Rebuilding Paradise: Nonprofit's $500 'defensible space' grants help cut residents' insurance costs

abcnews.go.com:

Five years after the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed 90% of the homes here, residents of Paradise, California, face a new struggle: Finding homeowner's insurance

PARADISE, Calif. — The letter from the insurance company arrived just before Brian and Morgan Gobba finally finished construction on their new house: Their homeowner’s policy was being canceled.

The Gobbas were among the first families to return to Paradise after the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed 90% of the homes here. The house where Morgan grew up burned in the fire. The couple wanted to be part of restoring the town, but the process has been exhausting and expensive.

“A lot of people don’t realize that when you rebuild in a burnt-out town, you’re not starting at ground zero,” said Brian Gobba, who worked as a construction estimator and is now a fire prevention inspector for the town of Paradise. “You’re starting at negative five or 10, because you need to cut down the trees and get rid of a lot of things that are destroyed or toxic.”

Facing the prospect of not having protection for the home they’d worked so hard to build, the Gobbas enrolled in the California FAIR plan last year, the state’s insurer of last resort. Their annual premium is now $6,000.

“When you think you’re slowly gaining money and adding to your safety net and your bank account for your kids and family and future, and all of a sudden, ‘Hey, here’s a bill for $6,000,’ it really puts a hole in your heart,” said Gobba.

Households throughout Paradise are confronting an insurability crisis as companies, reeling from unprecedented wildfire losses, raise premiums and discontinue policies in California. But a local foundation is trying to help those families find ways