MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Nearly 140 new Florida laws took effect Wednesday, including one that could be a game-changer for some of the state's most vulnerable homeowners.
Senate Bill 594 opens up $167 million in state affordable housing funding to help mobile and manufactured home owners pay for emergency repairs and storm-hardening retrofits.
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The change follows an investigation that exposed hundreds of thousands of older homes across Florida that cannot stand up to today's storms.
It started with an EF-3 tornado that obliterated manufactured homes in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Community of Fort Pierce.
"We lost 138 homes, six of our friends were killed," said Spanish Lakes resident, Paula Richards.
The investigation that followed found nearly 700,000 — about two-thirds of Florida's more than 1 million mobile and manufactured homes — were built before today's federal safety standards, leaving them unable to withstand modern storms.
Many of the seniors living in them cannot afford to make them safer.
"I don't have that in my pocket anywhere," Richards said, showing WPTV on of multiple estimates costing $10,000-$15,000.
Homeowners across the state pleaded for help, and lawmakers responded with Senate Bill 594, expanding access to $167 million in state SHIP funding for manufactured home rent, emergency repairs and storm-hardening retrofits.
It passed in spring of 2026, and took effect July 1st.
Now, the question WPTV is receiving is how people can access those funds.
Julie Stellatos with Martin County Human Services says an online portal will open on Aug. 10. Once it does, about 75% of the county's annual SHIP funding — typically $1 million to $1.5 million — could now help eligible mobile and manufactured homeowners.
"They can either fill out an online application, or they can call our office and we can mail them one," Stellatos said.
She says people were asking for help long before the law passed.
"It definitely will help those people that we were not able to help prior," Stellatos said.
I reached out to all five counties in our viewing area.
Okeechobee County officials said they are updating the County's local housing assistance plan (LHAP) to comply with the new law and plans to offer lot rent, rehabilitation and emergency repair assistance for manufactured home owners once the program opens.
St. Lucie County said the it is still waiting on final guidance from the state before announcing its application process.
Indian River County officials said staff are taking an item regarding the legislative change to the Board on August 18th, and that the deadline to submit their plan to the State is September 30th.
Stellatos says usually, all areas likely follow the same general timeframe.
"There is a calendar that we all go by from the Florida Housing Coalition, but I would have to say it varies in every county," Stellatos said.
No matter what county you are in, you can start preparing now. Visit the Florida Housing Finance Corporation website — linked here— and select your county or city. There, you can see what funding your area has available, check your income eligibility, find out who to contact and learn how to apply once the funding opens.
"It's first come, first served, so it's a matter of getting your paperwork together as quickly as possible," Stellatos said.
"Like everything else, mobile home lives matter too," Richards said.