Editorial: What happened to affordable flood insurance?
last week that as many as 45,000 buildings in the region have dropped their NFIP policies. One out of every 12 buildings in Houston once insured by FEMA will not have that protection if and when another major storm sweeps through Southeast Texas.
While some of the premium increases will happen gradually — annual increases are limited to 18 percent under federal law — even minor rate hikes are out of reach for Houstonians who are living on the margins. At a time of economic uncertainty, when inflation is already stretching household budgets thin, protecting one’s home from a flood has become, for some, an unaffordable luxury.
It’s been five years since Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston and three years since Tropical Storm Imelda. We’ve been fortunate to dodge another major storm since then, despite several too-close-for-comfort hurricanes that have pummeled our Gulf Coast neighbors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Yet in an effort to keep the NFIP solvent — it is currently $20.5 billion in the red — the federal government has lost track of the NFIP’s original mission: affordability. As long as taxpayers are helping to subsidize the NFIP, the program has an obligation to the community at large to make it as accessible as possible.
Fortunately, there is an opportunity for Congress to take bold steps to both make the NFIP more affordable and more solvent. Congress has to reauthorize the NFIP by Dec. 16 or FEMA would have to stop selling and renewing policies nationwide. Since 2017, there have been 21 short-term reauthorizations, essentially kicking the can each time on making structural changes to the program and ensure financial stability.
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