NEW ORLEANS — Over the last three years, over 20 insurance companies either went under or left the state, leaving residents with few options. These rate hikes can be challenging for people like Blondy Moore.
It’s been one thing after another for Blondy Moore.
“It hurts me to my core that I might lose my house,” Moore said.
Already battling cancer, she’s now fighting to keep the home where she raised her children in Gentilly.
“I’d like to say, I want to pull my hair out, but I don’t have hair because of the chemo, so I don’t know what to do.”
Faced with medical bills and the already-climbing cost of home ownership, she was stunned when her homeowner’s insurance premium increased by thousands of dollars.
“This is my baby,” Moore said. “It hurt me to my core, because I can’t afford this.”
As insurance rates have increased, Blondy has slowly sold off eight properties through the years. But this home was meant to be passed down.
“I’ve been hanging on for a long time, but this has been the biggest, because this is my primary residence,” Moore said. “The other ones took me down, but I said ‘I’ll just bless someone else with them.’ But don’t want to bless no one else with this one.”
Now, she’s having to rent out parts of her own home just to get by. If she has to sell, Blondy says she’ll leave the city for good.
“Everybody’s not trying to leave, but you’re forcing us out,” Moore said.
Blondy’s children say they’re working together to find a way to keep their mother’s home, a home that was one day meant to be theirs. In New Orleans, Amelia Strahan, WWL Louisiana.
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