The St. Louis NAACP chapter is calling on the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance to be held accountable to north St. Louis homeowners who are underinsured or uninsured and cannot rebuild their homes after the May tornado.
Chapter leaders say the state’s insurance regulator has failed Black homeowners who experienced damage from the storm because it has not provided effective oversight of insurance agencies, offered equitable access to property insurance or produced a base-level safety net for survivors of natural disasters.
Many north St. Louis residents who were affected by the recent EF3 tornado are still experiencing redlining, not by maps but by insurance markets and premiums, said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the NAACP St. Louis chapter.
“You (can) compare the redlining map in 1935 and compare where the tornado hit north St Louis, and then you look at the numbers of the uninsured in those same areas, it all matches up,” Pruitt said at a press conference. “Why are the areas that were redlined in 1935 are the same areas in 2025 that represent the most uninsured or underinsured population in the city of St Louis, and it happens to be in north St Louis, where 91% of the greater people there are African American.”
He adds that it is a systemic failure of regulatory oversight from the State of Missouri and its insurance agency.
The chapter recommends that the state insurance department conduct an immediate market investigation that looks at all insurance carriers in St. Louis, specifically how they handled claims in the hardest-hit communities and policies in historically redlined communities. Leaders want the state to reform its Missouri FAIR Plan by adding wind and tornado damage to coverage regardless of deferred maintenance. They are also requesting transparency from insurance agencies through the reporting of all activity, including application denials, approvals and claims in the area.
And the chapter wants the state to enforce fines on insurers who practice discrimination, and it wants the state to establish a monitoring system to prevent future discrimination.
After the tornado, insurance data revealed that nearly 70% of the property owners in parts of north St. Louis either do not have insurance or they do not have adequate insurance to rebuild their homes after a natural disaster strikes.
Pruitt issued recommendations on May 25 to city officials to push them to help uninsured homeowners. He also emailed the director of the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance on July 7 with an executive summary requesting a comprehensive investigation of insurance redlining practices and Missouri FAIR Plan failures after the storm. He said he has not heard back from the state about his request.
The civil rights organization’s chapter leader said he heard from people who say the insurance companies underestimated the cost of repairs or were not responsive.
“The State of Missouri has a department that is supposed to ensure that none of this happens, and that department has failed to do it,” Pruitt said.
The chapter is planning on reaching out to lawmakers to prefile bills that will support his requests of the state’s insurance regulatory agency.
“At the end of the day, whether it's the insurance companies themselves, or whether it's the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance, somebody needs to be held accountable for the redlining that has continuously occurred in north St Louis, and for the inequitable treatment that these people are suffering. We cannot stand by anymore and watch it,” he said.
