My Safe Florida Home Income Limits and Eligibility: Who Qualifies in 2026

September 22, 2026 · Impact Protection Program

The most common question we get about My Safe Florida Home is not “how do I apply” — it is “do I even qualify, and will I have to pay anything?” The answer depends on four things: your household income compared to your county’s median, your age, your home’s insured value, and whether the home is your homesteaded, site-built primary residence. This guide walks through the My Safe Florida Home income limits and eligibility rules as they stand in 2026, and what each one changes about your grant.

The Four Gates, in Order

Think of eligibility as four gates you pass through. Miss any one and the grant is off the table; pass all four and the only remaining question is which priority group you land in.

1. The home itself. A site-built, single-family home (townhouses of up to three stories are now allowed) that is your primary residence and carries a current Florida homestead exemption. Mobile and manufactured homes do not qualify. Condominium units are handled by a separate condo pilot, not this program.
2. The building date. The program is aimed at homes permitted before the 2007 Florida Building Code took hold — in practice, homes built before 2008. That describes most of Tampa, Brandon, Town ’n’ Country, Temple Terrace, Carrollwood, New Port Richey and Bradenton, and a large share of Riverview and Wesley Chapel.
3. The insured value. The home’s insured value must be $700,000 or less.
4. The paperwork. Proof of homeowners insurance, and a completed wind-mitigation inspection through the program before any grant application.

Notice what is not on the list: your credit score, your mortgage balance, or whether you have had a claim. None of those matter to My Safe Florida Home.

Income Tiers: Low-Income vs. Moderate-Income

The program sorts applicants by household income against the Area Median Income (AMI) for their county, using the federal HUD tables. Two tiers matter:

• Low-income: household income at or below 80% of county AMI. Low-income homeowners receive the grant with no matching contribution — the state funds up to $10,000 outright. The $700,000 insured-value cap in the current statute applies to every grant applicant.
• Moderate-income: household income above 80% and up to 120% of county AMI. Moderate-income homeowners receive the standard 2-to-1 match: the state pays $2 for every $1 you pay, up to $10,000 from the state. Putting $5,000 toward the project unlocks the full $10,000.

What the actual dollar figures are depends on your county and household size. For the Tampa metro (Hillsborough and Pasco share a HUD area), a family of four is low-income at roughly the mid-$70,000s and moderate-income up to roughly the mid-$110,000s; a one- or two-person household has lower thresholds, and Manatee and Sarasota use their own tables. The program’s online questionnaire applies the exact current numbers for your county and household size — you do not have to look them up yourself. If you want to check before applying, search “HUD income limits” plus your county name and use the 80% and 120% columns.

The Age-60 Priority

Since the 2024 changes, the program processes applications in priority groups rather than first-come-first-served, and age is the second sorting key after income. The order is:

1. Low-income homeowners age 60 and older
2. Low-income homeowners under 60
3. Moderate-income homeowners age 60 and older
4. Moderate-income homeowners under 60
5. All other applicants — for the free inspection only, as funding allows

This is why two neighbors on the same street can have very different experiences: a retired couple on a fixed income in the first group may get an award within months, while a working household above 120% of AMI lands in the last group, which can apply for the free inspection when funding allows but cannot receive a grant. The current statute (section 215.5586, Florida Statutes) requires a grant applicant to be a low-income or moderate-income person, and the program’s help center says the same thing: applicants above the moderate-income limit are not allowed to file the grant application. It is also why completing the prioritization questionnaire after your inspection matters so much — tens of thousands of Florida homeowners had an inspection on file and simply never finished that step, so they were never placed in a group.

What “Household Income” Means Here

The program looks at the total income of everyone living in the home, not just the person whose name is on the deed. Social Security, pensions and retirement withdrawals count. Documentation is generally your most recent tax return or equivalent proof. If your income changed significantly this year — retirement, a job loss — the questionnaire has a place to reflect that, and it can move you into a better group.

Townhouses and the 2024 Expansion

Townhouses of up to three stories became eligible in 2024. At first the program limited them to opening protection (windows, doors, garage doors). That limit is gone: the current statute simply covers an attached home of no more than three stories, and the program’s help center now says townhomes are eligible for roof improvement grants in a similar manner as single-family homes. Two cautions from that same help-center article: inspection reports completed before the change are not amended, and a townhome that already received a grant payment is not eligible for more. Before planning roof work on a townhouse, check your association documents for who is responsible for the roof. The old rule that the home had to sit in the “wind-borne debris region” was dropped at the same time, so inland Hillsborough and Pasco homes are in.

What Disqualifies You

• No homestead exemption on the property (second homes, rentals, and homes titled to an LLC without homestead)
• Mobile or manufactured home, or a condo unit
• Insured value over $700,000
• Home built under the 2008-or-later code
• Starting the work before the grant is approved. This is the one that catches people. The program reimburses approved work only; a roof you replaced last month does not qualify retroactively.

What Happens After You Qualify

Eligibility gets you the free inspection and a place in line. The inspection report tells you which upgrades the program will fund on your specific house; the grant application follows once your group opens. The matching side — the $1 you contribute for every $2 — is where county-approved $0-down financing comes in for unincorporated Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota homeowners: it can cover your share of the project so the grant is not gated by cash in the bank. We wrote up how the two programs fit together in My Safe Florida Home + $0-down financing.

Related Reading

• My Safe Florida Home Grant 2026: funding and how to apply
• Does My Safe Florida Home still have funding?
• What happens at the My Safe Florida Home inspection
• How to choose a contractor for My Safe Florida Home work
• Tampa Bay guide to the My Safe Florida Home program · Impact windows in Tampa

Related Local Pages

We serve homeowners across Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Start with the page for your area:

• Impact windows in Tampa
• Impact windows in Riverview
• Impact windows in Brandon
• Impact windows in Wesley Chapel
• Impact windows in Bradenton
• Impact windows in Apollo Beach

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