Insurance Availability in Chicago

In a study of insurance availability in Chicago, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights attempted to examine charges by several community organizations that insurance companies were redlining their neighbourhoods, i.e. cancelling policies, refusing to insure or to renew, etc. Data were obtained from a variety of sources. First, the Illinois Department of Insurance provided the number of cancellations, nonrenewals, new policies, and renewals of homeowners and residential fire insurance policies by ZIP code for the months of December 1977 through February 1978. The companies that provided this information to the Department account for more than 70 percent of the homeowners insurance policies written in the city of Chicago. The Department also supplied the number of FAIR Plan policies written and renewed in Chicago, by ZIP code, for the months of December 1977 through May 1978. Since most FAIR Plan policyholders secure such coverage only after they have been rejected by the voluntary market, rather than as a result of a preference for that type of insurance, the distribution of FAIR Plan policies is another measure of insurance availability in the voluntary market.