| "I definitely don’t think this is Florida-specific." | |
| Tami Torres, Florida Department of Financial Services |
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After eight hurricanes and $38 billion in insured losses in Florida during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, insurance companies in the state began dropping policyholders, and those lucky enough to maintain insurance were faced with skyrocketing premiums. To address the looming insurance crisis, the state set aside $250 million to help property owners prepare their homes to better withstand future storms.
The My Safe Florida Home program provides free wind inspections and will reimburse homeowners up to $5,000 for "hardening" their homes by protecting or replacing windows, doors, or garage doors, and bracing gable ends.
"More than 74 percent of homeowners who get a wind inspection are eligible for $190 to $195 in savings on their hurricane insurance without the first nail being hammered," says Tami Torres, special programs administrator for the Florida Department of Financial Services, and coordinator of the My Safe Florida Home program.
Under the program, homeowner Todd Hopkins got $5,000 back after spending $13,000 on upgrades. "Then I got my home insurance reduced by $1,300 a year," he says. "This is a wonderful thing the government is doing."
Under Inspection
In the two-part program, homeowners receive free home inspections by state-trained and -certified inspectors. The resulting report includes information on work that could be done to strengthen the home, and details what would be eligible for matching grants. The report also estimates insurance premium discounts, if the homeowner is eligible.
Homeowners who make the suggested retrofits are eligible for up to $5,000 in a matching grant. The grants, Torres says, reimburse homeowners for the money they spend.
Homeowners do not have to do all the improvements recommended in their inspection reports to qualify for a grant, but they do have to protect all windows or protect all doors to get reimbursed. "You can't just protect one or two windows," Hopkins notes.
To be eligible for the program, homeowners must make Florida their primary residence and live in a single-family home built on-site before March 1, 2002. The home must have an insured value of $300,000 or less, and be in the wind-borne debris region, typically within one mile of the coast. Low-income homeowners are eligible for a grant up to $5,000 with no match required.
Group Effort
When the state legislature set aside the money in 2006, it assigned the program's creation to the Florida Department of Financial Services, which traditionally assists consumers after hurricanes but is not the agency charged with mitigation and recovery, Torres says.
"From the legislature's perspective, we are the fiscal watchdog for the public," she explains.
One of the first things agency staff members did was turn to the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, a nonprofit organization that promotes disaster safety and property loss mitigation, and the Florida Department of Community Affairs, which has mitigation and recovery experience.
"We could not embark on this by ourselves because to some degree, a lot of what we were doing is new in state government," Torres says.
Pilot Phase
Part of the challenge, says Torres, was the enormity of the program—not only the amount of funding, but also the fact that there are 4.4 million single-family homes in Florida. A secondary goal was to educate people who were not participating in the program on the benefits of hardening their homes and how to do it.
The agency began with a pilot phase that focused on assisting 12,000 homeowners statewide over six months.
In four months, a survey tool and supporting technology were created for inspectors to use to collect data on homes, two inspection firms were hired, and a training manual and classes were developed to certify inspectors and contractors who would be doing the work. The inspectors also had to undergo background checks.
Too Many, Too Soon
Although the goal for the pilot phase was to cap the number of eligible homeowners, the "reality is that when this made the newspapers and TV, more than 60,000 people applied in the first two weeks," Torres says.
Once the hurricane season ended on November 30, 2006, the state stopped inspections to regroup.
"What I might say to my colleagues in other states is spend more time on the front end thinking about how you would implement a program like this rather than creating a pilot," Torres says.
Learning to Fly
After post-election staff turnovers—including the agency director—in January 2007, Torres was put in charge of the My Safe Florida Home program. She was tasked with heading the evaluation of the pilot phase and having the second phase up and running by March.
"It was a good experience," Torres says, "but it was a lot like learning how to fly a jumbo jet plane in 30 days."
Changes to the program included the legislature reducing the number of improvements for which homeowners could be reimbursed, which had allowed such things as roof replacement, and lifting an administrative cap on the program, permitting the agency to hire ten staff members to manage the program.
Eleven inspection firms were hired to address an inspection backlog, and from April to October 2007, the program performed over 111,200 free wind inspections. More than 13,500 homeowners were approved for matching grants and are working with the state to harden their homes. Statewide, the program has issued 1,876 grants to homeowners for more than $6 million.
The legislative goal, Torres says, is to have 400,000 inspections completed by June 30, 2009.
"We're still learning as the program evolves," Torres says, "but I'm really pleased with the progress we've made."
She adds, "I definitely don't think this is Florida-specific. Insurance companies are not just cutting back in Florida, but are cutting policies in other states, as well. A lot of what we're doing we're definitely eager to share with other states."
For more information on My Safe Florida Home, point your browser to www.mysafefloridahome.com. For information on the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, go to www.flash.org. You may also contact Tami Torres at Tami.Torres@fldfs.com.
