The Florida Roundup - Migrant flights; insurers leaving Florida

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Florida transported more migrants across the country, this time from Texas to California; and why are more property insurers leaving the state?

Welcome to the Florida Roundup and thanks for listening. I'm Melissa Ross in Jacksonville. And I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. Florida transported three dozen migrants from the U.S.-Texas border to California's capital. The first of these flights arrived in Sacramento last Friday, while another landed on Monday, carrying a total of 36 migrants, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia. Now, these flights were carried out under the state's migrant relocation program. Now, you might recall that first drew attention last year after Florida flew 49 migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Legal questions have been raised about these flights, but state officials say they were voluntary.

Yet, regardless of any pending litigation, there are real concerns over how these asylum seekers will be cared for and whether their relocation program is good immigration policy or if it's politically motivated. We're going to begin the hour with a closer look at Florida's migrant relocation program, and you can join us. Call us up live now statewide, 305-995-1800. Let us know your thoughts or tweet the show at Florida Roundup. Your comments in a bit, but first we welcome Ana Ceballos, who reports for the Miami Herald.

Ana, good to have you back on the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Also joining the Florida Roundup, Nicole Nixon of CAP Radio. She's actually on the line from Sacramento. Hi, Nicole. Good morning or good afternoon in Florida. Yeah, right. 305-995-1800.

So, Nicole, what do we know about the migrants who were flown to Sacramento? Well, as you mentioned, they came in two groups. 16 arrived on Friday a week ago today. Then another group of 20 came on Monday. Apparently, they were approached in El Paso and promised jobs and found themselves in Sacramento. in El Paso and promised jobs and found themselves in Sacramento. They're all adults. They're in their 20s and 30s, so a pretty young group, mainly from Venezuela and Colombia. A small number of them apparently are from Guatemala. And volunteers say that most of these migrants walked for months, in some cases up to seven months across jungles, deserts to get to the United States.

months across jungles, deserts to get to the United States. And they stress that these asylum seekers came here for a better life to escape the poverty and the harsh conditions in their home countries and that they just want to work to provide for themselves and their families. The volunteers that are watching over these people now also emphasize that while they were brought here allegedly involuntarily or under false pretenses, they can leave at any time. Some already have been picked up by friends or family from the San Francisco Bay Area. Tell us a little bit more about what you mentioned. What were the migrants told on the ground before they got on a plane to California? Yeah, we hear differing accounts here. The volunteers that are caring for these

migrants say that, you know, they were brought here under false pretenses, that they didn't know that they were going to come to California. Basically, they were brought here under deceit. It sounds like they were approached outside a migrant facility in El Paso, told that there would be jobs and the travel to get there would be taken care of. But when the first group got here on Friday, they were bused to the Catholic Charities Church here in Sacramento, left at the door. The people with them said, we'll be right back and drove away. And then there was a bit of a scramble to figure out what was going on, who these people were and where they came from, and then to, you know, provide meals and find shelter and all that stuff. Now, the second group that came on. No, go ahead. Just the second group on on Monday.

Oh, go ahead. Sorry, just the second group on Monday, you know, there had already been reporting on this. So the second group, I think there was some heads up and they were actually met on the tarmac at the airport by state and local officials and talked with the California Department of Justice investigators. All right. Speaking of officials, Sacramento Mayor Daryl Steinberg spoke about the flights on Monday. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. To the people who wonder whether or not we can handle this on top of the real challenges we face in our community, there is no other answer but to say yes. And you better believe we can handle it. Sacramento should be a model for the rest of the state and the rest of the nation.

