Photo courtesy Manatee Fire and Rescue: Hurricane Ian damage.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides reimbursement and support to individual homeowners for debris removal after storms. But U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said after Hurricane Ian struck South Sarasota County, it took a special waiver to allow private mobile home parks and homeowner associations to receive the same support.

The congressman on Friday filed legislation in the House to formalize a process and allow private communities to receive FEMA assistance. The Clean Up Disasters and Emergencies with Better Recovery and Immediate Support (Clean Up DEBRIS) Act would make any common interest community, including housing co-ops, mobile home parks and condo buildings, to receive the same kind of reimbursement as other homeowners.

“My legislation, the Clean Up DEBRIS Act, will ensure FEMA provides debris removal assistance to privately owned communities in the aftermath of all major disasters without the need for waivers or special approval," he said. "This bill will provide a swift correction to a long, burdensome, government process that communities shouldn’t be forced to navigate during storm recovery.”

Hurricane Ian struck the Gulf Coast in September 2022, making landfall in Lee County and cutting across the state. Severe storm winds reached well into Sarasota County.

Local emergency officials endorsed Steube’s legislation, saying it will help communities throughout the region recover.

“This is about providing access to vulnerable populations in homes that are most vulnerable to storms and impacts from disasters,” said Rich Collins, Sarasota County’s director of emergency services. “It allows Sarasota County to take care of the community by providing assistance quickly through debris pick up in manufactured home communities and to support those situations when the parks and associations that manage the properties do not have the insurance or capability to handle the magnitude of debris pick up and support needed to care for the community. This change would ultimately allow for faster recovery. They may, through various legal descriptions be called commercial, but to the citizen who lives there, it’s called home."

Steube said the mobile home parks and communities he dealt with had the same recovery needs as individual homeowners and should receive the same support.

“After Hurricane Ian, our mobile home parks, condos, co-ops, and HOAs were left to deal with excessive debris throughout their communities through no fault of their own,” Steube said. “My office spent countless hours advocating to FEMA on behalf of communities in my district as we worked through reimbursement issues surrounding debris removal. Last year, we were able to secure several policy waivers from FEMA to help our commercial mobile home and manufactured housing parks get the federal assistance they needed to recover from Ian.”

He'd like that support to kick in automatically the next time a disaster impacts the region or any community in America in need of FEMA support.

Photo courtesy Manatee Fire and Rescue: Hurricane Ian damage.