Lee County awards funds to help rebuild after Hurricane Ian

LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Some Southwest Florida neighborhoods will receive some much-needed funding to help recover from Hurricane Ian.

Tuesday morning, the Lee County Board of Commissioners awarded several million dollars in recovery funds.

The money is part of a $1.1 billion package from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help Lee County rebuild from Hurricane Ian.

During the meeting, commissioners approved nearly $7.2 million in funds to reconstruct bridges in two hard-hit communities, Harlem Heights and San Carlos Park.

Commissioners also approved $4 million to Habitat for Humanity to develop scattered site single family homes in Cape Coral.

Commissioner Brian Hamman spoke favorably of the Cape Coral project in particular.

“Home ownership is the backbone of the American dream. One of the reasons why my family is where we are today is because we bought a home in Cape Coral back when homes were more affordable,” Hamman said, describing his desire to help more families purchase homes in the city.

As commissioners have slowly awarded the billion dollars in funds, they acknowledged Tuesday that they are getting to the end of the pot.

Commissioners chose to tentatively reserve the balance of funds for additional infrastructure projects.