Sailing into HomeownerSHIP
Siphikelelo Chinyanganya, Indian River County SHIP Administrator, “gets goosebumps” when she recalls the stories of people the program has helped. Since 1993, the SHIP Local Housing Assistance Plan has received more than twenty-six million dollars in state funding and provided 1,460 loans to people with very low, low, and moderate incomes.
The goal of the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program is to increase the availability of affordable housing in Indian River County. Funding was established by the 1992 William E. Sadowski Affordable Housing Act, and funds have been distributed by the state to every Florida county in all but two of the past twenty-three years. In 2025-2026, Indian River County was allocated approximately $1.2 million.
One of the main strategies for distributing SHIP funds is purchase assistance. In a typical process, a person seeking assistance to buy a house applies online through the SHIP site. SHIP staff are then responsible for determining if households meet the income requirements of the program. Households with incomes up to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI) published by Florida Housing Finance Corporation qualify for aid. (In 2026, AMI is $105,200.)
The maximum loan size varies from eighty-five thousand dollars for people whose income is below fifty percent of AMI to forty-five thousand for those with incomes not exceeding 120% of AMI. Other requirements limit the loan size as a percentage of the purchase price.
SHIP administrators work with a list of qualified lenders who agree to meet program requirements and pre-qualify applicants for mortgages while they wait for SHIP funds to become available. (There is currently a waiting list that can run as long as two years.) At that point, the homeowner signs a mortgage with the lender, and a loan review committee, consisting of County Commissioner Deryl Loar, Tina Nicholson from Marine Bank, and Community Services Department Director Cindy Emerson approves the funds for disbursement.
SHIP can also lend money to current homeowners with a homestead exemption earning up to eighty percent of AMI for rehabilitation projects such as roof or window replacement. These loans can be for as much as $100,000 and have a substantial waiting list. However, smaller emergency rehabilitation loans for anyone earning up to 120% of AMI allow a person to “skip the line” and receive a loan more quickly. SHIP also has funds available for foreclosure prevention. It can provide a one-time loan of up to $8,000 for people earning up to 80% of AMI who have encountered an unexpected job loss or other emergency that can be eased with short-term help.
What makes these loans remarkable is that they are interest -free and, in most cases, will never need to be paid back. SHIP loans act as “silent loans” which run alongside a conventional mortgage. As long as the recipient doesn’t default, the entire loan will be forgiven at the end of the loan period. Default occurs if an owner sells the home before that time (typically twenty years for a purchase loan and ten years for a rehab loan), converts it to a rental property, loses their homestead exemption, or ceases to live in the home.
Chinyanganya worked with SHIP in Brevard County and the city of Palm Bay before taking the helm in Indiana River two years ago, so she brings a helpful perspective to her work. Indian River County has both a smaller staff (three positions) and less funding than the neighboring areas. The independent loan review committee, which Chinyanganya calls “amazing,” is unique to IRC.
Also unique to IRC is SHIP’s tight partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Jeff Francisco, chief strategy officer of Habitat, says his organization couldn’t build houses without the assistance it receives from SHIP. Likewise, Chinyanganya says, “Habitat has a very big role in how we spend our money, and I’m very grateful for that.” She’s reached out to her former colleagues to recommend they form a similar alliance.
Chinyanganya radiates passion for her work. A recent experience helps explain why. A while back, a man applied for purchase assistance, qualified, and was put on the waiting list. He was engaged and wanted to surprise his fiancé with a home of their own. Sadly, he passed away before he reached the top of the list, which SHIP staff learned when they tried to contact him to move forward.
His fiancé had never learned about the loan, so it arrived as a final gift from the man she was still grieving. To receive the funding, she had one year to find a house and secure a mortgage. SHIP staff helped her through the entire process. “We literally dragged her.” Chinyanganya recalls. “We said you are not giving up. We are going to do this.”
When she couldn’t find a house, Chinyanganya reached out to Francisco, who was able to secure a refurbished Habitat home for the woman. Getting the mortgage took right up to the date when her SHIP funding approval was about to expire. The loan committee helped by expediting the loan review, and the county controller’s office came through, too, issuing a check outside of its regular process. The woman made it into the home one day before the funding approval expired. “This is why we do what we do,” Chinyanganya concludes.
Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Trevor Loomis once described Habitat’s work as “offering people grace in a world that doesn’t do that.” The same could be said for SHIP. It’s an amazing program, run by passionate people determined to help people in need put down roots in a home they can call their own.