{"id":321138,"date":"2026-06-26T21:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321138\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:27:12","slug":"homeowner-battles-gut-wrenching-my-safe-florida-home-hurdles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321138\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeowner battles ‘gut-wrenching’ My Safe Florida Home hurdles"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A West Boca Raton homeowner says her efforts to receive a promised grant from the state to fix up her home keep facing one hurdle after another.<\/p>\n

Anne Bendel describes herself as persistent and thorough \u2014 and not one to give up easily. But the process of securing a My Safe Florida Home grant has pushed her to her limits.<\/p>\n

WATCH BELOW: Homeowner battles My Safe Florida Home grant delays<\/p>\n

West Boca Raton homeowner battles My Safe Florida Home grant delays<\/p>\n

“It’s not easy for me because I don’t have a computer, I’m doing this on my phone, and I have nobody to help me. It’s gut-wrenching,” Bendel said.<\/p>\n

Bendel first contacted WPTV in May<\/a> with an issue over her My Safe Florida Home grant being held up by paperwork from her insurance company. That issue was eventually cleared up.<\/p>\n

“My Safe Florida Home contacted me, set me to a task and said my status was complete. … in May,” Bendel said.<\/p>\n

Then, a week later, she said representatives with My Safe Florida Home asked for more \u2014 a permit of completion for a large impact window. She provided it but then came questions about dates. Now her application is back under review, and her hopes for any grant money toward the $8,000 she paid out of pocket are up in the air.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think they’re being fair,” Bendel said.<\/p>\n

The My Safe Florida Home program has helped thousands of homeowners across the state with grants of up to $10,000 to fortify homes against storms and earn insurance discounts. But Bendel says her confidence in the program’s promises is being shaken.<\/p>\n

“I did the work, I had it completed, I got the permits, I had the insurance they asked for. Everything is done, but it seems like when everything is done they find some other little task to send you, because they know when I had the work done,” Bendel said.<\/p>\n

WPTV has contacted the Florida Department of Financial Services in Tallahassee about Bendel’s case and the status of her grant.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

WPTV<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A West Boca Raton homeowner says her efforts to receive a promised grant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[871,50707,28,30,133109,133110,29,872,873,133111,874,875,876],"class_list":["post-321138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-coverage-collapse","tag-department-of-financial-services","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-home-grant","tag-florida-homeowner-assistance","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-real-estate-news","tag-my-safe-florida-home","tag-my-safe-florida-home-grant","tag-priced-out-of-paradise","tag-south-florida-real-estate","tag-wptv-real-estate-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}