Better Call Behnken: How to apply for My Safe Florida Home program and avoid costly mistakes

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Good news came this week for some Florida homeowners who need to get their houses ready for hurricane season.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Wednesday that allocates $200 million to the My Safe Florida Home program, which ran out of money last year and left many people in limbo and unable to move forward with improving their homes.

“The program is over subscribed,” Gov. DeSantis told reporters in Pinellas County. “There is a lot of demand.”

“There’s a lot of people on the waiting list,” he continued. “So this $200 million will go towards clearing the folks on the waiting list and any additional demand.”

Applicants can get a free home inspection to identify ways to improve their houses for hurricane season. Homeowners can then apply for a grant of up to $10,000 to upgrade windows, exterior doors and garage doors and strengthen roofs.

Since 2022, the state has conducted more than 104,000 home inspections and approved more than 38,000 grant applications, according to the Department of Financial Services, which administers the program.

Beginning July 1, the application portal will open and low-income seniors will get priority. Also getting priority are those who already applied for the program last year before it ran out of money, state officials said.

A spokesman with the CFO’s office said homeowners need to make sure they are following program guidelines or things can go terribly wrong.

Case in point, Marguerite Clark, who is from Pasco County, applied for the grant and said she mistakenly thought she was fully approved.

She hired a roofer, and after the roof was installed, she learned the program ran out of money and that applications, including hers, were put on hold. She was left on the hook for a more than $12,000 roof.

“I didn’t know that I was going to be responsible to pay that on my own,” she said.

Better Call Behnken took her story to the state’s Department of Financial Services and, after an inquiry, they were able to finalize her grant, and she says she just learned she’s getting $10,000 to help pay for her roof.

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