DUTCH FLAT, Calif. — Hundreds of thousands of Californians are finding home and renters insurance policies unavailable or unaffordable. ABC10 continues to follow the state’s insurance crisis and ask leaders what they’re doing to try and solve the problem.

On Friday, ABC10 visited the Placer County community of Dutch Flat, where many seniors are having to make difficult decisions.

Sandy Vignolo reached out to ABC10 in late June, sharing concerns about her and her neighbors’ rising homeowners insurance costs.

Just a few years ago, she and her husband were paying an annual premium of $1,100 to insure their Dutch Flat home. However, their insurer dropped them, and they had to go on the California FAIR Plan. That’s the high-cost, bare-bones fire insurance of last resort.

Now, fire insurance alone costs Vignolo and her husband nearly $8,000 a year, and they’re also paying for a separate liability policy.

“We’ve had to dip into savings to pay that,” Vignolo said. “There’s a lot of people around here…that—it has gone beyond what they have.”

Suzanne Vidal also lives in Dutch Flat—and is a real estate broker. Her homeowners insurance increased from $3,360 to $5,160 in the last year.

That’s nothing, she says, compared to an elderly neighbor, who went from paying $1,800 a year in 2020 to – now – $15,840 on the FAIR Plan.

“People are losing their homes,” Vidal said. “Even if they don’t have a mortgage and they’re paying that much for insurance: that’s hard to come by if you’re on fixed income. Let’s saying you’re making $1,200-$1,800 a month in social security. There’s just no way you can do it.’

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara rolled out his ‘Sustainable Insurance Strategy’ last year. In an update to state lawmakers on Wednesday he said key provisions of the reforms will finally be going into effect just weeks from now.

“Definitely by no later than the end of this year, starting of next year, you’ll start seeing more correction in the market,” Lara said.

Correction means—more competition, says deputy insurance commissioner Michael Soller. 

“If you are on the FAIR Plan because you have wildfire risk – anywhere in the state – you should be getting offers of insurance,” Soller said. “That’s really the target, is to get people out of the FAIR Plan.”

Vidal said—she will believe it when she sees it.

“They told us this in my industry a year ago, that this year was going to be totally different: the first of the year, a lot of these companies were going to come back into our market with insurance available at reasonable or sensible prices,” Vidal said. “Now it’s, ‘Maybe next year.’” 

Vignolo wants to see the California Department of Insurance do more, too.

“They need to step up now. Not down the road. Not saying, ‘We’re trying to help.’ Help,” she said.

Older folks on fixed incomes, they say, can’t hold out for change much longer.

The To the Point team spent months investigating California’s home insurance crisis, hearing from homeowners, lawmakers and the Insurance Commissioner. You can stream the special investigation right now on the ABC10+ TV streaming app.

WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Inside California’s Home Insurance Crisis