Boston missed its own deadline for applying to a FEMA program. Residents are footing the bill.

 

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Boston missed its own deadline for applying to a FEMA program. Residents are footing the bill.    October 30, 2025 By JORDAN WOLMAN

Geoff Gamm got his first flood insurance bill and knew he had to do something about it.

When Gamm purchased his East Boston townhouse in 2022, he knew that he’d need to buy flood insurance because his new home was located in a flood-prone part of the city.

But the bill was nearly $2,000. That’s roughly the same amount Gamm pays for regular homeowners insurance.

So he did some research.

What he found was a federal program that offers discounts for residents with flood insurance who live in municipalities that are certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have gone above and beyond minimum national flood-prevention standards. Essentially, it’s a reward for homeowners, renters, and businesses in communities that work to minimize flood risk.

Residents and businesses vulnerable to flooding elsewhere in Massachusetts – from Quincy to Winchester to Worcester – that have policies through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) can take advantage of the FEMA program, which has triggered discounts as high as 20 percent in some parts of the state.

But across Massachusetts, more than 300 communities — including Boston — aren’t reaping the benefits of the program, known as Community Rating System (CRS). Officials in those cities and towns say they generally haven’t sought the certification because of the heavy administrative burdens involved with applying for and maintaining the designation. It’s led to residents in some municipalities collectively paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in flood insurance costs that could have been avoided.

At a time in which rising costs of living are dominating Massachusetts policy discussions, the fact that residents across the state – including in its biggest city — haven’t been able to take advantage of a program that could scale back insurance prices even as disastrous flooding events are happening with more severity and frequency adds a layer to the affordability crisis hammering the Bay State.

In Boston, Gamm and some 5,770 homeowners, renters, and businesses like him are missing out on the discounts because the city has not applied to participate in the program, despite a goal laid out in 2016 to join CRS by 2021.

The inaction has likely cost Boston residents at least $785,000 in total unnecessary flood insurance costs since the city missed its 2021 self-imposed deadline, according to state data analyzed by CommonWealth Beacon.

Gamm has raised the issue with city officials multiple times since 2023, according to email communications reviewed by CommonWealth Beacon, and secured a letter of support advocating for Boston’s participation from his state representative, Adrian Madaro. But he’s only felt frustrated and stonewalled since.

“I don’t think that this has been taken seriously or with the urgency I’d expect,” Gamm said.

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More Context New FEMA flood maps prompt questions, concerns across Massachusetts (October 2025) ‘Water doesn’t know property lines’: Where Massachusetts’s climate and housing crises meet (April 2025)

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