My Safe Florida Home Program
The My Safe Florida Home Program is a 16 year old program currently being revived by the Department of Financial Services. It has two main goals:
To offer a home inspection that recommends improvements to be made to the home and diminish hurricane damage, free of charge.
To allow homeowners in defined areas of the state to apply for a grant that will match what they spend to have work done on their home to make them less susceptible to hurricane damage.
As long as you are the owner of a site-built, single family, residential property, you can apply for an inspection and then go on to apply for the grant. To receive the grant, you and your home must fit the following criteria:
You must be granted a homestead exemption on the home (which you can find out about with your property appraiser or Tax Collector’s office)
The home must be insured for $500,000 or less (exceptions CAN be made for low income families)
The home must’ve had a hurricane mitigation inspection after July 1, 2008 • The home must be located in a “wind-borne debris region”, you can check the map here.
The building permit application for the initial construction of the home must have been made prior to March 1, 2002
You must agree to have a secondary inspection once the mitigation project is finished.
The program will provide $115 million for two-to-one grant funding. Therefore, for every $1 a qualifying homeowner spends, they can get $2 back, with a maximum potential of receiving $10,000. However, in order to get the full $10,000 back, the homeowners must be able to pay $5,000 on their own. The types of projects that will be covered for eligible homeowners include improving exterior and garage doors, opening protections, brace gable ends, reinforcing roof-to-wall connections, strengthening roof-deck attachments, upgrading roof coverings, and adding a secondary water barrier for the roof. Additionally, from July 1, 2022 until June 30, 2024, purchases of impact-resistant doors, impact-resistant garage doors, and impact-resistant windows will be tax exempt.
While there is still no official date for this project to begin, the DFS is currently working on the application process, and plan to have an application portal available soon. Once the portal is open, residents can begin applying for inspections and then grants.
Both inspectors and contracts must be chosen from a pre-approved list that the DFS will provide. Funds are limited, so be sure to check for updates on an application process regularly. Assuming all participants receive the maximum $10,000, only 11,500 homeowners would qualify.
