FEMA offered free hotel stays to displaced residents. The selection is small.

Jennifer Gans was relieved when she learned she could stay in a hotel for free while she waited for her Shore Acres home to be repaired.

No more splitting time between her friend’s house an hour north and different friends’ houses. No more feeling guilty about taking other people’s places.

“We all live in about nine different areas,” she said. “Basically, I’m scattered all over Tampa Bay.”

On Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that eligible residents — those whose homes were rendered uninhabitable by hurricanes Helene and Milton — can fund hotel stays at a list of shelters that are part of the agency’s transitional housing program. Residents were notified of their eligibility last week.

However, the list of options is short. Too short to meet the wave of demand from displaced residents tired of cramming into guest rooms or sleeping on couches.

The search for suitable accommodation has proven to be a frustrating odyssey, testing the patience and will of people who have already reached their limits.

In Pinellas County, nine properties were listed as participating in the FEMA program as of Tuesday, according to a map visible to eligible residents. Most are motels and inns in places like Pinellas Park, Dunedin and Clearwater Beach. The only access on the barrier islands Tuesday morning, Royal North Beach, appears to be flooded on the first floor and is surrounded by soaked toilets and curbside furniture.

Gans endured an emotional whirlwind before securing a hotel reservation in nearly a month. She thought she was lucky, then despaired at her misfortune, then rejoiced at her luck again.

Once FEMA notified her of her eligibility, she pulled over to the side of the road and began checking out hotels in person. She secured a reservation for two weeks at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Clearwater Beach starting Monday.

On Monday morning, her car was packed and ready to go when she received a call. The hotel could no longer accommodate her free stay, said the voice on the phone. She was back to square one.

“I thought, ‘What?’ I’m literally packed. I have nowhere else to go,” Gans said.

So began another cycle of me holding on to the phone with trembling nerves. Gans even tried properties in Hillsborough County, where five options were listed Tuesday morning. Only two were listed on Monday.

Comfort Inn on 54th Avenue in St. Petersburg? No dice. The Roadway Inn on Busch Boulevard? Everything fully booked. A property near the Florida State Fairgrounds had a room for one night, but nothing more.

Six properties later, Gans gave up. She would return to her boyfriend’s house for the night.

On Tuesday she called the Fairfield Inn again. This time, she learned that a booking error had landed her at a sister hotel that didn’t work with FEMA. After days of hopeless searching, Gans himself was grateful for the four-week wait.

“I know it’s far away, but at least it’s something,” she said.

A rush of demand

At properties partnered with the agency, demand exceeded hotel vacancies within days, said David Keister, a front desk clerk at the Comfort Inn on 54th Avenue. The hotel is not required to reserve a certain number of rooms for applicants, he said. Instead, displaced residents seeking free housing must compete with people from outside the city and residents who can pay to stay.

About 25 applicants are currently staying at the Comfort Inn, Keister said. More will be added as availability improves in the coming weeks. But he had to turn away after about 60 years.

“Everyone is trying to find something,” he said.

A FEMA spokesperson said the agency is working with local and state partners to encourage more properties to enroll in the program. He also said residents can expand their search to properties within 50 or 100 miles to find more options.

Within a 50-mile radius of Shore Acres, for example, there were 32 potential options as of Tuesday afternoon, including 18 in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

One property on Treasure Island, the Island Inn Beach Resort, is fighting to be included on the list. General Manager Ryan Fahey said the complex, which consists of a combination of condominiums and hotels, worked with FEMA after Hurricane Irma. However, on Monday, he received an automated email saying the resort’s offer for displaced residents had been rejected because the property was listed as a condominium.

Now he’s on the phone, boasting about the resort’s amenities and 24-hour service and trying to convince the agency to let him make his 40 to 50 available rooms available to FEMA applicants.

“I would much rather help everyone locally than try to bring people in from out of state,” he said. “You can’t go to the beach anyway.”

Some residents have instead chosen to pay per night for the hotel of their choice, sometimes taking advantage of resident discounts. Jeff Hickman will pay $159 a night to stay at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach after the hotel waived resort fees and discounted nightly rates by 30%.

He can walk to work at The Shipwreck, his beach bar that’s currently undergoing repairs. His other option within walking distance is Royal North Beach.

“What the government offered me just didn’t work for me, especially when I’m in a motel away from the beach,” he said.

A last minute win

Some residents need accommodation close to home.

Eveny Medeiros spent her weekend driving to every property she could find in Pinellas County, trying to book a stay for her family. Like Goose, she just kept hitting.

“I have kids in school and I work,” she said. “We can’t just leave the county.”

On Monday, Medeiros’ compulsive updating of the list of available hotels paid off. A hotel in downtown St. Petersburg, Ponce de Leon, popped up. The hotel did not return calls, but Medeiros sent her husband to pick up her daughter from school to run to the hotel in person.

Her husband waited for 30 minutes, counting the number of people in line, all FEMA applicants. He came to the front just as the last room was booked.

He left his name and number, and that night a miraculous call came. You could check in on Tuesday, probably for five nights or less.

But if there was a room where the toddler could scatter his toys with abandon, they would take it.

“You want your own space, with your own family,” Medeiros said. “You don’t want to feel like you’re a burden when you make a difference in people’s lives.”