***With both Hurricane Helene and Milton recently creating widespread devastation it is more important than ever changes happen with Oversight of Long Term Disaster Relief to ensure the intended benefits are actually reaching Disaster Victims and not fueling Corporate greed and shoddy Contractors ***

Help call for investigations of substantial tax dollars being mishandled under Disaster Relief. As victims of shoddy and dangerous work and witnesses of misuse of HUD Community Development Block Grant- Disaster Relief funds (CBDG-DR), we have experienced firsthand the consequences of bureaucratic laxity and seeming corruption in the Rebuild Florida program. As it stands, funds are being wrongly billed for incomplete or non-existent installations in homes, leading to false finalization of work reports and misleading portrayals of homes adhering to building code or energy efficiency standards. Many times our legitimate complaints and evidence, submitted to multiple agencies including HUD, go unhelpfully directed back to the very program being complained about, effectively making them self-investigating! This lax scrutiny has led to a systemic problem that likely infects HUD CBDG-DR programs across the nation as many of the General Contractors follow the HUD Disaster Relief funds. There have been multiple local News reports outlining the failures and mishandling of this multimillion dollar program, just in Florida. A Facebook Support group exists there is such a widespread problem with similar stories of abuse in this state alone. 

HUD CBDG-DR funds are meant to catalyze recovery and rebuilding initiatives in a just and efficient manner. We believe in the potential for these funds to positively impact struggling targeted communities; specifically elderly, disabled and low to moderate income. It is sadly ironic that these funds are being exploited against the very people they are meant to assist at the expense of the taxpayers supporting the recovery efforts.

Our ask is simple: comprehensive and unbiased investigation into the misuse of HUD CDBG-DR funds. We call upon lawmakers, HUD Oversight Committees, Governor Ron DeSantis, HUD officials and the Office of the Inspector General to take our grievance seriously, ensuring responsible allocation and usage of HUD CBDG-DR funds in the Rebuild Florida program and across all other affected CBDG-DR programs nationwide. Please sign this petition to advocate for stricter oversight, unbiased investigations and more judicious use of these funds.