Nonprofit offering free home insurance help to Detroiters

The cost of homeowners insurance is at the root of some pain in the pocketbook for many Detroiters and many families going without coverage with policies in the city reaching prices nearly twice the statewide average. Now one non-profit is working to help you find more affordable options. Well it is an unfortunate reality. It's about 63 percent of Detroit homeowners admit they are uninsured and there are some key issues that are keeping folks from getting the coverage. Yeah you know at the top of that list homeowners say it's affordability. Then there's the age and condition of some homes and the condition of neighboring homes is also keeping some from being insured. Well a non-profit called Economic Architecture Project just launched an initiative this month that could help. It's to help homeowners across the city not only establish insurance but also find the most economic options. They did new windows up and down. For two years now Paula Jackson-Sims has been enjoying homeownership purchasing a first place on Detroit's east side. And they put this banister up. This wasn't there. Jackson-Sims admits the process was scary. What was the most concerning part of the process? Affordability. Having the money to afford to purchase a home. And Jackson-Sims isn't alone in those feelings. With mortgage, utilities, household expenses and homeowners insurance things can get rather costly for families. In fact a recent study from Michigan Poverty Solutions found 63 percent of homeowners in Detroit don't have insurance. The homeowners insurance costs are higher than they are across many parts of the country. And that's where folks like Aditi Advani-Ramirez is coming in to offer some options and potential opportunity. She's a principal with a non-profit Economic Architecture Project. And our focus is to help homeowners so we're not selling insurance. We really just want to make sure homeowners are getting the protection that they need. Economic Architecture Project just launched its insure and save program. A no-cost initiative supported by Rocket Community Fund, Ramirez says its team works to connect homeowners with a variety of insurance carriers and agents. The goal is finding the best cost-effective policy for you. If insurance is something that you're questioning, if you're underinsured, if you have insurance, if you don't have insurance, please contact us. There's a great opportunity right now and we'd love to help. Jackson-Sims is among the first group of Detroit homeowners to benefit from the insure and save program. She says the Economic Architecture Project is already finding ways to help her reduce monthly insurance bills and save some extra cash. I was really honest and I'm happy that I was honest with her because she came with another solution for me where I could still have a reasonable deductible but still save. All right, so if you think you're interested in learning more about Economic Architecture Project and its insure and save program, got to tell you time is limited. They're enrolling folks until October 15th. That's like three weeks away. I've added their contact information and details about the program under this story at clickondetroit.com.