California’s insurance is in crisis. The solution will cost homeowners a ton

Lynne Levin-Guzman stood in the front yard of her 90-year old parents’ home in Los Angeles County, California, trying to protect it with a garden hose — because their insurance company no longer would.

Lynne Levin-Guzman stood in the front yard of her 90-year-old parents’ home in Los Angeles County, California, trying to protect it with a garden hose — because their insurance company no longer would. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, but this is my parents’ home and they just lost — they got canceled from their fire insurance. So they’re dealing with this,” she told CNN affiliate KABC. “They’ve lived in this house for 75 years and they’ve had the same insurance and these insurance people decided to cancel their fire insurance.” “And they wonder why people leave California,” she added. Levin-Guzman and her parents’ experience is increasingly common. Between 2020 and 2022, insurance companies declined to renew 2.8 million homeowner policies in the state, according to the most recent data from the California Department of Insurance. That includes 531,000 in Los Angeles County, where fires are currently raging. Some of those policies were not renewed by homeowners, according to an insurance industry trade group. But most of those policies were canceled by the insurers. The issue has continued to build over the past several years, State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and consumer groups say. Insurers in California have been refusing to write new policies in areas they consider to be at high risk for wildfires, which is a large percentage of the state.