Loan Loss Reserve Program

Homeowners in high-risk Nevada County communities want to harden their homes, but upfront costs often stop them. Grants are limited, contractors are scarce, and the financing options that exist weren’t built with wildfire mitigation in mind. As a result, willing homeowners don’t act and a gap in resilience grows with every fire season. 

CWI, in collaboration with the Nevada County Resilience Fund (NCRF), is piloting a novel home hardening loan program in Grass Valley and Nevada City. Partnering with First US Community Credit Union, NCRF is turning a $200,000 loan loss reserve into $2 million in accessible, low-interest loans for homeowners ready to act. Loans range from $3000 to $50,000 and cover qualifying wildfire retrofits such as roofing, siding, windows, doors, and decks. By leveraging existing FireAside defensible space inspection data and local Firewise community networks, the program meets homeowners where they already are — and generates the consumer behavior data needed to scale and replicate this model across California. 

THE IMPACT: A proven, transferable financing model that shows how communities can unlock private capital for home hardening, reducing risk for homeowners and generating the data to shape state policy and future programs across the region. 

PARTNERS: First US Community Credit Union, Nevada County Resilience Fund, Fire Aside, National Forest Foundation, City of Grass Valley, City of Nevada City, Nevada County Office of Emergency Services, University of British Columbia, UC San Diego,  local government + fire agencies