Florida and FEMA have activated a program to provide housing for Hurricane Ian survivors in Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Flagler, Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns and Volusia counties.
Called the the Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, it allows survivors from these counties who have applied for disaster assistance to see if they are eligible to shelter in a hotel or motel paid for by FEMA. They may be eligible for TSA if they cannot return to their home and their housing needs cannot be met by insurance, shelters or rental assistance provided by FEMA or another agency (federal, state or nonprofit).
Survivors will be notified of their eligibility through an automated phone call, text message and/or email, depending upon the method of communication they selected when they applied for assistance.
Under the TSA program, FEMA pays the cost of room, taxes and non-refundable pet fees directly to participating hotels and motels. Survivors are responsible for all other costs, including laundry, room service, parking, telephone, food, transportation and other services.
Continued eligibility is determined on an individual basis. When eligibility ends, survivors will be notified by FEMA seven days prior to checkout date.
TSA is limited to participating lodging properties in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.
TSA does not count toward an applicant’s maximum amount of assistance available under the Individuals and Households Program (IHP).
Survivors can apply for FEMA assistance by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling the disaster assistance helpline at 800-621-3362, or using the FEMA mobile app. If you use a relay service, such as video relay (VRS), captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA the number for that service.
For the latest information on Florida’s recovery from Hurricane Ian, visit floridadisaster.org/info and fema.gov/disaster/4673. Follow FEMA Region 4 (@femaregion4) / Twitter and at facebook.com/fema.