Now, Nicole, Mayor Steinberg referred to challenges there, and he also sounded a little bit of a defiant note, if you will. Can you give us a sense of what he's talking about with the challenges in Sacramento and how this plays into it? Yeah, I mean, most big cities in California are really wrestling with large numbers of unhoused people. Sacramento is no different under under freeway overpasses. It's not uncommon to see, you know, tents, entire encampments. There's some work going on to, you know, get those moved or cleaned up and provide shelter and temporary housing for people. But this is a big problem in California. So there were some questions about, you know, providing shelter for migrants and caring for them when this city has these challenges. You know, Steinberg said that, you know, that it's part of the city's values and the state's

values to take care of people that were brought here, not maybe not fully understanding what was going on or where they were going to be left and that the officials have a responsibility to ensure that those people are safe. And Nicole, that sentiment by Mayor Steinberg that Sacramento can do this despite the challenges, is that a sentiment shared by other elected officials in the area or in California? I think so. That the sound that you just played came from a big press conference earlier this week with leaders of many, many congregations here in Sacramento. Mayor Steinberg spoke. He was joined by several members of the Sacramento City Council. I think that there has been a real united front on this to say that, you know, no matter the circumstances that these

migrants arrived in California, they will be taken care of. I want to go to the phones now. You can call us at 305-995-1800. And we have Maria calling from Vero Beach. Maria, thanks for calling. You're on. Hi. My biggest concern is we all know that this is politically motivated. How is he getting away with sending these people to a different country and not really telling them where they're going and being so deceitful? How is he getting away with this? Being Ron DeSantis. Thank you for your call, Maria. Governor DeSantis did talk about this when he was in Arizona this week, where he hosted a roundtable with sheriffs near the southern border. We'll have a clip from

that. So let's listen in. We have put forth resources to assist with the transportation of illegal migrants to sanctuary jurisdictions where, you know, they've advertised that they welcome that. That prevents for coming to Florida. And I think it's also been very effective. 305-995-1800 here on the Florida Roundup. Ana Ceballos, Miami Herald. 5995-1800 here on the Florida Roundup. Ana Ceballos, Miami Herald. Florida's migrant flights are being investigated in California. What's the nature of the investigation? What have you learned? Yes. So in an interview with the California attorney general, they said that they're initiating criminal and civil proceedings into really exactly what happened. There are testimony, there's testimony from migrants that say that they were deceived, that they were lied to. And so that is something that is, quote unquote, concerning, according to investigators, and something that they will be exploring to see if there were any law violations. As of now, there have been no charges. It's just under investigation. And that

is still, investigators are still collecting information and trying to figure out what will be the outcome of what happened. And can you tell us how this came to light? Initially, Florida didn't take credit for the flights, but then they sort of did own up to them. Right. So it was uncorrecturistically from DeSantis to just be silent after these flights arrived in California, you know, on Friday and then on Monday. DeSantis did not comment publicly on this until Wednesday when he had an event near the border in Arizona. And his administration only confirmed this, I think it was four days after the first flight landed in California. And for someone who, for the first iteration of this

program, when flights and migrants were sent to Martha's Vineyard, we did see a big flashy announcement from the governor. He wanted to, his office provided video footage to Fox News. They aired it on primetime TV. And there was a very big and orchestrated really announcement around this whole thing. He was very proud of this program. He really wanted to hone in on it. And this time around, we really didn't hear much from the governor. And even when he defended it in on Wednesday, there was it was a different approach to what happened last fall with Martha Spineard's flights. And in between that time, we have seen investigations, lawsuits, and even the legislature had to amend the law when there were questions about whether or not the program had been executed

legally because migrants were supposed to leave from Florida, not from Texas, as they were when they were sent to Martha's Vineyard. So there has been quite a lot of scandal surrounding the execution of these operations. So it's unclear exactly why the approach has changed as to how he's talking about the program. He's still very much defending it and backing it and continuing to go along with the whole program. But it has been a different type of. Yeah, a more muted defense this time around. Sure. Yeah. And as Anna just mentioned, the Florida legislature did in a special session earlier this year amend Florida law to make this kind of program legal under Florida law, because with the flights last year to Martha's Vineyard, there were open questions and open open litigation about whether it was legal or not. But Florida cannot change the law of other states. And Nicole, I want to ask you about this because, you know, the attorney general of California has talked about it. Governor Gavin Newsom has said that the state should investigate these flights

