Panama City encourages residents to participate in second voluntary home buyout program

PANAMA CITY − Commissioner Josh Street says residents should not miss out on an opportunity to be reimbursed for property damages caused by Hurricane Sally.

Panama City officials on Tuesday evening held a kickoff meeting for the Hurricane Sally Voluntary Home Buyout Program, an effort to use state funds to purchase at market value homes that still experience repetitive losses from the Category 2 storm that struck in September 2020.

Leaders say only about six people attended the meeting.

The city already participated in a similar, but different, program for properties affected by Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that struck in October 2018.

"We need a whole lot more people to apply than (that) to make the program successful and worthwhile," Street said. "We already did this program one time before, and I think people think because they've applied for that program − the one that involved Hurricane Michael − that they don't need to apply to this program again.

"But they do have to apply for the new program. If you've applied before, it doesn't matter."

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Like the Hurricane Michael program, the Hurricane Sally program is offered to affected counties by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

The DEO allocated about $22 million for the Hurricane Sally program to purchase properties damaged by the storm that still repeatedly flood. Of that money, Bay County can apply to receive up to $5 million − the same amount it was given for the Hurricane Michael program.

Officials have said 21 properties qualified to be purchased at market value through the Hurricane Michael program. About 15 of those homes have closed so far.

According to Street, more than 20 homeowners with Hurricane Michael damages were turned away in the first voluntary home buyout program because not enough funding was allocated to cover their purchases. He said it is likely these residents also experienced damages during Hurricane Sally and could qualify for the new program.

"We'll do a reach-out to each one of those individuals and ask them to apply to the new program," Street said. "There (also) may be people who didn't apply to (the first) program because they didn't know about it, and if they still have a flooded home, they need to apply to this (new) program."

The purpose of Tuesday's meeting was for residents to learn more about the Hurricane Sally program. It also was for Panama City to gather information on how many local residents are interested in participating in the new program.

The city will use that information to apply with the DEO, which will announce awards to local governments in May. Residents have until the end of March to submit interest forms to the city. Five people have submitted forms so far.

Along with reimbursing residents for damaged and faulty properties, the program also saves them the hassle of listing properties for sale and dealing with any devaluation caused by storm and flood damages. Any land purchased through the program will be converted into green spaces.

"Most programs that are buying flooded properties are doing it at a 75% appraised value, (but) this one is 100%," Street said. "We cover the closing costs. If they relocated within the city of Panama City, there's a relocation allowance associated with it. It's by far the fairest to the seller of any program that's out there."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City rallying participants for voluntary home buyout program