By Levi Sumagaysay, CalMatters

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For the first time since California insurance commissioner became an elected position, two Democrats will vie for the job in November.

The top two vote-getters in the June primary were former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen, who received about 27% and 20% of the vote, respectively. One of them will succeed Ricardo Lara, the former Democratic lawmaker who has served two terms as insurance commissioner. Lara has presided over the Insurance Department in the past eight years, during which the state saw its deadliest and most devastating fires. 

Kim or Allen will be taking on complicated, enormous challenges that have implications for local communities, people’s ability to buy homes and start businesses, and the state’s economy. 

In the past few years, insurance companies stopped writing new policies or renewing old ones, especially in high-risk areas, citing increasing wildfire risk from climate change and inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused homeowners to turn to the last-resort FAIR Plan, which is mandated by law to provide fire insurance. The plan, run by an alliance of insurers, has grown to more than 684,000 policies in force as of March, an increase of 152% since September 2022. It has warned about its ability to keep paying claims after major disasters.

Proposition 103, a law approved by voters in 1988, means that among many other things, the elected commissioner has the power to approve rate increases. It has kept the state’s rates from rising too much over the years — Californians’ homeowners insurance premiums have hovered around the middle of the pack nationwide — but that could change. Last year, the commissioner put in place regulations that include new factors insurers can use when setting their premiums, such as catastrophe modeling and reinsurance costs. Some companies have applied for and received approval to raise their rates, so they’re starting to write policies again.

Keeping insurance available but affordable will be the most pressing issue for either Kim or Allen, whose responsibilities will also include regulating auto, pet and some aspects of health insurance, plus workers’ compensation. 

Another problem that will need plenty of attention: making sure insurance companies pay their claims in a timely manner that helps communities to rebuild. The L.A.-area fires shed a light on insurer practices that delay and deny claims, as well as underinsurance and the lack of standards for smoke damage, which have held up recovery. Pending legislation — such as those authored by Allen, whose district was hit by the fires last year — and lawsuits will address some of those issues. Well-organized fire survivors who called for Lara’s resignation over his department’s response to their concerns will surely keep up the pressure on his successor.

Here’s a look at each candidate’s record and how she or he would approach the job, based on their interviews with CalMatters and what they have said publicly, including at candidate forums.

Jane Kim

Kim’s proposal to create “natural disaster insurance for all,” inspired by a program in New Zealand, has gotten a lot of attention. She plans to fund such a system with a portion of policyholder premiums that insurance companies would collect and divert to the state. The state would then guarantee fire and flood coverage, while insurance companies would continue to cover other risks.

Naysayers, including consumer advocates, wonder why she hasn’t released any specifics about how much capital such a fund would require. Kim told CalMatters that it would need to be studied, but that at its core her proposal would generate revenue. 

Opponents of her proposal also say it’s a bad idea to shift catastrophic burden onto the state, pointing to what they say is the failure of splitting off earthquake insurance from homeowner insurance — most California homeowners now have no insurance coverage.

“We (taxpayers) already are on the hook,” Kim said. “When insurers and utilities refuse to pay, they just pass it on to us anyway. Sharing the risk is important.” 

Kim also told CalMatters that an idea Merritt Farren, a Republican candidate for commissioner, proposed — that the state create a reinsurance authority to encourage insurers to write policies in the state — “may turn out to be a more efficient model.” 

Among Kim’s shorter-term priorities if she wins: 

• Create public dashboards to show how insurance companies are spending policyholder premiums, and that show their record on claims.
• Expand eligibility for a program that provides low-cost insurance to drivers who make less than $38,000 a year. 
• Tie a company’s ability to sell auto insurance in the state to its willingness to write homeowner policies.
• Make the FAIR Plan more transparent by requiring that its list of board members be public, and that its board meetings be public.
• Freeze rates when policyholders file claims.

The former San Francisco elected official, an attorney, touts among her accomplishments free community college for the city’s residents; the first $15 minimum wage ordinance in the state; and a tenant-protection ordinance to avoid unjust evictions. She worked as the California director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 U.S. presidential campaign and most recently as California Director for the Working Families Party.

Kim has a long list of endorsers, including many unions such as SEIU California. Besides Sanders, another U.S. lawmaker, Rep. Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley, has also endorsed her.

Ben Allen

The state senator, who will be termed out of the Legislature, wants to bring together the state, insurers, builders, local governments and firefighters to work on risk-reduction strategies.

“I think that’s ultimately going to be the way that we get ourselves out of this mess,” he told CalMatters.

