WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The relaunching of the My Safe Florida Home website on Monday had some issues with delays and frustrations, according to emails sent to WPTV.
The program offers free home inspections and grants of up to $10,000 for home improvements to harden homes against storms.
The online portal opened up again July 1 with $200 million in funding. The program is also looking to clear backed-up applications from last year.
By midday the issues seemed to ease with many homeowners telling us they were finally able to submit applications successfully.
The office of the Chief Financial Officer did not offer any information on the restart, but computer experts said it sounds like a computer server capacity issue.
“I hate to say, when you’ve seen enough of this stuff, it’s very predictable,” said Alan Crowetz of infostream.cc. “Government, they are tighter budget and may not have the resources to do it. They’re famous for being caught off guard and demand exceeds what they planned for it."
Real Estate News
When you can begin applying for My Safe Florida Home program
Homeowners applying in the early morning encountered the wrong website, which added an extra letter to the mysafeflhome.com site and was advertised in a news release from the CFO on Sunday.
A corrected news release followed by mid-morning Monday, directing people to mysafeflhome.com
I’ve also received many emails over the last few days about the income requirements on applying, under the new priority guidelines. Here's what we know about the schedule.
July 1-15: low income homeowners age 60+
July 16-30: low income homeowners
July 31-Aug. 14: moderate income homeowners age 60+
Aug. 15-30: moderate income homeowners
Aug. 31: all other eligible homeowners
The definition of "low income" in the My Safe Florida Home law refers to the Florida Statute 420.0004, which defines it as, “the total annual adjusted gross household income of which does not exceed 80 percent of the median annual adjusted gross income for households within the state, or …the metropolitan statistical area.”
According to some homeowners who submitted applications, the program is looking for the number on Line 11 of your IRS Form 1040.
From there it appears the program will sort out the numbers and prioritize applicants under the new guidelines.
If you plan to apply for the program, contact me, I’d like to hear about your experience. Email me at Matt.Sczesny@wptv.com.
WATCH BELOW: 5 Things to know about My Safe Florida Home Program