Anti-Insurance Redlining Policies

Rationale

The lack of substantial information about insurance provision -or the lack of insurance itself- hinders our current understanding about why some neighborhoods and populations do not have adequate property insurance. Better disclosure and transparency will allow policymakers, community groups, and insurance companies to better understand the trends and practices of insurance lending and redlining. In turn, better protection of property assets can result for all property owners, regardless of income, race, or geographical location. The answer to the problem of insurance discrimination and redlining is disclosure-requiring property insurers to share information about to whom and where they provide services. Experts in the field argue that legislation similar to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) needs to be passed. HMDA was crafted to address discrimination and redlining in the mortgage lending market by requiring lenders to reveal the geographic areas (by census tract) where they make loans. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition credits HMDA with generating over $1 trillion in new lending commitments to older urban areas and underserved neighborhoods across the United States. Ideally, academics, community groups, and policy analysts would be able to obtain data such as geographic location, housing structure, loss costs, information on individual policyholders, underwriting guidelines, and agent locations. At a minimum, states should be required to 1) make data available to the public and 2) provide geocoded data.

About Measure

States that have some disclosure requirements for property insurers.

Source

Squires, G.D., O'Connor, S., & Silver, J. (2001). The unavailability of information on insurance unavailability: Insurance redlining and the absence of geocoded data. Housing Policy Debate, 12(2), pp. 347-372.