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In response to the 2023 approval of the “Resilient Roofing” resolution, Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans (HBAGNO) and FEMA are working on a number of initiatives to help bring insurance carriers back to Louisiana.
The HBAGNO Board of Directors has shown its commitment to promoting the adoption of inspections by creating a public database of code compliant structures, hosting public forums to explain the new code changes, gathering input from the construction industry, and creating the 2024 Building Code Adoption Tracking Fact Sheet with FEMA to help homeowners and builders understand what’s at stake in terms of ensuring homeowners can get affordable insurance
“With this new tracking, we can continue the hard work of finding solutions that will persuade insurance carriers to come back to Louisiana,” said Dan Mills, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans in a news release.
The fact sheets show an overview of the percent of communities adopting hazard-resistant building codes. Louisiana is part of FEMA’s Region 6 and has the highest percentage of tracking at 98.4% compared to other states within the area. Those states include Texas (30.3%), Arkansas (40.6%), Oklahoma (0.5%) and New Mexico (63.1%). The percentages are based upon jurisdictions in each state that are at high risk for one or more hazard types (Region 6’s hazards include flood, damaging wind, hurricane wind, tornado and seismic).
The HBAGNO Board of Directors approved a “Resilient Roofing” resolution (R. 01-2023) designed to improve long-term housing resiliency and attract property insurance carriers to the state. Recent years have seen a number of storms, that have damaged several hundred thousand homes in Louisiana and cost billions of dollars in losses, according to a news release. Roof failure is the most common cause of damage in these storms.
This damage has resulted in losses for insurance companies that have forced many into bankruptcy, leaving very few financially viable insurance carriers remaining to insure Louisiana’s homes. As a result, the cost of homeowners insurance in Louisiana has become increasingly more expensive.
HBAGNO has supported the recently adopted 2021 IRC Code, which requires more rigorous roof construction standards, secondary leak protection and sealed roof decks, for the first time in the history of the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code.
“Any time you adopt a new code it raises costs. But the flip side of that is if you are building a more resilient, more energy-efficient home, then your insurance rates are much lower,” said Mark Joiner, executive director of the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code Council in a news release.
HBAGNO was founded in 1941 and provides members with continuing education, events for networking and advocacy to protect the home building industry. The HBA is a non-profit organization serving nearly 1,000 builders and associate members encompassing seven parishes throughout Louisiana, including Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. James, St. Charles, Plaquemines and Orleans.
To see the Region 6 FEMA Fact Sheet or for general information about the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, visit www.hbagno.org or call 504-837-2700.