Five years after the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed 90% of the homes here, residents of Paradise, California, face a new struggle: Finding homeowner's insurance.
Brian Gobba, left, stands with his wife Morgan and their son in front of the family's new home in Paradise, Calif., Friday, June 14, 2024. The Gobbas found out they were being dropped by their insurance company just before they finished building their home on the east side of Paradise last year. – The letter from the insurance company arrived just before Brian and Morgan Gobba finally finished construction on their new house: Their homeowner’s policy was being canceled.
Households throughout Paradise are confronting an insurability crisis as companies, reeling from unprecedented wildfire losses,in California. But a local foundation is trying to help those families find ways to qualify for and afford private insurance again by giving them money to make their properties more resilient to wildfire.
“People are just maxed out,” she said. “The new phase of the rebuild is landscaping, but there’s no resources to do it.” Many new homes in Paradise haven’t been landscaped yet, leaving plenty of space for tall weeds to sprout in the spring and become highly flammable in the dry summer months. Gravel perimeters can prevent those weeds from growing, but they can be expensive and labor intensive to establish. The voucher is redeemable at a local rock business and includes delivery. If an applicant can’t lay the rock themselves, volunteers will come help.
Around 150 families have applied in the five weeks since the grant opened, and Goodlin said some insurance companies have even begun suggesting to their customers that they apply for the grant. The organization has received so much interest that it is pausing new applications while it reorganizes its processes. “We knew it would be a very popular grant program, but I don’t think we actually realized how extreme it would be,” said Goodlin.
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