Assembly hearing pushes scalable, finance‑focused approach to home hardening as costs, insurance concerns mount

The California State Assembly’s Budget Subcommittee No. 4 held an oversight hearing on home hardening and defensible space on May 6, 2026, urging a coordinated, finance‑driven push to scale protections for homes in high wildfire‑hazard areas.

The hearing opened with Chair Bennett inviting experts from state agencies, research organizations and local wildfire groups to testify on the state’s pilot programs, lessons learned and potential next steps. Witnesses described a common problem: large numbers of at‑risk homes, high per‑home costs under current pilots, and administrative hurdles that limit how far state grant dollars can stretch.

Why it matters: testimony and pilot results presented at the hearing showed that targeted home hardening and defensible‑space work can substantially reduce the chance a house will ignite during an ember shower and — if applied at neighborhood scale — can lower the risk of conflagration and improve insurance availability. Committee members framed the debate around how to deploy limited taxpayer dollars to maximize the number of households helped and how to pair public dollars with private finance to reach many more homes.

Key findings and figures

- Research and post‑fire analysis: Steve Hawkes of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) told the committee that embers, radiant heat and flames drive most structure ignitions and that “once a home ignites, it’s greater than 90% chance, almost really 94% chance that it will be a complete loss.” IBHS’s Wildfire Prepared…