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Few Calls Coming For Storm Safety Home Inspections

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By JOHN W. ALLMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 11, 2007

TAMPA - It should be easy to give something away - especially a free hurricane inspection in a state ravaged by past storms.

But predicting public response to the My Safe Florida Home program has been as problematic as pinpointing the annual storm forecast.

The program was created to provide free wind inspections to all Florida homeowners and to encourage them to make improvements to help fortify their homes against storms.

To accomplish that goal, the state Legislature earmarked $250 million for use in matching grants up to $5,000 per homeowner. And, believing so strongly in the program, lawmakers this year set a lofty goal: 400,000 homes inspected by June 2009.

Nothing has gone according to plan, however:

•Inspection requests are lagging well behind expectations. Unless inspections increase dramatically and remain consistent for the next 23 months, the state will fall far short of its goal.

•Less than 20 percent of homeowners receiving free inspections requested matching grants to make improvements. State officials are downplaying the grant portion of the program after lawmakers narrowed eligibility and limited how the money could be used.

•Inspectors are being let go because of the lack of work. The 11 companies selected by the state for the program initially hired more than 600 inspectors with the expectation that they would go to about 40 homes each per week. Some companies say their inspectors are visiting 15 or fewer homes a week.

To date, 90,605 homes have been inspected. The majority of those, however, have been on a waiting list since summer 2006. Once all pending requests are completed, inspectors will have visited just more than 109,000 homes.

The state Department of Financial Services, which oversees the program, and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink are trying to raise awareness of the program. From door hangers to public service announcements, state officials aren't limiting their options when it comes to drumming up interest.

'The problem is, we don't have enough people applying for the program,' said Chris Thomas, owner of Thomas Engineering in Melbourne, one of the 11 companies contracting with the state. 'We're letting inspectors go every week because the volume continues to decline.'

Early Confusion

State officials bristle at questions about My Safe Florida Home. They think public perception has been unfairly clouded by negative media reports.

They say the pilot program was not properly staffed or fully fleshed out before its launch in August 2006. It lasted through February before being shelved for review. The state planned to reintroduce the program - with any changes - in April.

'What they the public didn't realize was the Legislature handed us the money and an outline but not a program.' said Nina Banister, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Financial Services. 'Not one that really outlined how you meet the expectations they put in the legislation.'

State officials wanted to complete 12,000 inspections during the pilot, which ran from August 2006 to February. They received nearly 70,000 requests for inspection.

That initial onslaught of applications, however, caused a considerable backlog and left many people frustrated at the long lag time between applying for and receiving an inspection.

Since then, requests for inspections have slowed considerably.

Then there are the changes made by state lawmakers, changes that only created new confusion about who is - and isn't - eligible to participate.

One significant change by the Legislature narrowed the improvements costs the grant dollars could be used to offset. Lawmakers settled on window- and door-opening protections, such as replacing garage doors, and bracing gable ends in the roof framing to keep a roof from collapsing.

The biggest change, however, was the decision to limit grant eligibility strictly to homeowners who live within the state's windborne debris region. The region historically stretches inland from the coast one mile, or to areas where sustained wind speeds reach 120 mph.

'It significantly impacted Hillsborough County,' said Tami Torres, special programs administrator for the Department of Financial Services. 'It's just a sliver of the county that is eligible.'

According to state maps, two very small parts of Hillsborough - one to the northwest near Oldsmar and the other south of Ruskin and the Little Manatee River - fall within the designated region.

In fact, much of the state is ineligible to apply for matching grant dollars.

That's not to say people haven't pursued and received money to make upgrades.

'Some of those people are taking up to six months to decide or to set aside money because it is a matching grant,' said Tara Klimek, the department's communications director. 'We're anticipating thousands more applications' out of the first batch of 100,000 wind inspections.

To date, about 15,000 grants have been approved statewide, said Torres and Klimek, with about $3.1 million dispersed.

In Hillsborough, 79 people have received checks totaling $258,866 - an average grant award of $3,276. An additional 562 homeowners are making improvements to receive the grant money, Klimek said.

Downplaying Expectations

Sink's office now focuses almost exclusively on the inspections.

In interviews with Klimek and other program officials, the conversation repeatedly steers back to the savings that residents can realize without making any structural improvements.

So far, they say, more than 62,000 people have learned, through their free inspection, that they are eligible for a reduction to their insurance premiums because their homes are better fortified than initially thought.

The average savings being reported statewide is about $154, Klimek said.

'The program is not about grants,' Klimek said. 'It's about the inspections.'

To meet that goal, the state picked the 11 companies through a competitive bid process. Each agreed to complete a minimum of 1,000 inspections a week, for a monthly total of 44,000. To accommodate the expected workload, they hired 624 inspectors so they could hit the ground running, if needed.

Initially business was brisk. There were 53,000 homeowners who had requested an inspection during the pilot program. Some had been waiting nearly a year.

Thomas said his company was completing 1,000 inspections a week in the Panhandle.

It began to slow once the waiting list was depleted.

On average, Thomas said, his inspectors should be going to 40 homes a week. They are averaging 10to 15 homes a week.

'The most frustrating part of this program to me,' Thomas said, 'is the fact that so many people still don't know about it.'

The inspections focus on seven areas where homes are vulnerable, primarily looking at a home's roof and its exterior openings.

The average inspection lasts 30 minutes, and the companies are paid $150 for each. The individual inspectors then receive a percentage of that.

It should be a win-win for homeowners and inspectors, but it's not playing out that way.

'If the program was running full-bore, I would love to know I had 10 inspections a day,' said Terrence Donohue, an inspector with Florida Real Property Administrators Inc. of Clearwater. 'As it turns out, if I get 25 in a week, I consider myself lucky.'

Increasing Awareness

The state has acknowledged this frustration - sort of.

'Some of the firms had expressed a desire to conduct more inspections,' Klimek said.

In response, the state provided each of the 11 companies 25,000 door hangers to distribute to homes in their respective regions.

'Some of them are really doing well,' Klimek said, adding that the state has seen a spike in inspection requests 'due to the inspection firms' marketing efforts.'

At an inspection last week in Seminole, Donohue met with homeowner Patricia O'Sullivan. She seemed genuinely surprised when told that requests weren't exactly rolling in.

'I e-mailed somebody last night and told them about it,' she said.

In addition to the door hangers, the state is attending events where hurricane safety might be addressed, and it is sponsoring a series of My Safe Florida Home fairs from September to November in Pensacola, Fort Lauderdale and Clearwater.

The Bay area event, scheduled for Sept. 29, is being held in Clearwater at the Harborview Center and Coachman Park.

'The state has set a rather robust goal for themselves of completing 400,000 home inspections,' said John 'Skip' Owens, who owns Florida Real Property Administrators. 'We're still looking for that 320,000 to step up to the plate and say, 'I'd like to participate.''

To request a free wind inspection through the My Safe Florida Home program, call 1-866-513-6734. For online inquiries, you can look up information about the program here.

Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.

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