What he calls a comprehensive approach includes thinking about where people live and build: “We shouldn’t be building new construction that is irresponsible in high-risk areas. We should be looking for ways to carefully and sensitively encourage people to pull back from high-risk areas.”

If he wins, Allen’s other plans include:

• Create a consumer advocate position within the insurance department, and increase staff to handle customer service. 
• Require insurers to explain claim denials and provide real-time reports of delays and outstanding claims after a disaster.
• Increase oversight of the FAIR Plan and make sure it complies with commissioner orders.
• Ban the insurance commissioner and staff from working for the industry immediately after they leave the department.

Allen has played up his experience as a legislator, including writing and passing bills related to holding insurance companies accountable. For example, a law he wrote now requires insurers to pay 60% of policyholders’ contents coverage without a detailed inventory, and gives consumers more time to provide that inventory. He also touts writing Proposition 4, the bond measure approved by the state’s voters in 2024 “for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention and protecting communities and natural lands from climate risks.”

Other pending bills authored by him include one that would require insurers to give homeowners 90 days notice before they intend not to renew their policies, along with a clear explanation. Another would penalize insurance companies that fail to correct their practices after the insurance department finds that they have violated laws and regulations.

Allen also has many endorsements, including the two leaders of the state Legislature, Senate Pro Tem Monique Limon and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both from California, unions and the Consumer Federation of California also endorse him.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The homeless population in Fresno and Madera counties saw a modest increase in the latest Point-in-Time count, even as overall numbers declined across California and the nation.

The Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care reported Monday that its 2025 Point-in-Time homelessness count showed a 9.2% increase compared with 2023. A total of 4,905 people were reported homeless on the night of the count.

Among those counted, 29% cited a substance use disorder and 31% reported a serious mental illness. Five percent were younger than 18.

Officials also reported more than 4,000 beds available year-round for people experiencing homelessness across the two counties, with 84% occupied on the night of the count.

The results have been highly anticipated, though county officials cautioned that the figures may not reflect current conditions.

They attributed that concern to delays from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which took more than a year to validate the submission.

According to the department’s 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, California was among five states to report a decrease in homelessness last year, with a 2.8% drop – the state’s first decline since 2016. Nationwide, homelessness fell 3.3%.

The continuum of care also released initial, unvalidated data from its most recent count, which used a new survey-based method rather than relying solely on visual tallies.

“Not only will we have a count of people that are experiencing homelessness, we’re also going to get that information from them about how they got here, what happened that caused this situation in their life,” Laura said.

The updated approach included trained volunteers asking questions about demographics, disabilities and causes of homelessness.

Preliminary figures from the new method show 1,619 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and 1,635 reported as sheltered.

Officials noted that unsheltered individuals who declined to complete the survey will not be included in the 2026 count.

County officials said the new system is intended to provide more detailed insights into homelessness in the region, while future validated counts will offer a clearer picture of trends over time.

For news updates, follow Vincent Camarillo on Instagram.

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into four California school districts over policies pertaining to the instruction of gender and sexual orientation.

On Monday, the agency said the San Francisco Unified School District, along with the Graves Elementary School District, Santa Rita Union School District and Soledad Unified School District are undergoing a compliance review. The department’s Civil Rights Division said the review pertains to “instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) in grades pre-K-12.”

“This Department of Justice will not tolerate local school authorities trampling on the rights of parents concerning the education of their children,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

Officials said the review will examine whether, and to what extent the districts notified the parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. In its statement, the agency alleged that San Francisco Unified advised its teachers that neither parental permission nor notification were required to teach or discuss the topics.

The compliance review would also assess policies regarding access to bathrooms, locker rooms and girls’ sports teams based on gender identity rather than biological sex, along with adherence to Title IX, officials said.

“The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Mahmoud and Mirabelli have put all school districts on notice: policies that keep parents in the dark about sexuality and gender ideology in the classroom must end now,” Dhillon added, citing two recent rulings by the Supreme Court.

In Mahmoud vs. Taylor, the justices last year sided with a group of Maryland parents who challenged their school district’s decision to deny them the ability to opt out their elementary children of instruction featuring storybooks addressing gender identity and sexual orientation.

Earlier this year, in the Mirabelli vs. Bonta case, the justices blocked a California state law that bans parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.

According to the California Department of Education, San Francisco is the sixth largest public school district in the state, with about 55,000 students.

The three other districts being investigated are in Monterey County. State records show Soledad Unified serves about 4,600 students in and around Soledad, while Santa Rita Union serves about 1,200 students in a portion of Salinas. Graves Elementary serves about 30 students at one school campus in Salinas.

CBS News Bay Area has reached out to the districts for comment.