Homeowners in coastal communities through Queens – and the rest of the country – breathed a hesitant sigh of relief this week after the U.S. Senate voted Monday night to advance legislation that would delay flood insurance premiums from skyrocketing. Now, Queens leaders are urging the U.S. House of Representatives and President Obama to support the bill. Both House Speaker John Boehner and Obama have not favored the legislation. File photo
With the U.S. Senate poised to vote Thursday afternoon on legislation that would delay what many Queens residents are calling devastating increases in flood insurance premiums for the next four years, borough denizens, and those living in coastal communities across the country, were cautiously optimistic – though they certainly were not voicing any hallelujahs quite yet.
After months of fighting among legislators, the Senate voted 86-13 Monday to advance the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, a bill that would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to complete an affordability study and propose solutions to address flood insurance cost issues before premiums can be raised.
The bill, which has landed bipartisan support in the Senate, was drafted in response to the 2012 Biggert-Waters Act – a piece of legislation passed by Congress that phases out some subsidized insurance rates and allows for rate increases of about 20 to 25 percent each year until properties reach actuarial status.
While supporters of the Biggert-Waters Act have said the bill was meant to make a debt-ridden National Flood Insurance Program more fiscally stable, as it has been hemorrhaging money, homeowners in Queens and other coastal communities across the city and nation have said the rates would force individuals from their homes because they would not be able to afford the increases – particularly after so many shelled out significant amounts of money to rebuild following Hurricane Sandy. Homeowners throughout the country have reported drastic increases, including premiums skyrocketing from $4,500 each year to $45,000 annually.
Peter Mahon, president of Broad Channel’s West 12th Road Block Association, has in the past said the act could create entire ghost towns along the country’s coastline as individuals abandon their properties – many of which could fall into foreclosure if they cannot be sold because of the premium costs
“We have to get smarter with how we’re doing things with flooding, for sure – but what they’re doing seems like a land grab,” said Sophia Vailakis-DeVirgilio, a Broad Channel residents who still has not been able to move back into her home that was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy. “How are you going to impose on people flood insurance rates that no one can afford?”
Should the Senate pass the bill, the legislation would still need to be greenlighted by the U.S. House of Representatives and get the final stamp of approval from President Obama. A similar House bill has been proposed by U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), though legislators have aired concerns that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has criticized the measure.
“The problem is going to be down at the other end of that hallway because the speaker of the House has already said he doesnt’ like it,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said prior to Monday’s vote to advance the bill. “But what he’s going to find out is a lot of the members of the House of Representatives have constituents who are facing 10-fold increases in their flood insurance.”
Nelson, like lawmakers throughout the country – including U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), both sponsors of the new bill, emphasized the ramifications of Biggert-Waters on the economy.
“You can say you want rates to go up and be actuarially sound, but…if people can’t afford it because it’s 10 times as much, or that because it is so high that it completely dries up the real estate market – well, that’s not helping anybody,” he said on the House floor Monday evening. “That’s hurting a lot of people, and it’s hurting our economic recovery just at the moment at which the real estate market is coming back all along hte coast of America, as well as along the rivers and lakes – the very places that flood insurance is necessary for a homeowner or business.”
Other legislators have also slammed the president for his administration’s statement issued Monday stating opposition to the bill. The statement did not, several lawmakers pointed out, say the president would veto the bill.
“The administration strongly supports a phased transition to actuarially sound flood insurance rates, as provided for by [Biggert Waters], in order to enable policyholders and communities to adjust to risk-based premiums,” the policy statement said. “Transitioning to actuarially sound rates will ensure that the [National Flood Insurance Program] has adequate resources to pay policyholders’ future claims without increasing the program’s debt levels.”
As the debate in Washington rages on, Queens residents said they hope the final outcome will translate, after more than a year of what has seemed to many like nonstop trials following Sandy, to a life that could potentially be a little more normal – or, if not that, a little less stressful.
“There are remedies here,” Vailakis-DeVirgilio said. “We can take care of all of this.”
By Anna Gustafson
