The address is confidential. The certificate of insurance asks for it anyway.

Abuse and molestation

Allegations involving residents, including children living in the shelter with a parent, against staff, volunteers or other residents.

Without it — Excluded from general liability, and the limit funders and landlords ask about first.

Professional liability

Hotline advice, safety planning, legal advocacy and case management, where the claim is that the guidance itself caused harm.

Without it — General liability excludes professional services, and safety planning is a professional service with a life on the line.

General liability with active assailant coverage

Injury on the premises, plus coverage when an abuser finds the shelter and someone is hurt.

Without it — An intruder is the risk every shelter plans for. Some general liability forms exclude or limit assault and battery, so read the form.

Cyber and privacy

Breach response for survivor records, hotline logs and the shelter address itself.

Without it — A leaked file can reveal where a survivor is. Federal confidentiality rules make that a legal exposure as well as a safety one.

Property and business income

The shelter building, its security systems and furnishings, and the cost of housing residents elsewhere while it is repaired.

Without it — A fire empties the shelter the same night, and grant rules require grant-funded property to be insured.

Hired and non-owned auto

Advocates driving survivors to court, hospitals and new housing in their own cars or agency vehicles.

Without it — Transport happens daily, often at night and under stress, and the agency is the defendant if it goes wrong.

Directors and officers

Claims against the board over grant compliance, employment decisions and confidentiality failures.

Without it — Federal grants come with audit rights, and a finding that becomes a dispute lands on the board.

Workers compensation

Staff and residential advocates, including injuries from intruders and residents in crisis.

Without it — Required with employees, and night staff in a residential program face real injury risk.

Our location is confidential. How do we give anyone a certificate of insurance?

With a mailing address and named wording, never the street address. Federal law keeps a confidential shelter’s location out of public view unless the people running it authorize disclosure in writing. We list the policy under your administrative or post office address, describe the shelter as a scheduled location on file with the carrier, and issue additional insured endorsements to funders and landlords without printing the site. Tell us before any certificate goes out, because a certificate is a document that gets forwarded.

Who writes domestic violence shelter insurance, and can we go to them directly?

Philadelphia Insurance Companies — PHLY, part of Tokio Marine, rated A++ by AM Best — is the carrier that has told us in writing it wants domestic violence shelters, and it is where most of our human-services submissions go first. PHLY does not sell to organizations directly: it works only through appointed agents, and we hold that appointment, so your file reaches their underwriter with our name on it rather than through a second intermediary. What their underwriter wants to see is specific and we assemble it before anything is sent — their supplemental application for your class, the standard applications, three years of valued loss runs (a report from each prior insurer showing every claim and its reserve), photographs of the premises, and your brochure or website. Payment plans are available once the annual price reaches $2,000. None of that is a promise to bind — every quote is subject to their underwriting review — but a complete file is the difference between a quote and a list of questions.

Our funder wants abuse and molestation at $1M/$3M. Another wants more. What is realistic?

Read the number carefully, because it decides your price. PHLY’s primary abuse and molestation limit is $1,000,000 per occurrence with a $1,000,000, $2,000,000 or — on occasion — $3,000,000 aggregate. Anything above that has to come from an umbrella, and their umbrella capacity is smaller in Los Angeles County than elsewhere, needs every control in place (screening, supervision, training, reporting) and is decided case by case. So a funder or landlord asking for $3,000,000 per occurrence and $6,000,000 aggregate is not asking for a bigger policy; they are asking for a tower — a primary plus one or more excess layers — and excess abuse coverage bought through the wholesale market runs roughly $15,000 per $1,000,000 of limit, often more than the underlying policy itself. Before you buy that, let us read the requirement. Many are boilerplate copied from a construction contract, and a sourced request to the funder explaining what the market actually offers gets them reduced more often than people expect. We quote the primary first, and build the tower only when the requirement genuinely will not move.

Stand-alone abuse and molestation: when it is the right route

Does our policy cover an abuser coming onto the property?

Only if the form allows it. Many general liability policies exclude or sublimit assault and battery, which is the claim an intrusion produces. Ask for the assault and battery wording in writing, and consider active assailant coverage, which pays for victims’ costs, counseling and crisis response after a violent incident. Underwriters will ask about your security: locked entries, cameras, a duress alarm and an intake process that screens for safety. Those controls lower the price as well as the risk.

Active assailant coverage

We also run transitional housing and a hotline. One policy or several?

Usually one package, if every program is described on the application. Residential shelter, scattered-site transitional apartments, a 24-hour hotline, legal advocacy and children’s programs are each rated differently. A program left off the application is a coverage dispute after a claim. List every service, every site by type and every vehicle. Scattered-site apartments leased in your name also need the landlord’s insurance requirements read, since each lease may ask for something different.

Homeless shelters and transitional housing

How is the price set?

On the operating budget, the number of beds, the number of staff and volunteers, and the services run. A residential shelter with children costs more than a non-residential advocacy office. Transportation, overnight staffing and the abuse limit requested move it most. Three years of loss runs (a report from each prior insurer listing every claim), your screening and supervision policies and your security measures tell the underwriter what they need. PHLY offers payment plans once the annual price reaches $2,000.

Our federal grant says we must insure what it paid for. What does that mean?

It means the building, vehicles and equipment bought or improved with the grant must be insured at least as well as what you own outright. That rule is 2 CFR 200.310. The premium is an allowable cost when the award requires the insurance. The other half matters more: a loss you could have insured but did not cannot be charged to the grant. So an uninsured van or a building insured at an old value becomes your problem, not the funder’s. Send us the award terms and your asset list, and we will match the policy to them.

What does a domestic violence shelter insurance application ask for?

The applications for domestic violence shelter businesses ask about 4 things above all: what services do you offer (like adult daycare, educational programs, counseling, day trips, or overnight trips); what is your typical ratio of seniors to staff members; do you have a written plan for emergency evacuation; do you serve seniors who are not able to walk on their own or who have dementia. Have proof of liability insurance from any contracted doctors or nurses and list of all services your center currently offers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.