to Sacramento and even suggesting kidnapping charges for DeSantis. I mean, what are the prospects of that? Does it seem like this might be something that would violate some kind of California law? Well, you may have seen the tweet from Governor Gavin Newsom that, you know, suggested kidnapping charges and posted a screenshot of the California code as it relates to kidnapping. You know, when when pressed on that and asked whether the state is really considering or could could hit Governor DeSantis or other Florida officials with kidnapping charges, the governor's office kind of backed off. This is something that they do,

you know, pretty often is they'll they'll temper what the governor tweets and say they've said on the record before that tweeting is not policy um but the attorney general as we've heard is is investigating uh potential civil or criminal charges i think the the real um issue here is that the the state of Florida contends that this happened voluntary. They you know, that the migrants gave verbal and written consent to travel to California. to maybe wait and see what the attorney general is able to get to, you know, prove whether or not the migrants were brought here, you know, under false pretenses or not. Under false pretenses. Tweeting may not be policy, but we welcome tweets here on the Florida Roundup. Wherever you are in the state, tweet us at Florida Roundup. Calls at 305-995-1800. We did reach out to the sheriff of

Bexar County in Texas. He recommended criminal charges for those migrant flights to Martha's Vineyard last year, telling the Florida Roundup the Bexar County Sheriff's Office has officially filed a completed criminal case regarding the incident where 49 migrants were flown to Martha's Vineyard. The charge filed is unlawful restraint. He goes on to say that the

case is being reviewed by the Bexar County DA's office. Roger is on the line in Pinellas Park. Hi, Roger. You're on the radio. Go ahead. Hey there. Thanks for taking the call. I don't think this is a good use of funds. Can anyone tell me what the department in Florida these funds come out of? Thanks for that. Yeah, sure. Taxpayer money. Sure. Yeah, yeah. Ana Ceballos, Miami Herald, as you mentioned, the legislature had to scramble to make this legal in Florida with a new bill after the governor did this the first time. with a new bill after the governor did this the first time. So what about questions from the taxpayers? How is this being funded and in what bucket of money is this being funded?

Right. And to be clear, I mean, this this program was authorized from the start by the legislature. So the legality of the authority given to the governor has been there. of the authority given to the governor has been there. The question was whether they followed the law and how they were, where they were transporting the migrants from. But now, now that it has been established, there is $12 million that have been appropriated to this program. So there is quite a lot of money, taxpayer money, ready to go for three vendors to use to execute this program. And we've been trying to get more information about exactly what these three companies are

proposing to do, how they're planning to do the work, how they're planning to identify that house, transport, do all these things that are required as part of the program. But we have been pretty, it's been pretty difficult to get information out of the administration. And we just recently got records that were very heavily redacted. So it's still very unclear as to what exactly the plans are. But we have found more information about how much they were planning to charge the state. And one of the companies said that for the development phase, they wanted to charge $487,000 for the development phase of the project. And two other companies were charging between $100 and $150 an hour for the work that they were going to be doing in the first

stage of the development. Other than that, there's really not a lot of information out there at the moment. You can call us 305-995-1800. We have Mario calling from Lake Mary. Mario, thanks for calling. You're on. Hi. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. We're discussing the millions of dollars. It's actually over $11 million that's being spent to transport immigrants from texas

to states all over the country yet just prior to this segment airing you've had another segment about children in in central florida who aren't who don't have enough to eat during the summer they're starving so instead of spending spending $11 million on transporting people to different parts of the country, why not spend money on your own people in the state of Florida? Even the most conservative individual must agree that this is a callous, inhumane form that anyone can, any individual can act in. And this is the governor of the state. How can anyone anywhere want to vote, want to even want, how can anyone want somebody like this in a position that he has now? anyone want somebody like this in a position that he has now?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the call, Mario. Ana Ceballos, I do want to ask you that. Obviously this is taking place on the backdrop of Governor DeSantis' now announced presidential campaign. I mean, how much is that playing into it? Quickly, please, because we've got to go to break. Sure. I mean, I think this is, immigration has been a major theme in the governor's campaign,

both for reelection when he was running for governor and now for president. So this is something that is very much part of his priority platform issue, a priority platform issue. So we can expect to see more of this

being highlighted by the campaign. We can expect to see more of this. And as you mentioned, yes, the shadow, the specter of presidential politics is hanging over all of this. Well, if you're just tuning in, lots of folks waiting on hold to weigh in on more migrant flights being paid for with your taxpayer money. 305-995-1800.5-995-1800 Stay online. We're going to take more calls and tweets at Florida Roundup when we come back.

