TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The My Safe Florida Home program expands qualifications for who can apply for assistance to make upgrades to their home to their homes, Monday.

Low-income homeowners can now apply for a chance to get up to $10,000 in grants.

Michelle Adams said she’s a ‘My Safe Florida Home’ success story. The St. Petersburg homeowner applied for the program in 2023. She received a significant discount on hurricane impact windows, a $50,000 project.

“We were able to redo all of the sliders and the windows,” said Adams. “$10,000 is the max, and we were able to get that full amount.”

The Florida Legislature allocated $280 million in funding to the program. This year, the focus is on low-income and seniors.

Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis in the following tiers:

• August 4 – Low-income homeowners, age 60+
• August 18 – Lown-inocme homeowners
• September 1 – Moderate-income homeowners, age 60+
• September 15 – Moderate-income homeowners

Jake Holehouse, CEO of HH Insurance, said safety improvements can cut insurance premiums. “In Florida, the majority of our insurance premiums is hurricane risk,” said Holehouse. “Doing things like hurricane clips, hurricane impact glass, the nail patterns on the roof, and the like, that can give you up to an 88% savings on that hurricane portion.”

Adams said it’s financial aid that also provides peace of mind during storm season.

“In the past, whenever we had a big storm coming our way, we had to put up the hurricane shutters,” said Adams. “So now, we don’t have to do that. We can kind of, we definitely feel safer.”

To be eligible for a grant, residents must meet the following requirements:

• The home must have received an Initial Inspection through the program.
• The home must be a dwelling with an insured value of $700,000 or less. Low-income homeowners are exempt from this requirement.
• The building permit application for initial construction of the home must have been made before January 1, 2008.
• The homeowner must provide the name and license number of the contractor selected to
  perform the mitigation project.
• The homeowner must agree to make the home available for a final inspection once the project is complete.
• The homeowner must agree to provide to the program any and all information received from the homeowner’s insurer identifying the discounts realized by the homeowner because of the improvements funded through the program.

To apply for the program, visit My Safe Florida Home’s website.