How To Apply For My Safe Florida Home 2022

During Florida's special session, lawmakers re-enacted the country'southward "My Safe Florida Dwelling house" programme.

Saint 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 dwelling house inspections to place recommended habitation improvements to mitigate hurricane harm and provide grant money for eligible homeowners to brand those improvements.

To be eligible for the grant coin, you have to live in a wind-borne debris region, equally indicated in greyness 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 exist met:

1. The homeowner must have been granted a homestead exemption on the domicile (If you do not know your status, please confer with your local property appraiser or tax collector'southward role);
2. 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. Expect for boosted details in the application process);
3. The home must have undergone an acceptable hurricane mitigation inspection afterwards July 1, 2008;
4. The home must be located in the "wind-borne debris region" as that term is defined in the Florida Building Code;
5. The edifice permit application for initial construction of the dwelling house must have been fabricated earlier July 1, 2008 (If y'all exercise not know when your dwelling was congenital, please contact your local building department); and
6. The homeowner must concur to brand his or her home bachelor for inspection once a mitigation project is completed.

Steve Shelton owns Shelton Dwelling house Inspections. When Florida previously opened this program, he was an inspector for it.

"Improving these features, your roofs non 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 volition accept to spend in gild to salvage, Shelton said those savings tin can come up in more than than one way.

"These are the features that, if you lot improve that, yous tin can actually save coin on [home] insurance," he said

The Department of Financial Services volition provide an approved list of inspectors and contractors for those looking to partake in the program.

Co-ordinate to DFS, the Legislative Upkeep Commission approved the contract for the direction of the project on Sept. 9. The release of funds from the legislature via the budget amendment process was completed on October. 7. Florida Chief Financial Officeholder Jimmy Patronis directed the projection be expedited, so the targeted deployment engagement is the cease 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 $ii in grant funds for every $1 the homeowner provides. In social club to receive the maximum grant amount, homeowners must be able to provide $five,000 of their ain funds toward the projection," the DFS website reads.

Not all support the programme because of the large portions of the state excluded from participating.

"The program has proficient intentions, but it'southward delayed, information technology'south narrow, doesn't accost overflowing problems, and it'south 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 Canton.

"It doesn't embrace for flood prevention," Eskamani said. "We're seeing from Hurricane Ian that flooding caused more damage than wind did."

To sign upwardly for updates almost the programme and when applications will be open, click here.

Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with x Tampa Bay. You tin can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

Source: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/regional/florida/hurricane-home-improvement-grants/67-8fd17b85-a5ae-4b96-a82a-1c47d8eebad5

Share this post