There is a Florida program that will send a state-funded inspector to your house, at no cost to you, to fill out the exact wind mitigation form your insurance company uses to calculate hurricane discounts. There is no income requirement for that inspection. There is no home value limit. There is no obligation to buy anything afterward. And in Volusia County, the homeowners who would benefit most from it are usually the ones who have never heard of it.
It is called My Safe Florida Home. Most people who have heard of it only know the headline — “up to $10,000” — and then assume they earn too much to bother. That assumption costs them the free inspection, which is the genuinely valuable part for a lot of households.
We install roofs in Port Orange, Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach, Deltona and DeLand, and we run into this constantly: a homeowner is about to spend real money hardening their house and nobody ever told them the state would inspect it for free first. Here is how the program actually works, what it pays for on the roof, who qualifies, and the sequencing mistake that disqualifies people every year.
The single most important thing: these are two different programs
My Safe Florida Home has two halves, and conflating them is why so many people opt out before they start.
- The free wind mitigation inspection. Open to any owner of a site-built single-family detached home or townhouse in Florida. No income test. No home value cap. No requirement to apply for grant money afterward.
- The matching grant. This one has real eligibility limits — homestead exemption, a pre-2008 permit date, active homeowners insurance, an insured value cap, and household income within the program’s tiers.
You can take the first and skip the second. Plenty of people should. If you are a retired couple off Clyde Morris in a 1994 block home who has never had a wind mitigation inspection, that free form alone may be worth several hundred dollars a year on your premium — and you do not have to spend anything or qualify for anything to get it.
Why the free inspection has cash value even if you never take the grant
The state inspector completes the standard Florida uniform mitigation verification form — the OIR-B1-1802, the same one-page document every Florida carrier uses to apply hurricane credits. It documents seven things: roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof geometry, secondary water resistance, opening protection, and the age of the structure.
Homeowners routinely pay a private inspector $75 to $175 for that form. Carriers routinely apply hundreds to well over a thousand dollars a year in credits once they have it. We wrote a full breakdown of what each line on the wind mitigation form does to your premium if you want the detail. The short version: if you do not have a current form on file with your carrier, you are very likely paying more than you have to.
Take the free inspection. Send the form to your agent. That is a complete, useful transaction on its own.
Who qualifies for the grant money
The grant side is narrower. Broadly, you need all of the following:
- A homestead exemption on a single-family home or townhouse you own and occupy as your primary residence. Condominium units are handled through a separate condo pilot.
- A building permit dated before January 1, 2008. This is the big one, and it works in Volusia County’s favor — enormous portions of Port Orange, Holly Hill, South Daytona, Deltona and DeLand were built well before that date.
- Active homeowners insurance on the property.
- An insured value of $700,000 or less. This was raised from $500,000 in 2024. Low-income applicants are exempt from the cap.
- A completed wind mitigation inspection through the program — you cannot skip straight to the grant.
- Household income within the program’s limits. Recent cycles have restricted grant awards to low-income and moderate-income households.
The money works in two tiers. Low-income households — at or below 80 percent of the county area median income — can receive up to $10,000 with no match required. Everyone else who qualifies gets a two-to-one match: you put in $1, the state puts in $2, with the state’s share capped at $10,000. Put in $5,000 of your own and you are working with a $15,000 project.
Applications are processed in a priority order that puts low-income applicants age 60 and over first, then low-income under 60, then moderate-income age 60 and over, then moderate-income under 60.
What it actually pays for on your roof
Set expectations here, because this is where homeowners get disappointed. This is a hurricane mitigation program, not a roof replacement program. It does not exist to buy you shingles. It exists to keep the roof deck attached to the house and the water outside of it when a Category 3 comes up the coast.
On the roof, funded improvements center on:
- Roof-deck attachment. Re-nailing the plywood or board decking to current fastening standards. Homes built in the 1970s and 1980s were often stapled or nailed on a spacing that would not pass today. This is one of the highest-value credits on the entire wind mitigation form.
- Secondary water resistance. A sealed layer over the deck seams so that if the shingles blow off, water still does not pour into your living room. We covered how a secondary water barrier is installed and what it does in detail.
