‘Where Am I Going to Go?’ Floridians Hit by a Hurricane and a Housing Crunch.

Native officers and housing advocates fear about what the broken housing inventory will imply for folks with low wages or mounted incomes. In interviews, some folks mentioned staying in water-ravaged houses is their solely possibility.

“Cities will rebuild,” mentioned Edward Murray, a housing professional and affiliate director of the Metropolitan Heart at Florida Worldwide College. “However what about poor communities? However what about people?”

When the storm barreled by the state final week, it left a large path of destruction that ran from Key West to the coastal cities of Naples and Fort Myers within the southwest, and thru inland farming communities to the suburbs of Orlando. It was indiscriminate in its march, leaving some locations untouched and others unrecognizable, and it struck significantly susceptible pockets that have been no match for the storm’s energy.

It ravaged cell and trailer houses; it submerged the primary flooring of homes and peeled the roofs off house buildings. The hurricane devastated and displaced many employees and households already dwelling examine to examine — and infrequently unseen within the shadows of coastal Florida’s luxurious dwelling.

In Winter Springs, a metropolis of strip malls and subdivisions in Seminole County, northeast of Orlando, Robert McLain, 67, a navy veteran and retired development employee, sat within the storage of his waterlogged rental residence. With foot-high water marks in his residence, there was no approach he may transfer again in. Mr. McLain, who lives on social safety and incapacity advantages, figured there have been few choices however to reside in his automobile for some time. “I’m not working to go reside within the Hilton, you understand what I’m saying?” he mentioned. “I’m completely screwed.”

Three hours’ drive southwest in Arcadia, an inland agricultural group in one of many state’s poorest counties, Joann Hampton, 50, stood on a raised pool deck, crying. The close by Peace River had drenched a lot of her neighborhood. It submerged her yard and home the place water from the river continued to seep in, days after the storm handed.

“It’s all gone,” mentioned Ms. Hampton, who had property insurance coverage however, like many Floridians, not flood insurance coverage. After transferring from Fort Myers, Ms. Hampton purchased her one-story ranch-style residence for $44,000 in 1998. Her solely earnings is a incapacity examine and for now, she’s going to reside with a relative close by. “We misplaced every little thing.”