You're listening to the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. Kjell Kjell Teksting av Nicolai Winther Thank you. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. And I'm Melissa Ross in Jacksonville. And right now we're continuing our conversation about Florida's controversial migrant relocation program. Before we welcome back our guests, I want to turn to a conversation I had with Juan Carlos Gomez. He's a clinical professor of law and the director of the Carlos Acosta Immigration Human Rights Clinic at Florida International University's College of Law. And he's a practicing attorney. We spoke yesterday about Florida's various new immigration laws and the expansion of this migrant relocation program. Like Governor DeSantis, the professor too

has a vision for a nationwide coalition around immigration, albeit it looks a little bit different than the governor's. Let's hear a little bit of that conversation now. Resettling individuals is a bit chaotic. And this is something that the different states need to help each other with rather than in law, there's always the shield concept versus the weapon concept. Law should never be used as an act of aggression. Law should always be used to protect. And the thing is, part of it is that states should be cooperating with each other. There are states that have labor shortages. Now, why can't we figure that out? That should be fairly simple. Think of the concern down here now with construction,

with agriculture. Have we not learned the lessons of Arizona, Alabama and Georgia when they passed anti-immigration legislation? And it didn't go well economically. Why on earth would we do the same thing? or what others have called the show-me-your-papers law. It was signed into law in April of 2010, the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration law in the U.S. when it was passed. So, Florida, what do you think about the professor's call for a nationwide coalition to help resettle migrants. 305-995-1800 or tweet us at Florida Roundup. Stephen in West Boca. Go ahead, Stephen. You're on the air. Yeah. Well, we wait. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Hello. I'm sorry. You changed the topic on me. I called in for the previous conversation that you were having. That's all right. Go ahead.

If I can relate to that, I'm agreeing with a lot of what I'm hearing the callers suggest, our tax dollars use and that sort of thing. One point that strikes me is the comparison between DeSantis politicizing the situation in a general anti-woke campaign and doing something that seems very cruel to me, as opposed to the folks in Martha's Vineyard welcoming the immigrants with open arms and Sacramento saying, we'll do the best we can for these people. That's a striking contrast. And it just seems to me that it's very stark and that it's a cruel policy. What about that? Thank you for that. Ana Ceballos, what about that? On the one hand, we have Florida's governor taking migrants from another state, his critics say performatively, and in service of his presidential ambitions. On the other hand, we see a lot of states welcoming

the migrants, saying they'll try to find them jobs, housing, that they'll try to assimilate them. And what about this professor's call for a national resettlement program? Let's be clear, there are plenty of resettlement agencies doing this work already. But what are your thoughts, Ana? My thoughts really don't matter, but it has been interesting to see the different approaches. California has definitely been very clear, at least California officials have been very clear that they are going to say yes to migrants and they welcome them. And DeSantis is actually highlighted that point saying, you know, great, you should take them if you consider yourself a welcoming state for migrants. So that's why we're sending them if you consider yourself a welcoming state for migrants. So that's why we're sending

them to you. We do not want to burden Floridians with more migrants. So therefore, California should take them. So that is kind of like the dynamics that are at play with states like California and states like Florida, where there's this back and forth of what's the good policy, right? and Republican leaders. And they say that they are overwhelmed, that they're been dealing with an influx of migrants, even though the border numbers have been down since May 11th, when Title 42, a pandemic era rule, ended. They are saying that they're overwhelmed,

so that they need the help from other states to take some migrants and relieve them from some of the pressure that they're facing. Nicole, I want to bring you back into this conversation. You know, under Florida law and under Governor DeSantis's stated reasoning for why this migrant program out of, you know, actually out of Texas, but through Florida. The reason that it exists is because so many of these migrants say that they want to come to Florida. And this is a way to stop that before it happens. Do we know if any number of these migrants that were sent to Sacramento and landed there

this week, if they were intending to come to Florida? We don't. And I should have mentioned near the top that the volunteers caring for these migrants have not made them available for media to speak to. They cite security reasons and their ongoing immigration cases. I mentioned that a few of them apparently had friends or family in California, you know, an hour or two from Sacramento. So they've left to join those people. But no, we don't know where their final destination might be. And, Nicole, it's been reported that some of these migrants actually had court hearings for their asylum cases in other cities out of state as far away as Chicago and New York. Do we have an idea how them ending up in Sacramento might affect their cases and their ability to actually show up to these hearings now that they're in California? Yeah, that's not entirely clear either. Volunteers have said, you know, that some of them

do have court hearings outside Texas anyway, so they may have had to leave. But we don't have information about whether those hearings can be done remotely or in person. There also does seem to be a process, though, where the migrants would have to notify the courts that they have changed jurisdictions from El Paso to California. So it's unclear whether that will delay or affect their process for seeking asylum. And Anna, the Professor Gomez with FIU, who we heard from a little bit before, when I spoke to him yesterday, he said what's going on in a variety of different ways. And this is just a showy, flashy version of it is that the bipartisan pro-immigration stance that has long existed in Florida. I mean, we've had decades of high migration to the state. Republicans and Democrats have supported that.

to the state. Republicans and Democrats have supported that. He takes a stance that this is evidence that that's going away. Is that something that's that is aimed more at a national audience or how is it affecting Florida right now with these policies? I mean, for the if you look at the four year or five years that Governor Ron DeSantis has been governing the state, we have definitely seen an escalation of really hard line immigration policies in the state. Some which may have never or that went nowhere in recent years. Right. When other Republicans tried to get them approved. Republicans try to get them approved. And we're not just seeing actions from the legislature, but we're also seeing, for example, unilateral decisions made by the administration through the rulemaking process, which have, for example, cracked down on Florida shelters that take in migrant children. We've seen DeSantis try to impanel a grand jury, right, asking the Florida Supreme Court to impanel one to look into what needs to be done. We've seen really a series of efforts by the governor to really transform

the state in a way that would really send a message that, you know, that Florida is not really welcoming of what they, what's been documented immigrants. And even though there's thousands of them here of the campaign and now as he's a presidential candidate. And it is definitely something that is very important in a GOP primary, like the stance that a candidate will take in immigration. So whether it's targeted toward a national audience or even Floridians, where we recently saw the state really swing pretty hard for DeSantis in the November 2022 election. So it depends on whether the court of public opinion is changing or whether he's really targeting to a national audience. But the policies in Florida are definitely changing since DeSantis has been in office. Lots of tweets coming into the show.

One listener says migrants have human rights. This is disturbing. And he says he doesn't think it's the American way. Ron has been holding in East Point, Florida. Ron, you're on the air. Well, good afternoon. Hello? Yeah, go ahead.

Good afternoon. Hello? Yeah, go ahead. Yes, I'm just calling about the questions on immigration. And everyone that's an American realizes how great immigration has been for this country. But it seems to me there has to come a point where you either have to cut back or you have to tell American citizens that are homeless that their needs are not as important as people that have come into the country, some of them illegally, into our country. Because if you have millions of houses short with rising interest rates, you're going to have less houses built.

