Sarasota County Disaster Recovery Program Implementation

This document is a case study detailing Sarasota County's accelerated disaster recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian in September 2022. The county faced significant challenges in implementing recovery programs due to a prior technical solution that did not meet its complex requirements. To address this, the newly established Resilient SRQ Office collaborated with Neighborly Software to configure a more effective platform for managing and distributing $201.5 million in CDBG-DR funds across five critical recovery activities. These activities include housing recovery, infrastructure restoration, voluntary home buyouts, economic development, and multifamily affordable housing. The case study outlines the phased launch of these programs, starting with the Housing Recovery Program, which was implemented in just three weeks. The results achieved within the first six months demonstrate significant progress, including the conditional approval of $40 million for affordable housing projects and the allocation of $70 million for public infrastructure projects, all while maintaining compliance with federal regulations.