On the other hand, even these subsidized costs are more than many low-income homeowners can afford, which means there are millions of people who should have insurance but don’t. Congress required the NFIP to offer insurance at “reasonable” rates, so there are limits on how much the program can charge, even where risks have grown exceedingly large. The original goal of the program was twofold: first, save the federal government money by having homeowners in risky areas finance the cost of rebuilding their homes after floods second, discourage people from moving to these areas by making it mandatory for most homeowners to carry flood insurance policies.Ī number of constraints have plagued the program for years. “The old rating methodology was antiquated and didn’t reflect the true risk of a structure,” he told Grist.Ĭongress created the National Flood Insurance Program in the late 1960s to protect floodplain homeowners from risks that private insurers didn’t want to cover. Over the long term, these cost increases could spell disaster for low-income homeowners who can’t afford pricier insurance, and for future growth in the riskiest housing markets. As the program takes effect, a few trends are becoming clear: Homes that are closest to the water, and those in hurricane-prone southern states like Florida, are poised for massive premium increases.Īs a result, many homeowners who live closest to rivers and coastlines will find themselves with new, sky-high insurance costs even if they elevate their homes or take other preventative measures. The system, administered by FEMA, aims to fix long-standing issues in the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, shoring up the public insurance program’s shaky finances and making prices fairer for its millions of customers. This month marked the full rollout of Risk Rating 2.0, the federal government’s new system for calculating flood insurance rates. If a flood overwhelms his new property, he’ll be on his own. He dropped his policy and didn’t acquire a new one - he had paid off the house, so he wasn’t technically required to carry insurance. Here's Howĭailey was already halfway done building the new house, and it was too late to turn back. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. And now they yanked the rug out from underneath me.” “I was playing by their rules by building a compliant house. “It was a bait and switch,” Dailey told Grist. His premiums would soon increase to around $5,000 a year. His insurance agent called him up and told him that FEMA had just debuted a new system for calculating flood insurance rates. Last summer, though, he got a rude awakening. The house was high enough to stay dry even during large floods, and its flood insurance premiums reflected this fact: Dailey would now pay just $500 a year. Plus, Dailey’s flood insurance costs were steep: He was paying $2,000 a year to purchase insurance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.ĭailey bought a lot down the street, farther from the water, and - on the advice of his insurance agent - built a new house that was elevated 16 feet above the neighborhood flood level, with only a garage on the first floor. His house had almost flooded four times during that span. Petersburg, Florida, for almost 30 years. Dailey, 53, had lived in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Two years ago, Chris Dailey decided he wanted to live higher up off the ground.
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