Hometown Heroes: the Florida program for healthcare, school and emergency workers

If you work in healthcare, at a school, in emergency services or in child care, Florida has a program that gives you up to $35,000 toward buying your first home. It is not a discount or a lottery: it is a second mortgage at 0 % that you do not pay monthly.

What it actually gives

AmountUp to $35,000Up to 5 % of the first mortgage amount, with a $10,000 minimum. It can go toward the down payment and toward closing costs.Source: Florida Housing Finance Corporation · verified August 30, 2026

Interest0 %A second mortgage at zero percent. It accrues no interest while you live in the home.

Monthly payment$0It is deferred and non-amortizing: you pay nothing monthly on that money. It is repaid in full when you sell, refinance, transfer the deed or stop living in the home, and it is not forgiven over time.

That last point changes the math more than anything and is the least understood: because there is no monthly payment, it does not raise your DTI. Meaning it does not reduce the house the lender approves you for. A regular $35,000 loan would.

Who qualifies

There is not one door, there are three: work full time for a Florida-based employer in one of the listed occupations; be active-duty military, which needs no Florida employer; or be a veteran or reservist working full time for a Florida-based employer, in any occupation. And one requirement applies to all three: the program is for first-time homebuyers, with no home of your own in the last three years, and military and veterans are exempt from that one.

Health care workers
K-12 school staff: public, private, charter or magnet
First responders
Public safety and court employees
Child care workers
Active military, reservists and veterans, who qualify through their own route

You do not have to be a public employee

A nurse at a private hospital qualifies the same as one at a county hospital. What is looked at is the occupation and that the employer is Florida-based, not whether the government pays the salary. That said, Florida-based means a physical location you report to: full-time remote employees are not eligible.

Florida Housing publishes the full list of eligible occupations in a separate document, and it is worth reading: it is broader than people assume and it changes year to year.

What to know before applying

You do not apply on your ownThe program is processed through a participating lender, not directly with the state. There is an official lender locator on the Florida Housing site.
There are income and price limitsThey vary by county and are updated each year. Miami-Dade limits are not the same as the rest of the state.
You need the homebuyer classSame as with almost every assistance program. One borrower takes it, in person or online, before buying. Military and veterans are exempt, unless they go with the conventional option of the program.
It pairs with the program first mortgageThe assistance is tied to a loan from the program itself, not to any mortgage you arrange separately.

Applying to Hometown Heroes costs nothing. Florida Housing says so explicitly on its own site because there are people who charge to process it. If someone asks you for money to handle it, that is not the program.

This guide orients you, it does not advise you. The ranges are estimates, and final terms are set by the lender, the insurer, or the association based on your specific case.

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