In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, residents have met with difficulties in applying for food benefits and many are being denied. In terms of food benefits, one problem has been an apparent catch-22 on the site, in which a claimant has to report damage to their home to qualify for money for food, but when they specify damage, they are directed to their private insurance company. Then, once the insurance company is involved, there is no option for applying for FEMA food reimbursement, and insurance does not cover loss of food.
Also, if applicants say they currently have food, most are being rejected when using the online application for food benefits. A rejection also might be because someone is already getting food benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“It is important for people to know, just because it says there is a denial, doesn’t mean it is denied,” Plant City Mayor Nate Kilton commented. “It may mean there is just additional information that is needed that they need to work through, and those types of things. They really shouldn’t give up on it.”
“Anecdotes from some of the folks I have been talking to are, for example, they didn’t realize they had to include everybody in the household in the application,” Kilton said. “Or, there might be an instance where there is one address for a mobile home park, where all the mail goes to the office. So, if somebody uses that address, then it is difficult for anyone else to sign up because the system is recognizing that address has already been used. It is one-off things like that where people are running into problems.”
There has been a site at the Florida Strawberry Festival Grounds where applicants for disaster relief can get help with completing applications. At the location, residents could get registered with FEMA. “A lot of the folks coming through here will have a higher success rate because they are actually sitting with a FEMA representative,” Kilton said. “The Strawberry Festival has been phenomenal to provide this space here, I also want to give a lot of credit to Congresswoman Laurel Lee’s office. They have been here from the beginning, every single day, helping to organize and actually helping people sign up, speeding up the process.”
Wednesday, October 23, was the last day assistance was offered on the Strawberry Festival grounds. “They are setting up a Disaster Recovery Center that will be opening in Bartow,” Kilton said. “We are hoping to get another one in Hillsborough County where people will be able to actually sit down with people, go through their denial, and help them work through the details of it. They didn’t have the staff for that at this location. Applicants who receive the disaster relief food benefit would be given a special EBT card.
At the time this story went to press, representatives from FEMA had not responded with additional direction to complete disaster relief applications.