BOKEELIA, Fla. — The state has delivered its first travel trailer to an Ian victim. The family, who lives in Bokeelia, for the state-funded trailer on Saturday. It's part of the Unite Florida program Gov. Ron DeSantis rolled out two weeks ago.
"In the two weeks since we’ve launched the portal, more than 2,000 people have applied, including 1,500 housing applicants," the governor said on Monday in Punta Gorda.
The Florida Department of Emergency Management told Fox 4 they're prioritizing people who have not received assistance from FEMA, but says any Ian survivor can apply.
"Surreal, there were some tears," said Courtney Slavens, who now lives in a state-funded trailer. "We are so excited."
She's living in it with her husband and son. The mother applied for FEMA about a week after the storm. She got denied and had been going through the appeals process.
"The process just seemed like it was taking a really long time," Slavens said. "We had kinda started to lose hope a little bit."
It's a similar feeling for so many in southwest Florida. FEMA said last Friday it has only delivered 13 federal trailers to families in six counties. This is out of the 3,200 that had applied for housing help.
It's a frustration Governor DeSantis echoed on Monday.
"Unfortunately we got word last week from FEMA that they had denied our request for funding our state-led housing initiative citing “limited authority," he said. "Not only did we think that would be filling a need, but we think we can also do it quicker and more efficiently than FEMA."
We reached out to FEMA about the governor's speech, including the criticism of FEMA's turnaround time to get families in trailers.
FEMA did not respond to our direct request for a statement regarding the time it's taking to get families into trailers. However, they did explain their denial for the funding.
"FEMA has limited authorities to approve and pay the State for this specific type of work, and was unable to confirm if their approach would actually achieve the outcomes of an emergency shelter mission," the agency said in a statement. "Specifically, in our view, Sheltering Home for Recovery Continuation is not timely, nor tailored to specific needs or outcomes, and overall hasn’t been proven successful in jumpstarting survivor recovery."
Despite the denial, Slavens got her trailer two days after her initial inspection.
" It was delivered on Saturday, which coincidently my birthday so best birthday ever," she said. "It’s our own home and our temporary home for now."
Unlike FEMA, Slavens can only keep the trailer for six months rather than 18. It's meant to be here as a transition into long-term housing.
If you would like to apply for the Unite Florida program, click here.
