Senate lawmakers have unanimously passed legislation to extend the My Safe Florida Home Program’s hurricane mitigation services and grants to condominium associations under a pilot program.

Senate lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation that would extend the scope of the existing My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) Program to include condominium associations.

The measure introduces the My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program (MSFCP), aligning with the goals of the 2006-initiated MSFH Program, which offered inspection services and financial grants to owners of single-family, site-built residences for the purpose of hurricane damage mitigation. Notably, provisions had not previously been extended to condominiums.

The MSFCP enables condominium associations to secure services from licensed inspectors to assess their buildings’ susceptibility to hurricane impacts and to obtain grants for essential fortifications, subject to available funding.

“Essentially, the bill provides to condominium associations a program similar to that of the MSFH Program in regards to requirements for participation, hurricane mitigation inspectors and inspections, eligibility for mitigation grants, contract management by the Department of Financial Services, and required annual reports,” reads a House legislative analysis.

The bill passed Senate with bipartisan support in a unanimous vote and will now be sent to the Florida House of Representatives for a final vote before heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis for final passage.

MSFH was created in 2006 within the DFS to perform mitigation inspections of site-built, single-family, residential properties, and mitigation grants to eligible applicants to make their homes less vulnerable to hurricane damage.

The MSFH Program received $250 million in appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2006-2007, but was not funded again until 2022. Since then, the Legislature has provided approximately $433 million in subsequent additional funding to the program.

Between November 2022, and December 2023, the MSFH Program has provided more than 94,000 homeowners with hurricane mitigation inspections and approved more than 23,000 grant applications. More than 73 percent of homeowners who have completed participation in the grant component of the MSFH Program report that their  insurance premiums drop or stabilize.