And right now, if you would see how many homeless Americans there are, how does flooding our cities with more people help an American find a place? Some of them that have lived here for generations. Not to mention that the government of this country is supposed to take care of the American citizens first. And if there's homeless Americans, I don't see how it's doing its job. All right, Ron. Yeah. And I appreciate that. Nicole Nixon on the line from Sacramento. Let's give you the last word. Of course, California has dealt with a homeless problem as well. with a homeless problem as well. What about Ron's point? I mean, that is something I've heard from Republicans here in California that, you know, their folk, the state leaders, the state's Democratic leaders are, you know, going after

Ron DeSantis, a spokesperson for Governor Newsom, called it, you know, referred to DeSantis as, quote, a politician who's shown there are no depths he won't sink to in his desperate effort to score a political point. The governor has been really criticized by Republicans for, you know, his his term so far for maybe a national sort of agenda or seeking national attention and not focusing enough on problems here in California like homelessness. So, you know, that that is a criticism here. But the local leaders have also said that you can do both, that they believe that the state can care for migrants that were brought here and kind of just dropped downtown without any information or, you know, word as to what was going on. And it can continue to tackle the state's real pressing problems.

Well, I want to thank you both for joining us. Anna Ceballos, reporter for The Miami Herald. Nicole Nixon on the line from Sacramento. She is a reporter for CAP Radio. Thank you, ladies, for being with us here on the Florida Roundup. Thank you. Thank you. Now, time to switch gears here and talk about what many Floridians view as the number one challenge living in this state, property insurance. And while most Floridians know how to prepare for a hurricane, stock up on water, canned goods, set your evacuation plan in order,

it's also a good time right now to review our insurance coverage in Florida. That's right. But bad news. our insurance coverage in Florida. That's right. But bad news, as of this week, there are fewer insurance companies out there for Florida homeowners, just as the premiums keep going up. Here now to tell us more about the latest changes

to the current state of the market, we welcome Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute. Hi, Mark. Thank you for having me today. Really appreciate it, Melissa. Always good to have you, especially during hurricane season. So folks, what are your questions about your property insurance? Get on the line now, 305-995-1800 or tweet us at

Florida Roundup. So Mark, what about this? Two more companies have stopped writing new business in Florida. Not good. Well, we've seen several signs of ongoing instability in the Florida market. This week, first, we had a rate hearing with Citizens, where the Citizens CEO said they are projecting to grow by 400,000 more policyholders before year-end. That just shows us how limited capacity remains in the private insurance market. And then the Wall Street Journal reported two more companies are going to stop writing business in Florida. So that makes it 15 companies over the last year and a half have stopped writing business. Three have voluntarily left the state and seven others have been declared insolvent. So turmoil is the name of the game, unfortunately, here in the Florida home insurance

market. Now, the legislature has made a couple of whacks at this, passing a series of laws to try to stabilize the market and stop all this instability. It doesn't seem to be working yet, at least not in the short term, does it? Not at all. We expected it to be very troubling for the short term before we started to see signs of stability. And then adding to the crisis we already have, before the governor signed a sweeping tort reform bill back on March 24th, we saw more than 280,000 new lawsuits filed against Florida insurers. And that's been the problem all along that what we call legal system abuse, where we're seeing mass volumes of lawsuits constantly filed against

Florida insurers on a pace that is nowhere near what we see across the country. And then all of a sudden, we have this mass rush to get these nearly 300,000 lawsuits into the system. Because one of the changes that was made by the legislature that the governor signed is eliminating what's called one-way attorney fees, where the insurance company is responsible for paying the fees of the policyholder who sues them. That has been ended. But unfortunately, we have hundreds of thousands of cases now to work their way through the system. My goodness. Well, but as you said, it may take a little time for these laws to start working their way through the system.

Can we expect it to stabilize at a certain point? At a certain point, we can't predict when, but there's macro issues taking effect as well, Melissa. We have nationally seen replacement costs for homes jump 55% cumulatively since 2019. So that's a cost impacting all homeowners across the country. Another factor in Florida and the U.S. is reinsurance costs. That's the cost that property insurers pay to have backstop protection for major catastrophes like hurricanes. And we've seen reports now of reinsurance costs for some layers for the Florida insurers running as high as 80% this year. 80%. Wow, that's crazy.

