ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — During Florida's special legislative session, the state voted to reenact the "My Safe Florida Home" program.
The program does two things: provide free home inspections to identify recommended home improvements to mitigate hurricane damage and provide grant money for eligible homeowners to make those improvements.
To be eligible for the grant money, you have to live in a wind-borne debris region, as indicated in grey on the map below.
Homes eligible to apply for the grant are in areas where basic wind speeds reach 140 mph or higher.
That's not all. According to the My Safe Florida Home website, the following criteria must also be met:
- The homeowner must have been granted a homestead exemption on the home (If you do not know your status, please confer with your local property appraiser or tax collector’s office);
- The home must be a dwelling with an insured value of $500,000 or less. (Homeowners who are low-income persons may be exempt from this requirement. Look for additional details in the application process);
- The home must have undergone an acceptable hurricane mitigation inspection after July 1, 2008;
- The home must be located in the “wind-borne debris region” as that term is defined in the Florida Building Code;
- The building permit application for initial construction of the home must have been made before July 1, 2008 (If you do not know when your home was built, please contact your local building department); and
- The homeowner must agree to make his or her home available for inspection once a mitigation project is completed.
Steve Shelton owns Shelton Home Inspections. When Florida previously opened this program, he was an inspector for it.
"Improving these features, your roofs not going to blow off, your walls are going to stay together, you're not going to worry about your windows being breached," Shelton said.
While you will have to spend in order to save, Shelton said those savings can come in more than one way.
"These are the features that, if you improve that, you can actually save money on [home] insurance," he said
The Department of Financial Services will provide an approved list of inspectors and contractors for those looking to partake in the program.
According to DFS, the Legislative Budget Commission approved the contract for the management of the project on Sept. 9. The release of funds from the legislature via the budget amendment process was completed on Oct. 7. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis directed the project be expedited, so the targeted deployment date is the end of October.
If recommended through inspection, grant money can contribute to the costs for the following projects:
- Opening protection
- Exterior doors, including garage doors
- Brace gable ends
- Reinforcing roof-to-wall connections
- Improving the strength of roof-deck attachments
- Upgrading roof covering from code to code plus
- Secondary water barrier for roof
Residents can receive up to $10,000 in grant money.
"The program will provide $2 in grant funds for every $1 the homeowner provides. In order to receive the maximum grant amount, homeowners must be able to provide $5,000 of their own funds toward the project," the DFS website reads.
Not all support the program because of the large portions of the state excluded from participating.
"The program has good intentions, but it's delayed, it's narrow, doesn't address flood issues, and it's not available to the entire state," Rep Anna Eskamani, a Democratic lawmaker in Orlando said.
Areas that were devastated by Hurricane Ian are not eligible for this grant, including portions of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Hardee County as well as all of Polk and Hernando County.
"It doesn't cover for flood prevention," Eskamani said. "We're seeing from Hurricane Ian that flooding caused more damage than wind did."
To sign up for updates about the program and when applications will be open, click here.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.