Latest news with #CaliforniaFires
CBS News
5 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
New state initiative provides $100 million in mortgage relief to Southern California homeowners who lost homes during wildfires
A new state initiative will provide $100 million in mortgage relief to Southern California homeowners who lost their homes during the Eaton and Palisades fires. The CalAssist Mortgage Fund, administered by the California Housing Finance Agency, was announced at a news conference Thursday morning. The fund is designed specifically for people who lost their homes or whose homes were left uninhabitable due to the recent disasters between January 2023 and January 2025. CalHFA said the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 6,300 homes and caused millions of dollars' worth of damage to over 1,500 structures, including businesses. The fund will provide eligible homeowners with grants up to $20,000. "It's a beacon of hope, something I know many in this area are looking for," LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said. "It offers timely, meaningful relief and a path forward for those struggling to get on their footing." The CalHFA said applications will be reviewed in the order they are submitted, and funds will only be available until they are exhausted. The applications will open on June 12 and the program is free. Homeowners do not need to repay their grants. Any grants given to a homeowner will go straight to the mortgage servicer. "You can be using this grant of funds in combination with other assistance funds that you have received since the disaster or will be receiving," said Rebecca Franklin, chief deputy director of CalHFA. Eligibility criteria include: The applicants' primary residence was destroyed or became uninhabitable due to a qualified disaster from Jan. 1, 2023, through Jan. 8, 2025 The applicant meets the program income limits The applicant has a mortgage or a reverse mortgage The applicant owns a single-family home, condo, or permanently affixed manufactured home "This program is part of CalHFA's overall plan to help Californians rebuild their homes with the least amount of pain as possible," CalHFA said. More information about the CalAssist Mortgage Fund can be found using this link.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
California Approves 17 Percent Rate Increase for State Farm
State Farm will be allowed to temporarily charge an extra 17 percent for homeowners' insurance policies in California, after the state gave the company permission, in the wake of the catastrophic fires. The insurer will be allowed to charge the higher rate at least until a hearing later this year, the state announced on Tuesday. The insurance giant already received a 20 percent rate increase last year, a move that a consumer watchdog group, as well as homeowners struggling to be paid after their homes were destroyed in January in the Los Angeles fires, criticized as unfair and unfounded. State Farm requested the emergency rate increase in February, the month after fires ripped through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles, razing over 16,000 homes and structures. The company — which insures one out of every five homes in California or roughly 1 million homeowner customers — had requested even more: a nearly 22 percent rate increase on homeowners' policies, citing a 'dire situation.' California, like other states hit by natural disasters, has faced threats from major insurers: Raise rates, or we leave the state, said Carmen Balber, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, which led the effort to oppose the rate increase in hearings this spring. 'The commissioner has shown a tendency to roll over in the face of insurer threats to leave,' Ms. Balber said. The increase 'adds insult to injury' at a time when many homeowners insured by State Farm have reported delays or attempts by State Farm to lowball claims following the fires earlier this year, she added. In a statement, Ricardo Lara, the state's insurance commissioner, presented the rate increase as a difficult compromise for consumers. 'Let me be clear: We are in a statewide insurance crisis affecting millions of Californians,' he said. 'Taking this on requires tough decisions.' An administrative judge inside the California Department of Insurance approved the interim rate increase, following a hearing in April in which lawyers for Consumer Watchdog repeatedly asked State Farm to open its books and show why it needed such a large infusion of cash. According to Ms. Balber, the insurer refused to provide paperwork corroborating the insurer's dire financial straits. Meanwhile, the consumer group's own actuaries prepared a simulation of the State Farm General Insurance Company's earnings from premiums and projected losses from recent wildfires. The actuaries concluded both that State Farm had exaggerated the financial strain and that the rate increase was not justified, Ms. Balber said. The interim rates go into effect on June 1. There is a chance that the rates can be challenged again at a hearing this fall, when the question of whether or not State Farm's California offshoot is financially healthy will be addressed, Ms. Balber said. According to California's insurance commissioner, this later hearing will be when State Farm will be required 'to justify its financial condition and detail its recovery plan.' The administrative law judge found that State Farm 'is experiencing extraordinary financial distress, coupled with surplus depletion that threatens ongoing business operations,' according to Mr. Lara's statement. In a statement published on its website, State Farm said that the insurer remains 'deeply concerned about the financial position of State Farm General' — the insurer's California subsidiary — 'as it is difficult to match price to risk in California.' The statement further pointed to the S&P Global Rating's decision on Tuesday to downgrade the California State Farm subsidiary from an 'AA' to an 'A+' rating, a move attributed in part to 'a significant deterioration' in the company's capital position over the last five years. During the recent hearing in California and in the process that ensued, State Farm was forced to make some concessions — lowering the rate hike to 17 percent, from nearly 22 percent, as well as requiring State Farm's parent company to provide an infusion of $400 million in cash to its California affiliate. For years, advocates for policyholders have argued that the way in which insurers have organized themselves — with major national companies like State Farm having both a national company and a California subsidiary — protects the insurer but not the customer. The higher rate comes after survivors of the Eaton fire in the working-class community of Altadena organized, first on a WhatsApp group dedicated to pickleball and later on Discord, a platform better known for gaming. There they found each other and collected hundreds of firsthand accounts of homeowners insured with State Farm in California, who were struggling to get paid even when their homes had been leveled, said Joy Chen, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and the leader of the group, now known as the Eaton Fire Survivors Network. 'The ability to approve rate hikes is one of the few enforcement powers that the commissioner has,' she said. 'When you approve a rate hike without even examining whether a company is actually providing the service that they're being paid to provide, then it green lights systemic abuse,' she added. 'And it sends a message to every Californian who pays insurance premiums that you can pay, decade after decade, but if disaster strikes, your insurer may not be there — and your government may turn a blind eye.' In an emailed statement in response to questions regarding the claims of California wildfire victims who say they have been unfairly denied or lowballed by State Farm, a spokesman for the insurer added that the company was facing the largest fire event ever recorded in California. 'We actively work with each of our customers to resolve their claim,' the spokesman, Sevag A. Sarkissian, wrote. If State Farm's rate increase stands, other insurers are likely to follow suit.
