Two North Bay congressmen said Thursday they don’t want homeowners and renters dealing with wildfire fears and insurance companies who are opposed to be burned twice.
That’s why U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, held a press conference Thursday using Coffey Park as a symbolic backdrop to discuss disaster resilience legislation introduced late last month.
Lawmakers gathered with a group that included local government officials and real estate and construction industry experts to tackle “one of the biggest issues” Thompson said he hears about in his Northern California district.
“I don’t think a day goes by that people don’t talk to me about the impacts they’re experiencing,” Thompson said, referring to the wave of insurance companies pulling out of the California market.
California’s largest insurer, State Farm, has chosen not to renew 72,000 home and apartment insurance policies. More than 2,300 of these policies cover properties in the North Bay.
State Farm wasn’t the only insurer to withdraw coverage. Allstate, Farmers and USAA also decided to either curtail business or leave the state entirely.
“It’s really a state issue,” Thompson said.
Thompson introduced legislation with Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Chico, on March 29 that would offer broad home-hardening incentives for homeowners in fire-prone areas. Representing Butte County, LaMalfa County experienced the deadliest wildfire in California history. Following the Tubbs Fire by a year, the Camp Fire leveled the town of Paradise and killed 85 people. The two fires rank in the top 5 deadliest for the state.
If passed, HR 7849, the Disaster Resilience and Coverage Act of 2024, would provide a program through state governments that offers $10,000 in grants for home hardening improvements. Along with emergency farm tax relief, businesses and individuals will also receive a 30% risk mitigation tax credit.
“California’s insurance crisis is a very big ship. The state needs to step up and start doing the right thing,” said Rohnert Park Mayor Susan Hollingsworth-Adams, who works in insurance operations herself.
She estimated that her city could potentially lose $800 million as a result of not having insurance, calculating a 12 percent property value on 9,100 homes.
“Home ownership is a vital cornerstone of our economy,” said North Bay Association of Realtors CEO Lisa Badenforth, adding to concerns that homebuyers will be pushed into more expensive policies, such as excess plans that offer less for more money. The alternatives make signing up to the American dream more “exorbitantly expensive.”
The looming collapse prompted the state to scramble to come up with a plan called the Resilience Initiative that would entice insurance companies to rejoin the market. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner discussed the proposal at a meeting earlier this week.
These efforts were met with optimism by Allstate, which provided a statement on the level of support.
“Once home insurance rates fully reflect the cost of providing consumer protection, we will be able to offer home insurance policies to more Californians with timely rate approvals, use of advanced wildfire modeling and reinsurance costs,” the spokesperson said of Allstate Tenny Josephbeck in a company statement Thursday morning.
For Huffman, this is an issue of both access and affordability.
“We have a risk that private insurance will disappear. We urge the state of California to tell these companies to consider these (federal) efforts,” Huffman said.
The situation could also make builders hesitant to provide housing at a time when the region needs it, said North Coast Builders Exchange CEO Lisa Hittke Schaffner.
“If they can’t get insurance, they won’t build,” she said. “And the numbers are terrifying for how much housing we need.”
“Living in California means living with wildfires,” Cal Fire Deputy Director Nick Shuler said by phone. “That’s why safe space, home hardening and evacuation plans are so critically important.”
Even in areas where terrain has already burned, as in the case of several wildfires in the North Bay, the threat remains, he pointed out. Schuler also said the situation worsens when winter provides abundant grass growth and ladder fuels, followed by high heat.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that this summer has the potential to bring record high temperatures that often lead to bad wildfire years.
“When we get these offshore winds, the topography directs those winds, creating a risk,” said Ben Nichols, operations chief for Cal Fire’s Napa-Sonoma unit.
That’s why Nichols stressed the fire agency is trying to beat the thinning clock to reduce the risk. The Cal Fire Department is working in Shiloh Regional Park, Pepperwood Preserve and Saddle Mountain to reduce the threat.
“There’s always potential. So our goal is to do more to mitigate the risk,” Santa Rosa Fire Chief Paul Lowenthal said in a phone call. “It’s hard to say if a fire like Tubbs will happen here again.” When you look at Fountaingrove, construction footprints have improved. But vegetation can still burn.
