Hillsborough dips into local housing fund, once again. This time for disaster relief

Hillsborough County is once again dipping into its local affordable housing fund for other community needs.

The HOPE funds are named after a community organization – the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality – that advocated for their creation in 2019.

In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, commissioners agreed to reallocate $5.6 million of the county's HOPE funds toward hurricane disaster relief efforts. The county will use the money to provide relief to residents living in mobile homes, travel trailers and manufactured homes.

The money will help residents who sustained damage from Hurricanes Helene or Milton in repairing property, taking out forgivable loans and paying their insurance deductibles, according to details provided in the board's meeting agenda .

The reallocation marks the second time this year that Hillsborough County commissioners have raided the local housing fund for other community needs.

In September, commissioners diverted $8 million to support infrastructure needs, like repairing roads and sidewalks.

The ordinance that created the HOPE funds in 2019 called for county to annually fund the program at $10 million to improve affordable housing options for very low income to moderate-income residents. One recent example is an affordable housing development for seniors that is underway in Riverview with backing from HOPE funds.

The ordinance also allows money to be diverted from the local housing fund for urgent community needs, like disaster relief, with a majority vote plus one.

Commissioner Gwen Myers, who voted against diverting HOPE funds to infrastructure needs earlier this year, said she supports moving around money for hurricane relief.

"That is a win-win to help those that were displaced [and] those living in mobile homes. So for me, I'll be happy to approve that," she said.

A staff recommendation for the motion read that "the County would be better positioned to address the vast needs of mobile homeowners and other residents ... by utilizing the HOPE funds for these purposes."

The recommendation also said that the county has no state or federal resources at its disposal to fund disaster relief efforts for mobile home park residents.

Any remaining HOPE funds that aren't distributed for disaster relief will return to the local housing fund, according to the motion.