Q&A – About the New My Safe Florida Home Program

Given that the program is first come first served within the eligible groups – time is of the essence if you want to apply.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Have a question or topic you want to have addressed.
Just ask. This is the Brian Mud Show. Yeah, today's
Q and A as we take a look at the
My Say Florida Home program, the new incarnation of it
this year. This is brought to you, as always by
Melissa and Ashes check mark collections each day a future

(00:24):
and listener questions sent by one of these methods. You
may email me Brian Mud at iHeartMedia dot com. You
may hit me up on social at Brian Mud Radio.
You may also use the iHeartRadio talk back feature. We
would love it if you'd love us. If you would
go into the iHeartRadio app, you would make us your

(00:45):
number one preset, then the Brian Mudshow podcast your number
two pre set. While you're in there, you'll see a
little microphone button. Tap it. You may leave a message
right there, maybe a topic of question for a future
Q and A. Today's note this, Hi Brian about the
new requirements for the My Safe Folded Grant program. How
are we supposed to know what the media and incomes

(01:05):
are to qualify? Also? Is there a certain amount of
money for all categories or only if there's money left
over after those with higher priorities have been considered. Thank you, okay,
excellent questions. Excellent questions. The My Safe Florida Home Program
has reopened for applications this week. There are significant weaks

(01:26):
to the prioritization of who's eligible for grants from the
program this year, as opposed to kind of the broader,
first come, first serve type of approach for those that
otherwise qualified previously. So, rather than diving into the changes,
let's just kind of take a step back at what
the program looks like. Now. I'm just going to give

(01:46):
you kind of like a top to bottom as to
what this is, this this go round, and what it's
designed to do. So, the My saf Flida Home Program,
funded with two hundred and eighty million dollars for the
twenty twenty five twenty six fiscal year, helps Florida homeowners
prepare for hurricanes, save on insurance through free wind mitigation inspections,

(02:07):
and also grants for home improvements. And the program follows
a two step process. The first step in this process,
this is a must for everybody. You can't go straight
to just applying for grants for home improvement projects. You
first have a free wind mitigation inspection. So homeowners apply
for an inspection to assess hurricane resistant features. Eligible homes

(02:33):
need to be homesteaded and built prior to two thousand
and eight qualify, all right, So that's the first very
important thing before we get into the four different groups
that get priority and everything else. Homes must be homesteaded
and built prior to two thousand and eight. Ineligible properties
include multifamily homes, condos. There is a separate state pilot

(02:57):
program out there for condo associations right now, mobile homes
and rentals. Now, homes must also have an insured value
of seven hundred thousand dollars or less unless the homeowner
is determined to be low income. Okay, so about that.
We're going to surt get into this low income stuff
here in a moment explaining that the second step of

(03:20):
the process. So after you've had the free wind mitigation inspection,
you then take a look at the hurricane mitigation grants.
So you'll receive that inspection report, and based upon the
inspection report, eligible homeowners can then apply for grants to
fund recommended upgrades and so this commonly will be impact

(03:41):
windows and doors, improvements to roofs, those types of things.
The grants are awarded on a first come, first served
basis under the priority of the groups. And so this
answer is kind of like the second part of the question. First,
if there are are so many people in group one
that apply that it uses all of the two hundred

(04:03):
and eighty million dollars. That's that before we even get
to group two. But otherwise it just goes on through
the four different groups. We won't know until the application
process is closed. So the way this is going down.
Group one low income home owners aged sixty year older,
and that is defined as having income that is under

(04:26):
eighty percent of the county median. Okay, So this is
all determined on the county with which you live and
incomes within it. Low income homeowners sixty and older income
under eighty percent of the county median. That is the
top priority. Group two, low income homeowners of any age. Okay,

(04:49):
So the next priority doesn't matter how old you are,
if you are an under eighty percent of the county median.
Group three, what are considered moderate income homeowners aged sixty
and older, and that is defined as earning under one
hundred and twenty percent of the county median. And then
Group four moderate income homeowners of any age. The maximum

(05:12):
grant amount per homeowner is ten thousand dollars. In order
to be able to max out that ten thousand dollars grant,
the homeowner must pay fifteen thousand dollars towards the completed work.
So that gives you an idea of the scale of
the grant. You have to have more skin in the
game than the grant is going to provide. So your

(05:33):
max would be if you do a project that is
twenty five thousand dollars or greater, you would get ten
thousand from the state towards that. So determining the income
eligibility guidelines is actually a lot easier than it appears.
This was the first part of the question. The state
is using the federal HUD Income Limits documentation system. This

(05:56):
is what HUD uses to determine who's eligible for affordable
housing for example. And so all you actually need to
do is go to this link and you can take
a look based upon where you live and the number
of people in your home, because that impacts it too

(06:17):
where you stand. And by the way, I have the
direct link both for the my Say Florida Home program
and the application process that is up already as part
of the story on the Brian Minshew blog. I also
have the direct link to the federal HUD income limits
documentation system, so you can go check this out and
shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to
be able to figure out exactly where you stand in

(06:37):
this income verification. So, I know that sounds complicated, How
in the world do I figure out under eighty percent
of you know where? It's all right there. You'll be
able to sort through it pretty easily now as it
jumping off point, the HUD recognized media and family income
in Florida. Okay, so this is for the entire state
is most recently eighty eighty six hundred. Therefore, just kind

(07:00):
of like the average Florida homeowner that's otherwise eligible with
income under seventy thousand, eight hundred and eighty dollars, that
person would qualify in either group one or two. If
you're ever sixty, you'd be group one. If you are
under sixty, you'd be in that group two. So that

(07:22):
kind of gives you an idea. I think a lot
more people are probably eligible for this than might think,
just based upon hearing it initially laid out yeah, I
think so so, given that the program is first, first come,
first served within those those groups, time is of the
essence if you want to apply. So hopefully that's helpful
and good luck to you.