ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — Sheryl Lucey is grateful because this year her homeowner's insurance premium only went up by about $200.
"Luckily, it's still a pretty good enough rate that I can work with that," she said.
But mostly, she's just happy that she has coverage for her St. Petersburg home in the first place.
We first met her in September of 2022. At that time, she'd been dumped by her previous insurer after years of massive increases to her premium.
"Last week I get a letter that I'm dropped," she said, "The only reason was 'We're reducing our reach in Florida.'"
Lucey is now one of the 1.23 million people with a Citizens Property Insurance policy in the wake of Florida's ongoing insurance crisis.
But her sigh of relief may be short-lived as the "insurer of last resort" recently revealed that it hopes to reduce its ballooning client list by half—in what they say is an effort to help fix the state's insurance market.
"Folk say, 'I need affordable insurance.' I agree. We want insurance to be affordable, but that's why we need to have more competition; we need to have more private companies coming back into the state," said the company's CEO, Tim Cerio.
It's a move that former State Senator Jeff Brandes said would help foster more competition within the private insurance market.
But on top of that, he's also pitching a three-step solution to Florida's insurance crisis that centers around making Tampa Bay the hub for healing the state's insurance market.
Proposal One: Citizens moves headquarters to Tampa or opens a satellite office in the area
"They are the citizen-backed, owned property insurance company. They are the insurer of last resort. But in many communities they're the insurer of only resort. But they have a responsibility to be producing best practice research and really helping the overall industry," Brandes said, "In many areas, Citizens is a leader in the state, and they need to be located in Tampa versus Jacksonville where they're separated off from the rest of the insurance community in Florida. Why not make them the hub of the insurance community in Florida and let them be the convener and catalyst for best practices in the state."
Proposal Two: Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) moves headquarters to Tampa or opens a satellite office in the area
"Why not be where your insurers are? Creating a satellite office here would really facilitate that relationship between your regulator and insurers in the state. It would allow for more programs led by the Office of Insurance Regulation, more leadership by the Office of Insurance Regulation, and frankly, more knowledge and integration with knowing your client, knowing your customers," Brandes said.
Proposal Three: Partner with local academics and researchers to develop statewide best practices
Whether it be Sarasota, Tampa Bay, a vast majority of the Florida property insurance market is located there," he said, "And so by bringing them together and letting Citizens and OIR be that catalyst for both change and research and best practices—we think that that would be something that would create almost a Silicon Valley-like environment for the state of Florida for it's property insurance industry."
Brandes also said that while he doesn't think lawmakers need to get involved to get these changes in motion, he believes that involving the legislature might make the process move faster.
And as we wait to see what the fix will be, Lucey shared this message with those tasked with solving it.
"We work hard, and we want to enjoy where we live and be able to afford where we live. So, we need help," she said.
