Department of Insurance: housing insurance study.

Assembly Member Mark González, with Jackson, Kalra, and Schiavo as coauthors, advances a measure to illuminate how insurance dynamics affect affordable housing by directing the Department of Insurance to conduct a focused, data-driven study of property, liability, and builders’ risk coverages for affordable housing entities that receive state incentives.

The proposal creates a temporary, stand-alone study framework within the state insurance system. It requires the Department of Insurance to collect information from insurers and to consult with affordable housing entities, insurers, nonprofit insurance providers, risk-sharing pools, insurance captives, and related state agencies such as the housing departments and the tax credit committee. The study would examine coverage availability and costs, identify barriers to insuring these housing ventures, and analyze underwriting factors, including residents’ income levels and the receipt of housing assistance, as well as how real property is designated as affordable. Insurers would provide information upon request, and the department would protect this data as confidential while permitting aggregate reporting to inform policy considerations.

Implementation hinges on an appropriation in the annual budget, with a requirement that the department deliver a report within one year of that appropriation. The report would present findings and recommendations on policy and budget options to address insurance coverage cost and access challenges for the defined affordable housing entities, and it would be transmitted in accordance with standard legislative reporting procedures. The chapter would sunset and be repealed on January 1, 2031, after which time the study and its authorities would cease absent further legislative action.

If enacted, the measure would situate the study alongside existing housing programs by referencing entities defined through health and safety and housing finance authorities, and it would keep data use contextualized within ongoing efforts to preserve state investments and housing stability. The initiative would provide a formal mechanism to track market conditions, barriers to coverage, and underwriting determinants tied to residents and housing assistance, potentially informing future state policy and budget decisions related to affordable housing insurance strategy.