By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
Florida’s state-run homeowners’ insurance company offers coverage for food and a place to live for policyholders whose homes are deemed unlivable after a disaster. At post-hurricane response centers in 2024, 40% of the people it insured got checks for additional living expenses.
More than 3,500 Floridians insured through Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the last-resort insurer with about 1 million policies, sought assistance at one of the catastrophe centers Citizens opened following hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, according to data reported during a Wednesday meeting of Citizens’ Consumer Services Committee.
At those centers, 1,410 checks the corporation issued to policyholders for the additional living expenses added up to $5 million. Citizens issued 76% of those checks after Hurricane Milton ravaged Tampa Bay. During the post-Milton response, the center in Pinellas County saw the most activity. Out of the 1,246 people who went to the Pinellas center, 350 received additional living expense checks.
Post-Hurricane Debby, Citizens issued only one check, for $600. Citizens issued 331 checks totaling $1.1 million for claimants following Hurricane Helene.
The corporation has contracts with 16 call center vendors, Chief Administrative Officer Jeremy Pope said during the meeting. In the 12 days following each of the hurricanes, the call centers got a combined 83,109 calls. The average speed of answer was eight seconds but went up to 24 seconds after Helene, according to the data Pope presented.
“They’re not paid unless volume actually comes to fruition. So a lot of times it’s the best-performing vendor that we will actually activate,” Pope said about the longer post-Helene wait time. “If we see somebody’s behind on resources that we requested, we can always activate another one.”
Citizens closed half of the claims policyholders opened last year without payment, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Overall, insurance companies have more often than not closed without payment claims for this year’s hurricanes, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation. For example, insurance companies closed without payment 53% of claims filed following Hurricane Milton, meaning homeowners didn’t receive any compensation.
While almost 4,000 of those claims were denied because flood damage wasn’t covered, 24,147 were denied because the damage was below the deductible.