Well, it's 305-995-1800. Hold that thought, Mark. More of your calls about this when we come back here on the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. Thank you. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Melissa Ross in Jacksonville. And I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. And we're continuing our conversation on the current state of Florida's insurance market with Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute. And you can call us at 305-995-1800 and tweet us at Florida Roundup. Want to go to the phones right off the bat? We have Mike calling from Davie. Mike, thanks

for calling. Hi, thanks for taking my call. I've been waiting for you guys to cover this issue. I live at a rather large condo complex in Davie, Florida. I always thought that Citizens was the insurer of last resort. And now they've even dropped us because of the law that came about when the Sunrise Sunside tragedy happened. And all condos higher than three stories had to be inspected. We failed our inspection.

Higher than three stories had to be inspected. We failed our inspection. And the current insurer that we had said, you're done. We're not going to cover you. Then we went to Citizens. They said, we're not going to cover you. And now we've had assessments of $2,000 to $2,500 per unit for the increase in just the insurance. And now we're scrambling to get the concrete restoration done. And I don't know how retired people on fixed incomes and single moms, which I have two

on my floor, they're moving out. So I don't know what to do. Wow. Thank you so much for the call, Mike. It is an issue affecting a lot of Floridians. I got a letter from insurance telling me I'm probably going to get kicked off of Citizens, too. It's affecting a lot of people. Mark Freelander, I want to bring you, of course, back into this.

Let's talk about Citizens. The state-backed insurance provider keeps growing, even though the state officials say they don't want it to keep growing. And it's now the state's largest insurance provider. Can you tell us a little bit about what Citizens is doing to try to shrink its numbers? Citizens recently got approval from the regulator to depopulate about 26,000 policies. That's just a small piece of how many policies they need to move back to the private market because they're growing at more than 30,000 a month. So if you do the math, they're actually going to show net growth this month,

even with moving 26,000 policies. They need to move hundreds of thousands of their policies back to the private market to have an adequate level of exposures that they could, from an actuarial point of view, cover. I mean, we talk about actuarial soundness and citizens is far from that right now. Even with the rate increase they brought forth to the regulator in a hearing yesterday at a 14.2% average, that's well below where they need to be. According to their own analysis, they show they would need a 58.5% average increase to achieve what is called actuarial soundness. So right now they are offering coverage and not covering the cost of the exposure. So in other words, the risk exposure increases. When that happens, all Floridians are potentially on the hook to help replenish the surplus of citizens if it gets wiped out by hurricane losses. So it's a really bad scenario right now. And Mark, I do want to ask, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is

joining other states and fighting the federal government's plan to raise rates on the National Flood Insurance Program, which is obviously an important part for a lot of property owners. Why is her office fighting that when insurance rates in Florida are skyrocketing across the board? Because, as you said, the risk is so high. That's a question we get often. We're not a political organization. We don't lobby, so we don't get into the political fray. But it's clear to us that risk rating 2.0 needs fixing because it has been unactuarially sound since the day it was founded by FEMA, and it is bleeding badly. Just last year, we saw it was $20.5 billion in debt at year-end 2022, paying $280 million in interest for the year. 2022, paying $280 million in interest for the year. They need to charge, once again, I'll use the same term, actuarially sound rates, and that's what their new system does. Unfortunately, it will

increase rates for a lot of Florida homeowners, but the good news is you could shop your flood coverage. You are not required to use FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. There are dozens of private flood insurers here in Florida would be happy to take your business. And in most cases, they're going to quote you a rate much lower than FEMA because FEMA really doesn't want to be in the insurance business. They created the National Flood Insurance Program because there was nothing else at the time.

Now we have a robust private flood market. I'll tell you, we buy it just about every year and we don't even live in a flood zone because when you talk to insurers, they'll tell you most of the state is basically now a flood zone and you can get a policy for about 600 bucks a year, folks. All right. This is the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. As we talk about hurricane season and skyrocketing property insurance rates, new state laws haven't really made an impact yet. Let's go to a few more of your calls out there across Florida. Bree in Jacksonville. Hi, Bree.

