EDITORIAL: Help Is Coming For Crumbling Foundations, No Thanks To Feds And Insurers

Oct. 16--Get your documents in order, homeowners in Connecticut's Quiet Corner. Money is coming to replace crumbling foundations. But get your expectations in order, too. There isn't nearly enough money to help everyone.

The state is heroically doing its best by making $133 million available over five years. But it will soon become clear that is not nearly enough. This is a billion-dollar problem.

Connecticut can't do this massive job alone. The average cost to replace a foundation -- the only cure for the problem -- is $185,000. The state's money might cover 700 homes. The number of affected homes, however, is believed to be at least 10 times that. The federal government and insurance companies have to step up.

In the meantime, get in line if you're among the multitude of homeowners in northeastern Connecticut who have confirmed that the dreaded mineral pyrrhotite is destroying your basement walls. Applications start at midnight Nov. 15. Go to crumblingfoundations.org to see what documents you'll need. They include proof of pyrrhotite in your foundation, proof that you own your home and a minimum of two estimates from approved contractors.

Homeowners who have already replaced their foundations are also eligible. The state has only enough money to reimburse eight of them this fiscal year.

This isn't the time to yell at those trying to help, or to despair and default on a mortgage, or to wait for more money to magically appear. This is the time to get your paperwork in order. When you apply, you help the state make its case about the magnitude of this problem.

So far, insurance companies have refused to help homeowners. The federal Housing and Urban Development agency has given Connecticut no new money for this problem, even though Secretary Ben Carson has been to Connecticut to see the damage firsthand. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned its back on Connecticut, although this is clearly a natural disaster.

An Underground Hurricane

This isn't the kind of disaster that flattens a house in a hurricane. This is more of a slow-moving underground hurricane. It's the "insidious kind, baked into the aggregate of your concrete," says Michael Maglaras, head of the program that will distribute the state money to homeowners.

Mr. Maglaras lives in the center of crumbling-foundation territory, in Ashford. He's superintendent of the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Co., the company that is being funded by the state to help homeowners.

He spoke Saturday to a crowd of hundreds at Ellington High School. They hung on his every word and at times erupted in frustration. Unlike the Floridians and Texans who are regularly rescued by FEMA, these homeowners didn't choose to live in the path of nature's rage. They chose bucolic towns in a state that's considered among the safest in the nation. Now their homes are being ravaged by a mineral that few people besides geologists knew about before this crisis.

Congressmen Joe Courtney and John Larson have done yeomen's work getting Connecticut homeowners significant tax breaks for foundation replacements. Even so, "we don't have enough money" to help everyone pay for those replacements, Mr. Maglaras says.

Also, Mr. Maglaras is getting just five years to save as many homes as he can. The program runs out in 2022. "We won't be done in 2032," he says.

To repeat: Connecticut needs FEMA, HUD and the insurance industry to help the homeowners who thought they were paying taxes and insurance premiums to help them in just this kind of tragedy. The federal government can't leave these families behind. The insurance industry can't afford the ill will and the lawsuits that continue to be filed.

"I want to be overwhelmed by applications," Mr. Maglaras told Saturday's crowd. "I'll have a strong case that I need more money."

Go to crumblingfoundations.org to see if your home qualifies. Get your paperwork ready. And get in line starting at midnight on Nov. 15.

This editorial was revised Tuesday to remove the erroneous statement that state aid would average $71,000 per home. Mr. Maglaras says aid would be, in many cases, $130,000 to $150,000 or more per home, but will be capped at $175,000 per building.

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