Money has run out for Louisiana fortified roof grants. Will lawmakers add more?

After years of struggling to bring down rates of homeowners’ insurance, Louisiana lawmakers have coalesced around one program that has proven to lower premiums: Building stronger roofs.

As the Legislature convenes for another session, they face at least one debate over how to put more fortified roofs on homes across the state — and how much money to put toward the effort. A grant program to help build them has proven so popular that it is out of money until July.

Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple said in an interview that his office has exhausted the $25 million allocated to the program over the last year, and he’s asking lawmakers to put more money into the program. Housing advocates have also called for a bigger state investment in the program, in hopes that fortifying a large swath of south Louisiana will bring widespread relief.

Demand for the $10,000 grants has far outstripped supply. Since moving to a lottery system in 2024, only about 20% of people who registered have gotten the grants, LDI data show.

“We have asked the Legislature if they could help fund even $10 million, whatever amount they could help,” Temple said. “If they could do that, now we could put more fortified roofs on between now and when the new funding sources come in July.”

Fortified roofs have garnered bipartisan support, and the Legislature agreed last year to dedicate a stream of funding — about $30 million — every year to the grants, a stream that will start flowing in July.

Gov. Jeff Landry also penned a letter late last month to the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation, a nonprofit created by the Legislature in the 1990s, asking officials there to use some of their ample reserves to help put more fortified roofs on homes. The company hasn’t said whether it will do so.

Tricky issue

State Senate President Cameron Henry oversaw a bruising fight when the Legislature convened last year over auto insurance, a decades-old debate that pitted two powerful interests against one another: Insurance companies and trial attorneys.

Lawmakers eventually settled on a series of bills that didn’t fully satiate either side, but limited the ability for plaintiffs injured in car wrecks to win payouts and gave Temple the ability to reject rate hikes. But on property insurance, Henry said lawmakers haven’t found obvious solutions beyond fortified roofs.

Temple has ushered in a series of changes that make it easier for insurers to drop policyholders and raise rates, part of a push to make the state more friendly to insurers. And while he said several companies have gone through the process to write home insurance here, it’s not yet clear how big of an impact the changes have made.

Temple’s office recently told insurers it would push them to give specific discounts for people with fortified roofs.

The reinsurance market — which backstops the insurance companies that write policies across the country — is softening globally, which is expected to ease costs on local homeowners in the next year or two.

“Members are pretty open on what to do with (home insurance),” Henry said in a recent interview. “If the only thing we can come up with to do is add more money to (fortified roofs), then we’ll add as much money as we possibly can.”

Henry said he believes there’s an appetite among lawmakers to put more money toward fortified roofs, though they first need to analyze how quickly the grant money is moving out the door. He said he and Temple met with insurers two years ago and they told him that fortified roofs will “move the needle” on property insurance costs.

“With homeowners…Where are we an outlier on hurricane insurance like we were on auto?” Henry said. “Is it where we live? Yes. I can’t fix that. We’re trying to come up with other things to mitigate where we live.”

‘Popular program’

Temple, a Republican former insurance executive who won election unopposed in 2023, also suspects there’s an appetite for expanding fortified roof funding.

“How much, I don't know,” he said. “Every legislator understands this is a very popular program.”

Temple also said he was encouraged by Landry’s request to LWCC to put more money into fortified roofs, though he said the state general fund is “probably the easiest and quickest way” to boost funding. Temple sits on the board for LWCC.

He noted that the grant program is only one part of the calculus in strengthening Louisiana’s housing stock.

In fact, Louisiana has put on more than 11,000 fortified roofs in recent years, which Temple said is the fastest pace in the country. But only 4,400 of those were done through grants, meaning most people were willing to pay out of pocket to get a stronger roof.

A new law sponsored by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, set up a $10 million tax credit for people who pay for fortified roofs out-of-pocket. Recipients get a $10,000 nonrefundable credit when filing their taxes.

Debate hangover?

Two people involved in the debate at the Legislature said many lawmakers are burned out from insurance fights, especially after last year’s session that ended with a controversial law supported by Landry to give Temple more power to lower insurance rates. Temple has vowed not to use the new law, which he opposed.

Ben Albright, head of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Louisiana, said that while several bills on contractors, building codes and other ideas are up for debate, home insurance isn’t the primary focus of the session this year. He expects bigger debates about pharmacy benefits managers, workers’ compensation and tort claims.

Still, lawmakers have filed some bills on home insurance. Several make tweaks to policyholder notifications and fines on insurers.

Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, filed bills that would make it harder for insurers to cancel policies when homeowners mitigate problems, regulate AI their use in setting insurance rates and set up a $15 million program for first-time homebuyers.

Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge and New Orleans Democratic Reps Mandie Landry and Aimee Freeman filed legislation to require fortified roofs in certain areas.

And Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans filed a bill to make it harder for insurers to keep rate filing information secret, as well as legislation to mandate certain discounts for fortified roofs and make it easier for nonprofits to help people pay for out-of-pocket costs for the roofs.

Temple’s office recently told insurers that it was setting a benchmark discount for fortified roofs that applies to the hurricane portion of the premium, and said his office is working on similar discounts for wind and hail. Insurers would have to justify offering lower discounts.

Duplessis, who has sought to mandate insurance discounts for stronger roofs for three years running, said that even with Temple’s regulatory action, lawmakers should consider putting his bill into law. Temple or a future insurer could reverse course on the policy, he said.

He added that while many lawmakers appear less willing to debate big changes on home insurance, the state hasn’t “fixed the problem.” Premiums are still untenably high for thousands of homeowners, he said.

He said he hopes legislative leaders will find more money for the fortified grant program.

“I haven’t seen an issue where literally everyone agrees this is how you solve the problem,” Duplessis said. “And if we’re saying we have to exponentially increase the number of fortified roofs around the state, if we make the commitment now, yes, it will require some sacrifice, but if we can (do it) around the coastal region. ... The impact would make it worth it.”

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