HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Sam Prioreschi loves his impact-resistant windows.
“Hurricane comes. Hurricane goes. I don’t have to worry about doing anything,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about installing anything. I don’t have to worry about chasing down panels.”
They come with another benefit, too. They’ve provided the Plant City homeowner with a lower insurance premium.
“I did get a break. I got $800,” he said. “Anything and everything counts.”
He loves the benefits of impact-resistant windows and doors so much that he sells them to and installs them for others as the owner of Dr. Done Right Home Revitalization.
Prioreschi said if there’s a drawback, it’s that the windows and doors can be expensive.
That’s why he’s a big believer in the My Safe Florida Home program, which provides grants of up to $10,000 to Florida homeowners making improvements to harden their homes by purchasing impact-resistant windows, doors, and roofs.
Prioreschi is not yet an approved contractor for the program, but he encourages people to use it nevertheless.
“If you can get some money that you’ve been paying them to get some money back to help take care of your house, yeah,” he said.
Right now, however, the My Safe Florida Home program is on pause after almost 39,000 people applied for the grants: 20,979 grants have been approved, but 17,617 grant applications have been submitted and await funding.
Last session, lawmakers passed $100 million in funding for the programs, but “applications have greatly exceeded the amount of funding available,” a recent state analysis of the program concluded.
However, in the special legislative session, which started Monday, lawmakers will consider a bill that would direct roughly $181 million in new funding to the My Safe Florida Home program. Of that total, roughly $176 million would be used to tackle the current backlog of applications.
The legislation would focus the funding on applications submitted on or before Oct. 15, 2023. It would also bar the Florida Department of Financial Services, which oversees the program, from accepting new applications or creating a waiting list “in anticipation of additional funding unless the Legislature provides express authority to implement such actions.”
In a Monday committee meeting, some lawmakers voiced support of the immediate funding boost and ultimately providing even more funding to the program during next year’s legislative session to allow even more Floridians to apply.
“I hope we can, together, support looking at re-funding that program because it does so much good for our constituents,” said Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Manatee County).
Prioreschi hopes that will be the case for both stronger houses and lower insurance rates.
“We need to do anything and everything that we can to drive down insurance rates,” he said.
According to a state analysis, homeowners who have used the program have reported an average $1,000 insurance premium discount.
