Building Strong, Resilient Communities

Resiliency is more important in the face of changing climate conditions. Extreme wind events like hurricanes and tornadoes can cause severe damage and greatly disrupt families and communities. To help build stronger, more resilient communities, we joined forces with Habitat for Humanity®, a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve their homes, and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) in 2011 to build affordable, wind-resistant homes to FORTIFIED Home™ standards throughout the country. Developed by IBHS, FORTIFIED Home™ construction practices are designed to help homeowners and communities better weather future storms, including hurricanes, high winds, hail and severe thunderstorms. Building FORTIFIED means exceeding the minimum standards set by building codes for construction techniques and materials. Our partnership shows that by making a few important changes in home construction standards, homes are better able to withstand storms without significantly adding to the cost. To date, Travelers has supported the construction of nearly 90 FORTIFIED Habitat homes.

Building on the success of the program with Habitat for Humanity, in 2019, Travelers launched a FORTIFIED building pilot program with SBP, a nonprofit organization that works to shrink the time between disaster and recovery. As of December 2021, the Travelers partnership has resulted in 34 SBP staff receiving FORTIFIED construction training and 205 FORTIFIED homes being built in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Texas.

Homes built in New Orleans were tested by Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm that hit in late August 2021, and the homes held up well, consistent with their design; the SBP roofs withstood the storm compared with others in the neighborhood. IBHS and other resilience advocacy groups are using these homes as an example of the benefits of FORTIFIED building and to advocate for stronger building codes in Louisiana.

In recognition of the successful program, SBP received a 2020 FORTIFIED Pioneer Award from IBHS. Annually, the FORTIFIED Awards program honors builders who are among the first in their area to use the FORTIFIED standards to advance stronger, more resilient construction. With assistance from SBP and other organizations, more than 31,000 FORTIFIED homes have been built over the last five years to help communities rebuild after devastating natural disasters.

In 2018, Travelers provided funding for Team Rubicon to begin piloting a response model aimed at low-attention disasters – that is, devastating weather events that affect communities but are not large enough in scale to draw the attention of government, media or philanthropic organizations. Team Rubicon is a nonprofit organization that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams after disasters. Team Rubicon is committed to building its capacity for incorporating FORTIFIED standards into its rebuilding program. Since then, Travelers has provided $1 million in grant funding for the low-attention disaster rebuild program. This funding helped Team Rubicon in its efforts to rebuild 116 homes in Houston, 60% of which were built to FORTIFIED standards; 502 roofs in Puerto Rico, 90% of which were FORTIFIED; and 40 homes in Florida. As of December 2021, Team Rubicon has completed the rebuilding of 23 homes for approximately 51 family members, and 17 of these homes were built to FORTIFIED standards. Homes continue to be rebuilt in areas of Houston, Texas, impacted by Hurricane Harvey, as well as communities impacted by low-attention disasters in Texas (Orange), Alabama (Selma), Alaska (Haines) and Louisiana (Calcasieu Parish).

Community Benefits

• Nearly 300 FORTIFIED homes for low-income families have been built by Habitat for Humanity and SBP across the United States supported by Travelers funding. In addition, Team Rubicon has built more than 500 FORTIFIED homes, made possible in part with funding from Travelers.
• Numerous Habitat for Humanity affiliates throughout the country have learned about safer building standards, and many are adopting them as they build new homes for some of America’s most vulnerable families.
• SBP has trained 34 staff members on FORTIFIED standards, and SBP plans to continue educating its staff and contracting partners to increase familiarity with FORTIFIED building practices.
• Disasters often disproportionately impact low-income communities of color. The greatest asset of low-income homeowners tends to be their home. And according to the Urban Institute, home equity makes up a disproportionate amount of overall net worth for Black households. After a disaster, however, housing values drastically decrease. When a home is rebuilt, the value is restored, giving the resident more leverage and potential for upward economic mobility.

Travelers Benefits

• Data gathered from the FORTIFIED program is used at hearings to influence stronger building codes in hurricane-prone regions and to demonstrate the affordability of building to FORTIFIED standards.
• Since we entered our partnership with Habitat for Humanity, dozens of Travelers volunteers have helped build FORTIFIED Habitat homes, increasing our employees’ knowledge of FORTIFIED Home standards. Videos of prior builds can be viewed here.
• Thousands of our employees have participated in Habitat builds – both FORTIFIED and traditional – driving engagement by doing purposeful work together in our communities.
• In addition to its positive impact on communities, these partnerships benefit both Travelers and the insurance industry by increasing the number of resilient homes in vulnerable communities.

Related Resources

• Travelers Institute® Webinar: Weathering the Storm: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety