My Safe Florida Home in Miami-Dade: the wind inspection, the grant, and what a roofer has to do with it

Every Miami-Dade homeowner with a renewal letter has heard of it by now: the state’s My Safe Florida Home program, which has paid for wind-mitigation inspections and put grant money toward roofs, shutters, garage doors and secondary water barriers. It is also the program most often misdescribed at kitchen tables, because its rules have changed with every legislative session and because Miami-Dade’s own building rules sit on top of it. This guide is the version a homeowner can act on.

Two things first. This site does not administer the program or apply on your behalf; the state does, through the Department of Financial Services. And nothing here is a promise that money is available today: funding has opened and closed in waves, and the only current answer is on the program’s own site.

What the program is

Under section 215.5586, Florida Statutes, the program has two parts:

1. A wind-mitigation inspection at no cost to the homeowner. A state-contracted inspector visits, fills out the same OIR-B1-1802 wind-mitigation form your insurer uses for premium credits, and lists the improvements that would harden the house.
2. A grant toward those improvements, up to $10,000 per home, paid after the work is done and inspected. In the most recent rounds the state has matched $2 for every $1 the homeowner spent for moderate-income households, and paid up to the full amount without a match for low-income households.

The grant has covered opening protection (impact windows and doors, shutters), garage door reinforcement, secondary water barriers, and roof improvements: roof-deck attachment, roof-to-wall connections, and, in some rounds, a full roof replacement where the inspection found the roof was the weak point.

Who has qualified

The statute’s conditions in the last funding rounds, as published by the program, have been:

• A site-built, single-family home that is the owner’s homestead; townhouses were added for inspections and opening-protection grants in 2025.
• An insured value of $700,000 or less, with proof of a current homeowners policy.
• A building permit application date before January 1, 2008 for the original construction, which is most of Miami-Dade’s housing.
• For grants in the 2025–2026 cycle, income limits: households at or below 80 percent of the county median income for the no-match grant, and up to 120 percent for the matching grant.
• The wind-mitigation inspection first: the grant pays only for improvements the inspection recommended.

Check each of these against the program’s current page before you plan around it. The Legislature has re-funded and re-scoped the program more than once, and a rule that was true in one round has not always carried into the next.

What the inspection looks at

The inspector documents the seven things on the wind-mitigation form: roof covering (what it is and when it was permitted), roof-deck attachment (nail size and spacing, seen from the attic), roof-to-wall connection (toe nails, clips, single or double straps), roof shape (hip roofs earn more credit than gable), secondary water barrier (a sealed deck or peel-and-stick under the covering), opening protection (impact glass or shutters on every opening, or none), and the building code the house was built to.

In Miami-Dade the last item matters more than anywhere in the state. A house permitted after the 1994 South Florida Building Code changes that followed Hurricane Andrew, or after the Florida Building Code took over in 2002, usually already has straps and a nailed deck, and earns the credits without work. A 1950s to 1980s house in Hialeah, Westchester, Kendall or North Miami often does not, and that is where the inspection finds the money-earning gaps.

Why Miami-Dade is different: HVHZ and the NOA

Miami-Dade and Broward are the state’s High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Every roofing product installed here, from the underlayment to the tile or shingle to the fasteners, has to carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) or a Florida Product Approval with HVHZ approval, and every roof replacement is a county or city permit with several inspections. A My Safe Florida Home grant does not waive any of that; it pays toward work that has to be permitted and inspected in the ordinary way, and the program’s own inspector checks the finished work against the permit.

The practical consequence: the roofing contractor you choose for grant work has to be licensed for roofing in Florida (a CCC or RC number on DBPR) and has to know the county’s product-control and permit process. A quote that does not list the NOA numbers of the covering and underlayment is not a Miami-Dade quote.

How a grant job goes

1. Create the account and take the eligibility questionnaire on the program site. Do this even if grants are closed; the state has opened new rounds to people already in line.
2. The inspection, which the program pays for, is scheduled by the program. Keep the report; it doubles as the wind-mitigation form for your insurer.
3. If a grant is offered, get quotes for the recommended improvements from licensed contractors. The program has required the work to be done by a licensed contractor and, for openings, by products with the right approvals.
4. Wait for the official grant approval notice before any work starts. The program’s FAQ is blunt about this: mitigation construction that begins before the approval notice is not reimbursed. No deposit, no tear-off, no material order until the notice is in hand.
5. Permit, work, county inspection. The contractor pulls the roofing permit with the county or your city and the work passes the county’s inspections.
6. The program’s final inspection and payment. The grant is paid through a draw request after the work is verified, and the two grant types pay differently. A matching grant requires a paid-in-full invoice, so the homeowner pays the contractor and is reimbursed, and cash flow matters. A low-income grant does not require a paid-in-full invoice; confirm with the program how the contractor is paid in that case before signing anything. Ask the contractor what they expect at each stage and which path your grant is on.

What it does to your insurance

Whether or not the grant comes through, the wind-mitigation report is worth having. Each item on the form can earn a premium credit, the form is good for five years, and a Miami-Dade house that goes from no secondary water barrier and unknown roof-to-wall connections to a documented sealed deck and straps often sees the difference on the next renewal. Ask your agent to run the credits before and after.

The documents the application asks for

• Your homestead exemption and the current homeowners policy declarations page
• The year the house was built and the permit history of the roof (the county’s permit records show the last full replacement)
• Household income documentation if you are applying for a grant
• Attic access for the inspector

Program rules are summarized from the statute and the program’s published materials as of September 2026 and change with each legislative session; the program’s site is the source, and the contractor who does the work is responsible for the permit, the products and the inspections.