CEA is Born
In 1995, the California Legislature came up with a workable solution it thought would help revitalize the insurance and housing markets.
It created a basic policy that any insurer could sell to comply with the mandatory offer law. The policy provided homeowners basic coverage for the roof over their heads, eliminating costly extras like swimming pools and patios.
In 1996, the California Legislature went one step further and created the California Earthquake Authority (CEA)—a not-for-profit, publicly managed, privately funded entity. Residential property insurers could offer their own earthquake insurance or become a CEA participating insurance company. Over the years, the CEA policy has added more options, including a retrofit discount for eligible homeowners.
Today, CEA provides two-thirds of the residential earthquake insurance policies sold in California. By selling our policies exclusively through these participating insurance companies, CEA has become one of the largest providers of residential earthquake insurance in the world.
CEA Continues To Be Earthquake Strong
In 2011, the CEA and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) formed the California Residential Mitigation Program (CRMP) in order to create more resilient communities that are able to recover from the next damaging earthquake.
In 2013, the CRMP launched Earthquake Brace + Bolt: Funds To Strengthen Your Foundation (EBB). This innovative brace + bolt residential mitigation program helps homeowners lessen the potential for earthquake damage to their house by offering incentive grants of up to $3,000 for a residential seismic retrofit. An EBB seismic retrofit involves bolting a house to its foundation and, when necessary, bracing the cripple walls with plywood to help prevent the home from collapsing or sliding off its foundation.
In 2021, EBB expanded and—as part of its commitment to diversity and inclusion—for the first time offered income-eligible homeowners a chance to qualify for newly available supplemental grants. These grants may pay for up to 100% of the retrofit cost for eligible homeowners with a verified annual household income at or below the amount stated in the EBB Program Rules.
In February 2023, the second seismic retrofit grant program, Earthquake Soft-Story, was launched in select Bay Area and Southern California cities. Grants of up to $13,000 are offered to retrofit soft-story homes. Soft-story homes have one or more floors of living space built above a garage. These structures are vulnerable to damage because they may not be able to withstand the lateral movement from earthquake shaking. Houses with this condition may be prone to partial or full collapse during an earthquake.
Thousands of homeowners have been able to strengthen their homes through EBB and ESS. CRMP is also currently developing a new grant program for multifamily homes to help support earthquake retrofitting of housing structures with "tuck-under" parking or commercial space on the ground floor. That program is expected to be piloted in 2025.
