How Louisiana businesses struggle with insurance costs | Business News

On the surface, things have been good for Stein’s Deli.

Business has been humming. The regulars are still coming around, some earning namesake sandwiches on the menu. The deli has grown from a scrappy post-Katrina business led by a first-time business owner to a cornerstone of the local food scene.

But on a recent Monday at the deli, Dan Stein, the longtime owner, unveiled what’s been troubling him lately: behind the scenes, turmoil is creeping in.

The insurance crisis, which has raised rates across Louisiana and sent some fleeing to less disaster-prone states, has hit home.

Stein’s rent for the Magazine Street building that the deli has called home since 2007 rose 30% this year, in large part because insurance costs hammered the landlord. His mortgage payments for his house rose by $1,400 a month for the same reason. His employees say rents are rising, so their wages don’t go as far. Stein sees other businesses closing at a greater clip.

“Back in the day, I used to see the bank account gradually build, build, build,” Stein said. “Now it’s up and back down. It seems like I’m treading water. And I’m probably lucky.”

The insurance crisis has emerged as a financial stressor to homeowners in risky places all over America. In Louisiana — where incomes are lower, people are leaving and home prices are taking a hit — it’s become an existential threat for many residents and businesses.

Stein, 52, opened his deli in the years after Hurricane Katrina. He’d spent years working in different trades, including as a lawyer for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and managing a cheese shop in his home state of Pennsylvania.

The headwinds brought by the insurance crisis are unlike anything he’s experienced before.

Stein worries that the brisk business brought on by big events like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and the upcoming Super Bowl will obscure how deep-rooted the insurance crisis has become, and said it threatens to upend small businesses all over New Orleans.

Louisiana’s Republican Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, along with Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-led Legislature, ushered in a series of changes this year aimed at making it easier for insurance companies to raise rates and drop policyholders. And the state has earmarked $45 million for a grant program to help people put fortified roofs on their homes since 2023.

But there is little sign the crisis is abating. Insurance costs continue to tick upward. Stein noted the fortified roof program also doesn’t offer assistance for commercial businesses.

Several business owners in low-lying areas around the coast have told the Times-Picayune | The Advocate that insurance costs are making their line of work untenable. For instance: Dawn Voisin, who bought and renovated a small shopping center in Houma hit by Hurricane Ida, said she faced an insurance bill that was more than her business makes in a year.

And insurance isn’t the only problem facing businesses. At Stein’s Deli, their namesake said food costs have soared and food delivery apps have made it harder to run the business.

Stein said he knows the deli won’t make him a “zillionaire,” and he has enough squirreled away to stay afloat.

But he worries it’s just a matter of time before the insurance crisis breaks many businesses.

“I haven’t really thought about closing,” he said. “I’m kind of a freak. I like it here. So I’m willing to fight. But at what point when you lose all your friends and the way you do business … At what point do you not want to do it anymore?”

“The vibe of the city is not made up of the super wealthy people. It’s the musicians. It’s the restaurants. You start to lose that … I like it here but then you start to chase a memory.”