More money is available from the state for homeowners in 20 parishes hoping to “win” $10,000 for a fortified roof. Calcasieu and Cameron parishes are included.

This time the $10,000 grant awards will be selected randomly, in the form of a lottery, instead of the first-come, first-served system.

Registration opens Saturday, Sept. 18, at 8 a.m. and closes Friday, Sept. 20, at 5 p.m., according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

Three hundred $10,000 Fortify Homes Program grants will be awarded.

The random selection remedies the advantage or disadvantage of internet speed when the process was open for a certain time span on one day only and issued first-come, first-served.

Unlike previous rounds, grants will not be limited to customers of Citizens, the insurer of last resort. However, the owner must have residential insurance that includes wind coverage, and if they live in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, they must also provide proof of a flood insurance policy.

The home must be the owner’s primary residence and homestead exempted.     

Newly constructed homes, condominiums, mobile homes and homes on dry-stack foundation are not eligible without an approved retrofit of the foundation.

An approved contractor must be used for the work.

Grant won’t cover it all

A third of the people who qualified for a total of $30 million in grants last year dropped out, according to an article in Times-Picayune/NOLA.com “because they didn’t have the money to cover all out-of-pocket costs beyond the $10,000 grant.” One of those expenses is the FORTIFIED evaluator who comes out at the beginning of the process and at the end of the work to ensure IBHS roof standards are met. Ford said this cost could be from $300 to $600, “not an insignificant amount.”

There is no way to determine at this time, how much the FORTIFIED roof will save the homeowner in insurance costs. Ford said the homeowner’s insurer must provide or “write” a discount, but insurance companies are not obligated to discount policies a certain amount.

NOLA.com wrote that “the insurance commissioner opposed efforts in the Legislature to require insurers to offer certain levels of discounts, saying the market would eventually come around” in an article earlier this month.”

Ford verified that the LDI is expected to publish a list of discounts offered by insurers sometime in the coming weeks.      

Other coastal zone parishes where homeowners can apply are Ascension, Assumption, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne and Vermillion homeowners also hope to win.

After the random selection of 300 people, 200 more participants will be randomly selected for a waitlist in case people drop out.

Registration information will be collected in an electronic database. The database software has a built-in randomization feature that will be used to randomize the order of registrants once the lottery period has ended, Ford said. “After the data is randomized, we will select the first 300 registrants in the list to participate in the program and the second 200 registrants in the list to participate in the program, and the second 200 registrants will be designated as waitlisted.”