Go ahead. Hi, thank you for having me. I was calling similar to the gentleman. I own a home. I'm not in a flood zone. I make a decent salary, yet my mortgage has increased because the insurance has increased. federal government going to do in order to support either single income homes families people or families that make below 50 000 a year the cost is just crushing us yeah a hundred percent brie and i'm i i i feel you i know it tough. And thousands and thousands of Floridians are dealing with this, Mark. Mark, what can people do? We've got this housing affordability crisis to begin with. And at the same time, we're being squeezed by these insurance costs. Florida is no longer the affordable state it used to be. What advice do you have for people out there? It is very challenging. Right now we're looking at average premium in Florida at $6,000 a year. That's nearly four times the U.S. average of $1,700.

Our rate increases on average are running 40% versus about 10% nationally. It's a bad situation. And until the market gets more stable, where there are more companies wanting to write business here and will provide more competitive pricing, we have a real problem. And it is a real estate problem now because we're hearing more and more from homeowners, from real estate brokers that can't find coverage for new buyers coming to the state. There's no magic solution. What the legislature did is a good first step, but that doesn't happen overnight, as we know. There's just no magic pill that anybody could take to say we're going to fix it immediately.

fix it immediately. The frustrating thing about this is that this is actually how the insurance market is supposed to work, where when the risk is higher, the policy is higher. And we've been hammered year after year after year after year with major storms in the state driving the cost up. I want to go back to the phones, 305-995-1800. We got Brian calling from Tallahassee. Brian, thanks for calling. Hi. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I may have missed this while I was trying to call in, but you mentioned people getting that, well, that citizens should unload hundreds of thousands of their policies. What are those people supposed to do if even citizens refuse to insure them? They're only going to citizens because nobody else will. So what are they supposed to do? Just move and not sell their house? Mark, what do you do if you get pushed off of citizens?

Yeah. So when citizens move your policy, that is approved by the state regulator, and it's called a takeout process, meaning they have private companies agreeing to take those policies. So they're not just going to cancel your policy. If you are part of the takeout process, which 26,000 policyholders are as of this week, you already have another company aligned to take over your policy in the private market. That's how the takeout system works. Unfortunately, we're not going to see large volumes moving at this stage because there's not many options in the private market. It's a good sign that there's 26,000, but we have a long way to go. But rest assured, if you're a citizens customer, your policy will just not be canceled. You will have a takeout offer to move to a private company.

I'm taking notes for myself here because I got one of those letters. Mark, quickly, we're just about out of time. If you want to do what you can as a homeowner to keep your costs low, what are some things that you can do? Is there projects around the house you can work on or something? Well, clearly, if you take steps to mitigate risk, for example, fortifying your roof, your windows, your garage door, things of that nature, storm shutters, insurers are required to give you discounts for wind risk mitigation. So that's number one. Number two is you could adjust your policy and increase your deductibles. Of course, you need to make sure you have enough funds to pay out of

pocket if you increase deductibles, but changing your standard deductible and your windstorm hurricane deductible will greatly reduce your premium. So talk to your insurance agent about that, see if those are options. But once again, make sure you are prepared financially to pay them out of pocket. Yeah, it's not good news. And way more folks wanting to get on that we could accommodate in the segment. So good advice. We will continue to follow it as we proceed through what I hope, knock on wood, isn't an out of control hurricane season. And I want to thank Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute. He's a Florida man, too, by the way. So he's walking this walk right with us.

Mark, it's always great to get your insights about insurance in Florida. Thank you so much for giving us your time this Friday here on the Florida Roundup. Thanks for having me again. And thanks for listening, everyone, all across the Florida Roundup. Thanks for having me again. And thanks for listening, everyone, all across the state of Florida. That is our show for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville and WLRN Public Media in Miami.

Heather Schatz and Bridget O'Brien are producers. WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter J. Meritz. Richard Ives is our technical director, and he's on the boards today. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Isabella Da Silva. Ariana Otero answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Libos at AaronLibos.com. Shout out to the Miami Heat game for tonight. I'm Danny Rivero. And I'm Melissa Ross. Have a great weekend.