The grant pays the premium. It will not pay the uninsured loss.

General liability

Injury to guests, visitors and neighbors, and the additional insured wording your city or county contract requires.

Without it — Every operator contract asks for it, and a fall on a wet floor at 2am is the most common claim in the class.

Professional liability

Case management, intake decisions, housing placement and discharge, where the claim is about the service.

Without it — A guest turned away on a freezing night, or discharged without a plan, is a professional claim, not a premises one.

Abuse and molestation

Allegations involving guests, including children in family shelters, against staff, volunteers or other guests.

Without it — Excluded from standard general liability, and asked about by name in most funding contracts.

Assault and battery

Injury from a fight between guests or an attack on a guest, where the claim is that security fell short.

Without it — Many forms exclude assault and battery outright, which removes the claim a congregate shelter is most likely to face.

Property and business income

The shelter building or leased space, beds and kitchen, and the cost of relocating guests after a fire or flood.

Without it — Grant-funded property must be insured at least as well as your own, and an uninsured loss cannot be charged back to the grant.

Commercial auto

Vans and outreach vehicles carrying guests to appointments, jobs and housing.

Without it — A van full of guests is the highest-severity thing most shelters do every day.

Workers compensation

Shelter staff, including injuries from guest aggression, needlesticks and lifting.

Without it — Required with employees, and overnight shelter work carries a real injury rate.

Directors and officers

Claims against the board over grant compliance, employment and neighborhood disputes.

Without it — A zoning fight or a funder audit becomes a claim against the people who govern the shelter.

Who writes homeless 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 homeless shelters and transitional housing, 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.

Can our HUD grant pay for the insurance?

Usually, yes. Under HUD’s Emergency Solutions Grants, insurance is an eligible cost of shelter operations. Under Continuum of Care, operating funds for transitional and permanent housing may pay property taxes and insurance. What the grant will not do is pay for a loss you could have insured and did not. Federal rules make that loss unallowable unless the award says otherwise. So the premium is a budget line, and a gap in coverage is a cost to your general funds.

Is transitional housing insured the same way as an emergency shelter?

The same package, rated differently. Transitional housing has residents staying months rather than nights, often in apartments, and looks more like a landlord risk with services attached. Tell us whether units are owned, master-leased or scattered across private landlords, whether staff live on site, and what services are delivered in the units. Each lease you sign may carry its own insurance requirements, and the policy has to meet all of them.

Affordable and supportive housing

A church is hosting our winter shelter. Whose insurance covers it?

Both, and that needs to be arranged in writing before the first night. The church’s policy was written for worship and may not cover an overnight shelter. Your policy covers your operations but not the church’s building unless it says so. The usual answer is a use agreement, your general liability naming the church as an additional insured, and confirmation from the church’s carrier that hosting is allowed. We can prepare the certificate and the request to the church’s carrier.

Church insurance

Our city contract asks for abuse and molestation at a high limit. 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

How is the price set?

On the number of beds and the type of shelter, the operating budget and payroll, and the services provided. A congregate shelter costs more than scattered-site housing, and low-barrier programs, family shelters with children, and transportation all move the price. Your security and staffing at night, naloxone policy, incident history and three years of loss runs (a report from each prior insurer listing every claim) are what underwriters read. PHLY offers payment plans once the annual price reaches $2,000.

What does a homeless shelter insurance application ask for?

The applications for homeless 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.