Ben Albritton urges fellow Senators to get residents involved in hurricane prep program

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/25-Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, talks with the media after the opening day of the 2025 Legislative Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

The “My Safe Florida Home Program,” which can help safeguard homes from hurricane damage, now has more than $100 million in new grants to provide to homeowners in the state.

Senate President Ben Albritton issued a memo to his colleagues in the Senate this week noting that Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has arranged a reallocation of funds for the program. Given that action, there is now $103 million in grants available for homeowners who complete the grant process.

“Data indicates there are about 10,000 homeowners who completed both their inspection and application questionnaire (which assigns applications in groups based on income). There are over 30,000 inspected properties where the homeowner has not completed the questionnaire,” Albritton said in the memo.

The program was instituted to stabilize the insurance market in the state after several hurricanes wreaked havoc on homeowners in the past decade. The Legislature has already appropriated $576 million for grants under the program, and 178,184 homes have been designated for inspection. Some 58,796 grants have already been dispatched.

The My Safe Florida Home Application Portal will reopen on April 30. Albritton said that is geared mainly toward homeowners who have already had an inspection for the program but have yet to complete their application questionnaire information.

Albritton is urging Senators “to reach out to your constituents to make them aware of the more than $100 million in additional grants available in the coming months.”

Albritton also said the hurricane preparation reforms are working and thousands of Floridians have already benefited from the program.

“To date, 58,796 grants have been obligated. Over 32,000 homeowners have been paid a total of $310,719 million and many more grants have been awarded where work is currently in progress,” Albritton said.