- Roof-to-wall connections. Hurricane clips, single wraps or double wraps tying the trusses to the walls. Retrofitting these is disruptive work, usually from inside the attic, but the insurance credit is substantial.
- Roof covering improvements, where the existing covering does not meet current code.
Away from the roof, the program funds opening protection — impact-rated windows, exterior doors and garage doors. For a lot of Volusia homeowners this is where the grant dollars end up, and there is a separate multi-year Florida sales tax exemption on impact-rated windows and exterior doors that stacks on top of it.
The Volusia County wrinkle: your roof may already be maxed out
Here is something a lot of guides skip. The permit-date rule looks at when your house was built, not when your roof was installed. Volusia County has been re-roofed heavily since the 2004 storms and again after Ian and Nicole, so it is very common to have a 1993 house wearing a 2019 roof.
If your roof was replaced under modern Florida Building Code, the deck was re-nailed to current standards and, in most cases, a secondary water barrier already went down. Those credits are already yours. A state inspector is not going to fund work that is already done.
That is not a reason to skip the inspection — it is a reason to do it. The inspection tells you which of the seven credits you are missing, and for a recently re-roofed home the answer is usually opening protection or roof-to-wall connections, not the roof surface. Spend the grant where it is actually needed. If you are wondering how much of this is already on your file, our guide to roof age and Florida homeowners insurance covers what carriers are looking at.
The mistake that disqualifies people: starting work too early
If you take one practical thing from this page, take this one.
Work that begins before your grant is approved is generally not reimbursable. Not the deck re-nail, not the windows, not the barrier. Homeowners hear “up to $10,000,” sign a contract that week, get the job done, then apply — and find out the money was never available for work already performed.
The correct order is: apply, get the free inspection, receive the list of recommended improvements, submit the grant application naming a properly licensed contractor, wait for the award, then build. That takes patience, and the queue has historically been long. If your roof is actively leaking, do not sit in a grant queue while water runs into your house — fix the emergency and treat the grant as a separate project. But if you are planning ahead rather than reacting, plan ahead properly.
How to line this up with a roof replacement
Deck re-nailing and secondary water resistance are tear-off work. They happen when the shingles are off and the deck is exposed. You cannot bolt them on six months later without paying to remove a roof you just bought — and that is exactly the trap a homeowner falls into when they replace the roof in March and discover the grant in September.
So if a re-roof is on your horizon in the next year or two and you think you might qualify, start the My Safe Florida Home application first and let the timelines meet. If the timing genuinely does not work — the roof is at end of life now, or your carrier is threatening non-renewal — replace the roof. Every roof we install goes on to current Florida Building Code, and we include a wind mitigation inspection with every replacement, so the insurance credits get captured either way.
Where the funding stands, and why you should verify it yourself
This program has a history of opening, running out of money, closing, and reopening when the Legislature appropriates more. As of this writing, applications are being accepted subject to available funding, and Florida’s 2026 budget reappropriated more than $405 million across My Safe Florida Home and the condo pilot — much of it aimed at a backlog of roughly 45,000 homeowners who had completed inspections but had never been funded. Homeowners already in that queue generally do not need to reapply.
That status can change with any legislative session. We are roofers, not the Department of Financial Services. Confirm the live application status, the current income tiers and the current eligibility rules at mysafeflhome.com before you plan your money around it.
Get a Straight Answer — Free
Affordable Roofing & Construction has served Volusia County and Central Florida for over 20 years. We hold CCC 1327602 (certified roofing) and CGC 1509441 (certified general contractor) — the license classes this program requires — and we are CertainTeed ShingleMaster credentialed with dual Master Craftsman certification.
We include a wind mitigation inspection with every roof replacement, and every job is backed by our 5-year labor warranty. We serve Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach, DeLand, Deltona, Edgewater, Holly Hill, South Daytona, Orange City, DeBary and the surrounding Central Florida area.
Trying to figure out whether to wait for a grant or replace the roof now? Call 386-392-8952 for a free, no-pressure inspection. We will tell you honestly how much roof you have left, which wind mitigation credits you are missing, and whether it makes sense to sit in the queue or move now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to be low income to get the free My Safe Florida Home inspection?
No. The free wind mitigation inspection and the grant are two separate things. Any owner of a site-built, single-family detached home or townhouse in Florida can apply for the free inspection — no income limit, no home value limit, and no obligation to apply for grant money afterward. The income limits apply only to the grant itself.
Does the My Safe Florida Home grant pay for a whole new roof?
Not usually. It is a hurricane mitigation program, not a roof replacement program. On the roof side it funds specific hardening measures — roof-deck attachment, secondary water resistance and roof-to-wall connections — rather than shingles and tear-off. The state contribution is capped at $10,000, which is well under the cost of a full Volusia County re-roof. Think of it as help paying for the parts of the job that make the roof survive a hurricane.
What are the grant eligibility requirements?
For the grant you generally need a homestead exemption on a single-family home or townhouse, a building permit dated before January 1, 2008, active homeowners insurance, an insured value of $700,000 or less (low-income applicants are exempt from the value cap), a completed program wind mitigation inspection, and household income within the program’s limits. Condominium units are handled under a separate condo pilot program. Verify the current rules at mysafeflhome.com before you rely on them.
How much money does the grant actually provide?
Low-income homeowners — at or below 80 percent of the county area median income — can receive up to $10,000 with no matching contribution. Everyone else who qualifies receives a two-to-one match: the state contributes $2 for every $1 you put in, up to a $10,000 state contribution. So a moderate-income homeowner spending $5,000 of their own money can reach a $15,000 project.
Can I do the work first and get reimbursed later?
No, and this is the single most expensive mistake homeowners make with this program. Work started or completed before your grant is approved is generally not reimbursable. If you think you might apply, get the inspection and the award in hand before anyone starts tearing off. Only emergency repairs that cannot wait should ever get ahead of the paperwork.
My house is from the 1990s but I re-roofed it in 2020. Do I still qualify?
Your permit date still meets the pre-2008 rule, so you can still apply. But a roof installed to modern Florida Building Code already has a nailing pattern and, in most cases, a secondary water barrier — so the roof-side credits may already be maxed out. In that situation the inspection usually points you toward opening protection: impact windows, doors and garage doors. The inspection is free either way, and the wind mitigation form itself is worth having for your insurance.
Is the program still funded and accepting applications?
The program has repeatedly opened, exhausted its funding, and reopened when the Legislature appropriates more. As of this writing applications are being accepted subject to available funding, and Florida’s 2026 budget reappropriated over $405 million to work through a backlog of roughly 45,000 homeowners who had completed inspections but had not yet been funded. Funding status can change with each legislative session — always check mysafeflhome.com for the live status before you plan around it.
What kind of contractor do I have to use for grant work?
The program approves grant applications that list a contractor licensed and certified with Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation as a general, building, residential, specialty or roofing contractor. Affordable Roofing & Construction holds CCC 1327602 (certified roofing) and CGC 1509441 (certified general contractor). Call us and we will confirm our current program registration status with you before you list anyone on an application.
Will I still get an insurance discount if I never take the grant?
Yes, and this is why the free inspection is worth doing on its own. The inspector completes the standard Florida uniform wind mitigation form — the same OIR-B1-1802 your carrier uses to apply hurricane credits. Hand that form to your agent and any credits you already qualify for should be applied, whether or not you ever spend a dollar on upgrades.
How does this work with a roof I am already planning to replace?
Sequence matters. Deck re-nailing and a secondary water barrier are installed during a tear-off — you cannot add them later without pulling the shingles back off. If you intend to apply for a grant, start the application before you schedule the re-roof so the two line up. If the timeline does not work, we still install to code and still include a wind mitigation inspection with every roof replacement, so you capture the insurance credits regardless.
This article is general information for Florida homeowners, not legal, insurance, tax or financial advice, and it is not an official statement of the My Safe Florida Home program. Affordable Roofing & Construction is not affiliated with the Florida Department of Financial Services. Program funding, income tiers, eligibility rules and application status change by legislative session — verify all current requirements at mysafeflhome.com before making decisions. Affordable Roofing & Construction is a licensed roofing and general contractor (CCC 1327602, CGC 1509441).