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The Louisiana Department of Insurance is preparing to launch its second year of the fortified roof grant program with at least $10 million remaining in unspent money, Louisiana Illuminator reports.
The Louisiana Fortify Homes Program, offering $10,000 to homeowners who install hurricane-resistant roofs on their houses, is nearing its one-year anniversary. The program launched last October with $30 million in funding to help address the state’s insurance crisis.
LDI spokesperson John Ford says his agency plans to announce next week the official date of the 2024 application period.
From last year’s budget, the state has so far issued 1,321 grants out of a total of 3,150 applications received. Another 122 grants are nearing completion, which means new fortified roofs have been installed and are undergoing final inspections and review.
Roughly 230 roofs are in the construction phase, and a little more than 400 have been approved for construction but don’t yet have a contractor, Ford says.
That leaves nearly one-third of last year’s grant applications that won’t receive funding for various reasons. Most of them are homeowners who withdrew because they couldn’t afford the costs that exceed the amount of the grant, which is the main weak spot of the program, Ford says.
“A lot are getting quotes and not proceeding,” he says.
