Guest Commentary written by

Marcella Cranford

Marcella Cranford is an actress and former preschool teacher who lives in Los Angeles

I didn’t lose my home to a wildfire. I lost my homeowners’ insurance to one.

The letter arrived without much explanation, a notice from my insurance company saying my policy would not be renewed. The reason, they said, was straightforward: the program was no longer available in California because of the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires. No appeal. No alternatives offered. Just a deadline and a warning that coverage would soon disappear.

This house was never just an investment to my family. My mother worked hard to afford it, making sacrifices so we could have stability. For her this home represented safety and progress, something solid to pass on to her daughter. Now what once felt like a source of pride increasingly feels like a liability, shaped by forces far beyond my control. 

What happened to me is no longer rare. Across California and the country, climate-fueled disasters are destabilizing the home insurance market. Insurers are raising premiums far faster than inflation, canceling policies or leaving entire states altogether, as wildfires and similar natural disasters grow more frequent and destructive. In California alone, nearly 400,000 insurance policies have been canceled since 2021.

After the devastating Palisades Fire in 2025, insurers faced an estimated $40 billion in claims. Their response wasn’t to stay and adapt; it was to pull back even further. Homeowners were left scrambling, forced into expensive last-resort plans or pushed out of coverage entirely.

Insurance companies exist to price risk. But climate change has made that risk too unpredictable. What were once considered once-in-a-generation disasters now happen every year. Federal data shows disaster declarations linked to climate events have doubled compared with historical averages, while insurance premiums nationwide rose nearly 9% faster than inflation between 2018 and 2022. 

The math that once underpinned the insurance system isn’t working the way it used to.

When insurance fails, the fallout spreads quickly. Homes without coverage can become un-mortgageable. Property values decline. Communities that have stood for decades begin to be hollowed out. 

Families are forced to make impossible choices: absorb soaring premiums, take on catastrophic financial risk or leave communities they’ve spent decades building. For many homeowners, the fear isn’t just losing coverage, it’s knowing that if disaster strikes without it, recovery may be impossible.

That’s the fear that keeps me up at night.

If rates continue to climb, or coverage becomes even harder to find, I worry I could be one wildfire away from financial ruin — not because I was careless, but because the system meant to protect people like me is breaking down. This fear is most acute for moderate- and low-income families, but it no longer stops there. 

Across the country, rising insurance costs are already forcing homeowners to make painful tradeoffs about where — and whether — they can afford to live. Young families are reconsidering buying their first home. Retirees are weighing whether they can afford to stay. The crisis is widening.

This is not just an environmental problem. It is an economic one. A housing one. A stability one. It touches everything from mortgage markets to municipal budgets to family financial security.

And yet, it’s homeowners that are being asked to shoulder the costs of a crisis we did not create.

Climate change didn’t arrive for me as a headline; it arrived as a cancellation notice. Without meaningful and bold solutions, millions more will face the same reality. 

We need stronger protections for homeowners. We need to fix broken insurance markets. And we need to make those who fueled this crisis help pay for its consequences.