WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For the last several days I’ve received many questions from people about the relaunching of the My Safe Florida Home program.
The most-asked question is about the income requirements under the new priority guidelines for the program this year.
I have been in contact with the Chief Financial Officer’s office in Tallahassee, which oversees the program, and I have received some answers.
Here they are verbatim as they were sent to me.
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What are the income limits for the MSFH program?
Income levels are based on “Household Income” and “Number of people in the household” as well as “County where you live” and varies by county. The program uses the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department calculations.
Should people who applied in the last cycle (but didn’t get funding) apply again?
All grant applications received were approved last fall. No one who applied for a grant was left unfunded. However, there were several thousand homeowners who had completed their initial home inspection but were unable to submit a grant application because the application portal was closed. It’s important to note that an application for an inspection is not an application for a grant. These are treated as two different applications.
Should ONLY “Low-income homeowners age 60+” be applying right now? Or should everyone be applying, and the low-income 60+ homeowners will just get first dibs?
Only low-income and over aged 60 are currently being allowed access to the grant application. Homeowners who are allowed to access the application are based on how they answered the age and income questions.
If their answers put them into Group 1, then they can apply now. If they fall into Group 2, the application will be open to them on July 16.
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When should the condo owners apply?
The MSFH program anticipates that the Condo Pilot Program will launch in fall 2024. Condo owners who would like to receive updates can subscribe here.
There is $200 million in the program this year for home inspections and storm hardening improvements with grants up to $10,000.
The new schedule for applying is as follows:
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."
This is a chart from the CFO explaining income breakdown.