Milton. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that a geocoding error in its funding formula had sent money meant for the city to residents of Pinellas County who live outside city limits. Mayor Kenneth T. Welch announced the correction Friday, Oct. 9, the second anniversary of Milton's landfall. The money opens the city's Sunrise St. Pete recovery program to homeowners who were turned away because their damage came only from Milton.

Welch was joined by City Council Vice Chair Richie Floyd and U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor also pressed HUD to fix the allocation, according to the city and Spectrum Bay News 9.

What the city is getting

The money comes through HUD's Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program, known as CDBG-DR. According to the city's announcement, it splits two ways:

"I'm proud to announce that because of the diligence and perseverance of our City staff, the City of St. Petersburg received an additional $173 million in funds for Milton recovery and mitigation efforts," Welch said in the city's release. He said the money would be used "strategically and intentionally" so residents can recover and city infrastructure is ready for future disasters.

How a mapping error shut out Milton victims

After the 2024 hurricanes, HUD awarded St. Petersburg $159.8 million directly to help residents and neighborhoods rebuild. That grant became Sunrise St. Pete. HUD sets the total award, the household income limits and which disasters qualify. For St. Petersburg, it listed Idalia in 2023 and Helene in 2024, but not Milton.

That left a gap. Helene's storm surge flooded coastal neighborhoods in late September 2024, and Milton struck less than two weeks later. When the city published its draft action plan in May 2025, it said plainly that Milton's impacts were not covered under the grant. Homeowners whose damage came solely from Milton could not get help.

The city says staff raised the issue with HUD at the start of the award process and kept working on it with St. Petersburg's congressional delegation. In its release, the city said HUD then reviewed its allocation formula and found a geocoding error that "inadvertently directed funds away from the City to residents of Pinellas County who do not reside within the city limits." Geocoding is the process of matching addresses or damage data to locations on a map. Neither the city nor HUD has publicly said how many households or dollars the error moved.

"HUD has acknowledged an error in the allocation of hurricane recovery funds and is now moving forward with the reallocation," Luna said, according to Bay News 9. "These are significant resources, and I'm glad to see them coming back to the community that needs them."

What Milton did to St. Petersburg

Milton made landfall on the night of Oct. 9, 2024. In St. Petersburg it produced gusts up to 101 mph and as much as 20.4 inches of rain, according to WUSF. The storm shredded the roof of Tropicana Field, toppled a construction crane into a downtown building and flooded neighborhoods across the city. Urban search-and-rescue teams later assessed more than 43,000 structures.

Milton's flooding reached well beyond the waterfront. Floyd said his own home, on high ground in the middle of the city, flooded during Milton. "It's been a long two years, honestly," he told Bay News 9. "It took about a year to put our home back together, and I know many people in the city had a similar experience."

In the city's release, Floyd said Milton "exposed flooding vulnerabilities far beyond our coastal neighborhoods." He said the new money would help strengthen stormwater and wastewater systems and "replace naturally occurring affordable housing lost to the storm."

Who can get help now

Sunrise St. Pete opened applications on Dec. 15, 2025. It covers homeowners, small landlords with up to four units, and low- to moderate-income renters through three main types of help:

• Rehabilitation, reconstruction and elevation for homes with remaining hurricane damage.
• Reimbursement for fully permitted repairs that owners have already completed.
• Disaster relief payments for documented costs such as rent, mortgage and utilities during the recovery.

The program is meant to cover need that remains after insurance and other aid. At least 70% of the money must benefit low- and moderate-income households, generally those earning up to 80% of the area median income, the city has said. Separately, the city opened a roughly $42 million competitive program in May 2026 for developers building or rehabilitating affordable rental housing.

The city's first step with the Milton money will be to revisit residents who were denied because their damage came only from Milton. The city said those residents do not need to apply again. Staff will review everyone who applied to a single-family Sunrise St. Pete program, decide who qualifies under the new allocation, and have case managers contact those applicants.

For some families, the change brings relief after a long wait. Willie Maye Boone, who lives near Clam Bayou, told Bay News 9 she has been out of her home for two years after Helene put three and a half to five feet of water inside, and Milton later flooded a bedroom. She is already enrolled in the program, and the city plans to build her an elevated home. "We have suffered a lot," she said. "And if it's more help available, that would be a wonderful thing."

Recovery so far

The announcement came as the city continues paying down its storm recovery costs. At last year's one-year anniversary event, the city reported $40.1 million in FEMA reimbursements and $13.9 million in insurance payments, a total of about $54 million. It had also issued more than 14,500 post-disaster emergency permits worth about $299 million in construction.

What's next

The money is allocated, but the city says it is still finalizing agreements with HUD and Pinellas County. After those are signed, the first priority will be previously denied applicants with Milton damage. The city has not said when applications will reopen to residents who never applied, and it has not released a timeline or project list for the $47.6 million in infrastructure and mitigation work. Information is posted at SunriseStPete.org. Residents with questions can call 727-591-2990 or email sunrise@stpete.org.