Our History

Smart Home America grew out of the destruction of Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. Insurers were abandoning coastal markets. Homeowners were rebuilding the same vulnerable structures. A group of Alabama and Mississippi residents decided that had to change.

They identified the IBHS FORTIFIED construction standard as a proven solution and founded Smart Home America in 2009 to put it to work. SHA became the first organization to systematically implement FORTIFIED as a community-scale mitigation strategy. What started on the Gulf Coast has since expanded to 20+ states.

2007

• The group that would become Smart Home America (SHA) begins building awareness of FORTIFIED standards and stronger building codes across coastal Alabama and Mississippi.

2008

• The Alabama Insurance Underwriters Association begins offering discounts for FORTIFIED construction.

2009

• Alabama passes SB 500, creating insurance discounts for FORTIFIED construction in Mobile and Baldwin Counties.
• Mississippi Windstorm Underwriters Association offers FORTIFIED discounts for coastal homeowners.
• Smart Home America is incorporated as a 501(c)(3).

2010

• IBHS releases FORTIFIED Home™, offering three tiers of protection: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

2011

• Alabama's first FORTIFIED Home designation is awarded.
• The Strengthen Alabama Homes Act (SB 389) becomes law, creating the foundation for what will become a national model program.

2012

• The first Coastal Alabama jurisdictions begin adopting the Coastal Construction Code Supplement.

2013

• All Habitat for Humanity affiliates along the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coast begin building to FORTIFIED Home standards, proving resilience can be achieved affordably at scale.

2014

• The Alabama Department of Insurance increases mandatory minimum discounts for FORTIFIED construction.

2015

• Alabama HB 92 funds the Strengthen Alabama Homes program.
• Alabama surpasses 1,000 FORTIFIED-designated homes in Mobile and Baldwin Counties.

2016

• IBHS releases the FORTIFIED High Wind & Hail standard at the National Tornado Summit in Tulsa, OK. 

2017

• Oklahoma passes HB 1720, enabling mitigation and FORTIFIED insurance discounts.
• SHA works with Houston and the Texas GLO to add FORTIFIED to post-Harvey action plans.
• Key Allegro, a community of 800+ units in Rockport, TX, moves to adopt the Code Supplement into their neighborhood covenant.

2019

• Governor Kay Ivey establishes Resilience Week in Alabama.
• SHA is awarded an EPA grant to develop and pilot a Community Resilience Housing Guide.

2020

• Hurricane Sally makes landfall in Gulf Shores, AL. IBHS reports that roughly 95% of the 17,000 FORTIFIED homes in Baldwin County that endured Sally had zero insurance claims.
• SHA becomes a Continuing Education provider for insurance agents, home builders, and real estate agents.
• SHA participates in two HUD task forces to help develop national Resiliency Guidelines.

2021

• Hurricane Ida makes landfall in Southeast Louisiana.
• IBHS releases FORTIFIED Multifamily™ as a branch of FORTIFIED Commercial™.
• SHA begins offering technical assistance to Louisiana Habitat for Humanity affiliates pursuing FORTIFIED designations.

2022

• Julie Shiyou-Woodard, SHA president and CEO, testifies before the Louisiana House Insurance Committee in support of HB 612.
• Louisiana HB 612, the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program, passes and is signed into law.
• Iowa becomes the first state to include FORTIFIED in a HUD-approved CDBG-DR Action Plan.
• SHA supports Louisiana's requirement that all new buildings funded by CDBG-DR use the FORTIFIED Gold standard.
• SHA supports the City of Mobile's adoption of the Coastal Construction Code Supplement and the 2021 IBC and IRC.

2023

• The Louisiana Fortify Homes Program opens for applications, providing grants of up to $10,000 for homeowners to re-roof to the FORTIFIED standard. SHA played a central role in the program's development and launch.
• SHA and the Strengthen Alabama Homes program receive IBHS's inaugural Resiliency Champion Awards, recognizing organizations responsible for thousands of FORTIFIED designations over five or more years.
• FORTIFIED hits 50,000 total designations nationally, with a record 13,187 new designations in a single year.
• Louisiana passes three new laws strengthening FORTIFIED incentives, including required actuarially justified insurance discounts and a FORTIFIED roof endorsement.
• SHA supports wildfire recovery efforts in Colorado, including the Marshall Fire recovery, by providing rebuilding and insurance guidance.

2024

• Alabama celebrates 50,000 FORTIFIED-designated homes on September 16, the anniversary of both Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Sally. 
• Georgia passes legislation requiring insurers to offer FORTIFIED premium discounts.
• Louisiana's Fortify Homes Program scales up through additional legislative investment and new provisions that improve program accessibility.
• FORTIFIED surpasses 70,000 designations nationally across 31 states.

2025

• A landmark peer-reviewed study by the University of Alabama's Center for Risk and Insurance Research, commissioned by the Alabama Department of Insurance, was released in May. Analyzing over 40,000 insured properties in coastal Alabama, this study provides the first large-scale empirical evidence of FORTIFIED performance during a real hurricane. FORTIFIED Roof homes had 73% fewer claims and 72% lower total losses during Hurricane Sally compared to conventional construction. FORTIFIED Gold homes performed even better.
• For the first time, more than 20,000 FORTIFIED designations are issued in a single year.
• Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, SHA publishes a retrospective on how Gulf Coast communities transformed disaster-resistant construction through the FORTIFIED program.

Learn about our BRA²C₂E^® framework for creating resilient communities.