Miami Beach offers $20,000 grants to protect private homes, businesses from flooding
Miami Beach property owners will soon be able to apply for up to $20,000 in grants from the city to help protect their homes and businesses from flooding.
The Private Property Adaptation program, which the city announced Tuesday, will pay a total of $667,000 each year to help fund flood prevention projects that can include raising homes and lifting sea walls. The city is emphasizing more affordable projects like absorbent landscaping, preventing back flow in water pipes and raising mechanical appliances.
The city will reimburse 50% of total costs for each property owner, up to $20,000, to pay for flood-risk assessments and help fund any recommended projects identified in the analysis that the property owner wants to do.
As part of the program, applicants may qualify for a subsidized application to FEMA for home elevation and apply for federal funding to cover 75% of home-raising costs.
Miami Beach will be accepting applications from July 25 to Aug. 19. The city will evaluate and prioritize each application based on criteria like property elevation, historic designation, income and flood information. The city will host informational workshops via Zoom on July 21 at 6 p.m. and Aug. 2 at 8:30 a.m.
“By providing information and options to protect people and their homes, we are reducing future flood risk and adapting to climate change,” Miami Beach Chief Resilience Officer Amy Knowles said in a statement. “The goal is to build resilience at the individual level through nature-based infrastructure and building retrofits.”
New Orleans has a similar program that covers the cost of green infrastructure for lower-income residents in one of the most flood-prone parts of the city.
The cost-match requirement would be waived for low-to-moderate-income residents with earnings up to 140% of the average median income, which is $122,920 for a family of three.
“This program is the first of its kind, not only in Miami Beach but anywhere in the nation,” Miami Beach City Manager Alina Hudak said in a statement. “While the Fight the Flood program is open to all Miami Beach property owners, we are waiving the matching cost requirement for eligible projects for low-to-moderate-income property owners to make the program accessible to those that may need it most.”
Miami-Dade is predicted to see around two feet of sea level rise by 2060, and research by Florida International University scientists in North Miami shows that groundwater is rising at the same rate as the sea.
Miami Beach Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who died in June, had sponsored the resolution funding the program.
During a memorial event Monday, the Resilience Action Fund pledged $50,000 to create a “Mark Samuelian Award in Urban Resilience” to honor individuals or groups in South Florida who implement environmental projects to address flooding in the area.
This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 5:41 PM.
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