Melbourne Housing Assistance Programs (CDBG, HOME, SHIP) — Melbourne, Florida

Melbourne's housing assistance runs through a single office. According to the City of Melbourne, the Housing and Urban Improvement Division is under the Community Development Department and administers a variety of federal and state funded housing and community development programs. The three named funding streams are the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program (SHIP), the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). The stated aim is affordable housing, fair housing, public services, public facilities and improvements, supportive services and economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income Melbourne residents.

The division works from 701 S. Babcock Street in Melbourne, where appointments are encouraged. Income eligibility for its programs is measured against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development income limits, and the homeowner programs apply only to houses inside Melbourne city limits; mobile homes are excluded. Applications for most programs now run through the city's Neighborly online portal.

Repairs are the largest homeowner program. The Housing Programs page states that the City of Melbourne Homeowner Housing Rehabilitation Program is funded by HOME and SHIP and pays for necessary repairs that bring a home into compliance with City Code and the Florida Building Code. The owner must live in the house as a principal residence and meet the HUD-based low-income test, and the home's value must not exceed the 2025 home value limit of $544,233, a figure the city updates annually.

The money arrives as a deferred payment loan that does not have to be repaid if the owner keeps to the rehabilitation agreement. Depending on the amount, a lien is placed on the Melbourne property for 10 to 20 years, and the repayment obligation expires with the lien. The city can provide a maximum award of $95,000 in rehabilitation assistance; if the work costs more, the owner pays the difference or may be referred to reconstruction.

The Homeowner Housing Reconstruction Assistance Program handles Melbourne houses too far gone to repair. It replaces a substandard home with a new one on the same site, with maximum assistance of $107,000 that covers demolition of the existing house and temporary relocation. Applicants must be able to secure an affordable first mortgage or bring enough cash to pay for the rebuilt home when circumstances require it.

Buyers are served by the Purchase Assistance Program, which the City of Melbourne funds with SHIP. It covers down payment, closing costs and, when needed, repairs to meet City Code and the Florida Building Code, again as a deferred payment loan, here secured by a lien of 5 to 15 years. The buyer must qualify under the HUD income limits, live in the home for the whole lien period, obtain a first mortgage from an institutional lender, and complete homebuyer education and one-on-one counseling before closing.

A buyer also makes a good faith contribution of at least $1,000 for very low-income households or $1,500 for low-income households, and preference goes to first-time homebuyers. The home must be in Melbourne city limits and cannot be a mobile home. The city lists Community Housing Initiative Inc. as the contact for the program, and states that applications for the Purchase Assistance Program will be available beginning September 28, 2026.

Federal CDBG and HOME dollars are divided once a year through Melbourne's Annual Action Plan. For the FY 2026-2027 cycle, the Housing and Urban Improvement Division opened applications in January 2026. Any public service request had to be at least $20,000, and the city capped all public service activities at 15 percent of the annual allocation, approximately $90,459. An Evaluation Committee scored applications that passed threshold review on alignment with a national objective, eligibility, reach to very low to moderate-income persons, past performance, cost-effectiveness, financial and staffing capacity, and direct service provision rate.

The FY 2026-2027 calendar ran from a January 5 Citizens' Advisory Board meeting and public hearing, through applications posted on the Neighborly portal on January 14 and due at 11:59:59 p.m. on February 13, to an Evaluation Committee meeting on March 16 in the City Council Chambers and a board recommendation meeting on April 6. The Melbourne City Council held its public hearing and approval of the FY 2026-2027 Action Plan on June 9, 2026.

Residents shape those priorities through the Citizens’ Advisory Board, the formal channel for citizen participation in the planning, oversight and evaluation of these programs in Melbourne. The board recommends priorities for allocating housing and community development funds to projects that benefit low- and moderate-income persons, and it meets the first Monday of each month at City Hall.

For rentals, Melbourne offers the Rental Development Program, which funds acquisition, rehabilitation and new construction of rental housing affordable to low- and very low-income households. Maximum assistance is $50,000 per unit. Not-for-profit organizations face no matching requirement, while for-profit entities must contribute a 100 percent match. The city's Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program is listed as suspended until further notice as of October 8, 2026.

Land and permitting are the other levers. The city's affordable housing development page notes that the State of Florida's Live Local Act became effective July 1, 2023, and that Melbourne posts an inventory of public land appropriate for affordable housing, currently a City of Melbourne and Melbourne Downtown CRA surplus land list dated 2024. The same page links an Expedited Permitting for Affordable Housing Policy. Policy review belongs to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, which reviews Melbourne policies, ordinances, land development regulations and the Comprehensive Plan and recommends specific actions or initiatives to encourage or facilitate affordable housing.

SHIP is a state program with local rules. Florida Housing Finance Corporation administers it and distributes SHIP funds to all 67 counties and 55 cities in Florida, Melbourne among the cities running its own program. Funding was established by the 1992 William E. Sadowski Affordable Housing Act and is allocated by a population-based formula. Florida Housing requires that at least 65 percent of the money go to homeownership activities and at least 75 percent to construction activities. In Melbourne, SHIP money supports the rehabilitation and purchase assistance programs described above.

State law also requires a written plan. Under section 420.9075 of the Florida Statutes, each participating county or eligible municipality must develop and implement a local housing assistance plan to make affordable units available to persons of very low, low or moderate income and to people with special housing needs. Melbourne participates in SHIP through the Housing and Urban Improvement Division, which publishes the resulting program terms on the city website.