Reuters
08-05-2025
- Climate
- Reuters
California firefighters torch demo homes to show fire season safety
On Wednesday (May 7), various California fire agencies gathered for a fiery demonstration to show the importance of fireproofing homes as part of Wildfire Preparedness Week. Firefighting personnel said they are preparing for another potentially dangerous wildfire season after the Eaton and Palisades fires that destroyed thousands of properties.
The Hill
07-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
California Democrat slams Trump water release order as harmful ‘PR stunt'
A Southern California Democrat blasted President Trump on Thursday for ordering a release of water in the state's Central Valley, describing the move as both wasteful and destructive to the region. 'When you solve for the wrong problem, not only do you not get the solution, you can cause harm,' Rep. Ted Lieu (D) said at a session of the House Committee on the Judiciary focused on 'California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation.' 'Donald Trump has it in his mind that somehow there's a spigot in Northern California, and he's going to open a valve and dump water to Southern California,' added Lieu, who serves the South Bay and Westside areas of Los Angeles. The congressman was referring to Trump's order last week to release billions of gallons of water from two lakes in California's agriculture-rich Tulare County — with the purported goal of dousing fires that were already contained and located about 100 miles away. The releases, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, occurred following an executive order that directed U.S. government agencies to override California's water policies, while also censuring the state's handling of the wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles region in recent weeks. While Trump declared that 'once empty 'halfpipes' are now brimming with beautiful, clean water' and flowing to Los Angeles, experts and California lawmakers were quick to decry his statements as inaccurate. The water from the lakes in question, they explained, does not usually reach the Los Angeles area. In addition, many officials and scientists expressed concern that the premature release of water may have jeopardized supply availability in the spring. In the Judiciary Committee session on Thursday, Lieu stressed that Southern California's reservoirs were at near-record levels when the blazes began. The more than 2 billion gallons of water released under Trump's direction 'almost flooded farmland,' he added, crediting local officials for pushing back before even more was discharged. 'This water was saved for the farmers, for the summer season when they needed the water,' Lieu said. 'The president wasted all this water that isn't even reaching Southern California.' That water, the congressman warned, is now 'going to evaporate for a PR stunt.' 'This was a harmful, ludicrous action to solve for the wrong problem,' Lieu concluded.
Fox News
06-02-2025
- Business
- Fox News
House subcommittee holding hearing on how regulatory policy impacts natural disasters following LA fires
A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a hearing on Thursday on how regulatory policy impacts the prevention of natural disasters, with a focus on the deadly wildfires that ravaged Southern California last month. The GOP-led House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust will kick off the hearing, titled "California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation," at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Not only will the hearing examine how regulatory policy in the Golden State has affected the prevention of natural disasters, specifically wildfires, it will also address how "excessive regulation" on insurance and permitting slows down recovery. Days after the fires began, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended regulations related to rebuilding, waiving permitting requirements based on the California Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act to allow for a quicker rebuilding process. In the wake of the fires, a March 2024 announcement from California's largest private insurer, State Farm, stating that it was discontinuing coverage for 72,000 home and apartment policies resurfaced, generating backlash and questions surrounding the accessibility of insurance in that area specifically. The insurer said a letter sent to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) shortly after that announcement was an "alarm signaling the grave need for rapid and transformational action." Now, State Farm is asking the CDI to "immediately approve" a 22% rate increase for non-tenant homeowners, a 15% increase for renters and condo owners, and 38% for rental dwellings. The increased rates are to help "avert a dire situation," State Farm said, and would go into effect on May 1, 2025. "As of February 1st, State Farm General (Fire only) has received more than 8,700 claims and has already paid more than $1 billion to customers," the insurer wrote in a release on its website. "State Farm General will ultimately pay out significantly more, as collectively these fires will be the costliest disasters in the history of State Farm General." The hearing comes a day after Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump and Congressional members in efforts to secure more federal funding for wildfire recovery. The Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot, who oversees water and fire policy across the state, also attended the meeting. Witnesses at the hearing include Steve Hilton, founder of Golden Together; Steven Greenhut, R Street Institute resident senior fellow and western region director; and Edward Ring, who oversees Water and Energy Policy at the California Policy Center.
