Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday announced the state’s “Hometown Heroes Initiative,” designed to help “hometown heroes” such as police officers and paramedics to purchase their first home by assisting with down payments and closing costs.
The governor made the announcement during a press conference at the Cape Coral Police Department, detailing the $100 million program to assist with homeownership.
“We want to make sure that those front line workers — people we consider to be hometown heroes — are able to not only work and serve the community but do so where they’re able to afford things like buying their first home,” DeSantis said
“This is $100 million program that will provide down payment and closing cost assistance to more than 50 different professions when buying their first home,” he said, noting that it includes all sworn law enforcement officers, paramedics, firefighters, EMTs, 911 operators, correctional operators, probation, juvenile detention officers, teachers, child care operators and daycare instructors, registered nurses home health aides, as well as healthcare practitioners.
“If you’re somebody that is here serving our community and those vital, vital roles, you now have the ability through our hometown heroes program to get assistance to be able to purchase that first home,” he said, adding that “all military veterans, all active duty service members who are moving to the state of Florida and all surviving spouses of deceased veterans” will also qualify for the program, regardless if they are a first time home buyer.
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DeSantis added that his administration’s continued support of first responders, including promoting signing bonuses for police officers and standing against defunding the police, really sends a signal that “this is the place to be for safe communities.”