After nearly two decades of stalled progress on improving storm resilience, Mississippi lawmakers approved a measure Wednesday that would send homeowners-facing mitigation grants to Gov. Tate Reeves for consideration. The legislation, Senate Bill 2409, would establish the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program, which supporters say would help reduce vulnerability to hurricanes, tornadoes, hail and other windstorm damage as climate-related risks continue to grow.
Under the bill, the program would offer grants of up to $10,000 to allow homeowners to retrofit their properties. The upgrades would be intended to meet FORTIFIED standards from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a set of requirements designed to strengthen structures against wind-related hazards, according to the description of the program.
The measure also ties eligibility to insurance coverage. Single-family, primary residence homes across Mississippi would be eligible for grants if they carried windstorm insurance, and if the property sat in a flood zone, it would also need flood insurance. The bill would leave the state in control of administering the program through the Mississippi Department of Insurance.
Mike Chaney, Mississippi’s state insurance commissioner, said the program is intended to give Mississippi a “level playing field” with other coastal states that have mitigation programs. Chaney also said his office is committed to improving long-term resilience for Mississippi homeowners, and the proposal would direct grant funding toward roof upgrades meant to satisfy the FORTIFIED standards.
The Department of Insurance would fund and run the grants through fees collected from insurance agents, with the department’s appropriation bill allowing spending of up to $15 million for the program from those collected fees. The funding and administration structure became a point of contention as lawmakers negotiated how to structure oversight, including whether the program should sit within the insurance department or be managed by a separate nonprofit authority.
State officials first developed the concept in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina, but the program lingered without sustained legislative support. The legislation that passed Wednesday followed a partial approval in 2024 that limited funding to a pilot program, and lawmakers did not re-up the funding in 2025. As reported, a dispute over governance traced back to a 2016 scandal involving state funding that an agency could not account for, which contributed to distrust involving the insurance department.
Even as some lawmakers argued the insurance department should not administer the grant fund, they also cited Alabama’s mitigation model as an example. Alabama runs its program through its state insurance department, and the bill’s backers pointed to how the Alabama approach aligns with what Chaney supported, including reference to experts who said the program largely mirrored those priorities.
During the Wednesday floor debate, Republican Sen. Scott DeLano, of Biloxi, said he had to commend the commissioner for the work he had done, after repeatedly raising concerns earlier about what he viewed as gaps in information during his legislative work. DeLano also said he and Chaney were able to work through their differences leading into the current legislative session.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann marked the Senate’s passage by describing mitigation as long overdue, saying: “For too, too long we have played hurricane roulette with the mitigation work,” and adding that many Mississippi homes would need what lawmakers did that day. Sen. Walter Michel, a Republican from Ridgeland, introduced the measure.
The bill would also create an advisory committee that meets with the Insurance Department three times a year. The committee would include three appointees from the Senate, three from the House, and the executive director of the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriters Association.