California is offering $3,000 grants for earthquake retrofitting. Does your home qualify?

California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt initiative, managed by the Earthquake Authority and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, is now inviting applications from homeowners for earthquake retrofitting grants. The program offers up to $3,000 to eligible homeowners, with the application window open from January 10 to February 21, 2024.

Click here to see if you are eligible 

To be eligible for the EBB grant, certain criteria must be met. The program is aimed at homes built before 1980 that are owner-occupied, situated on a raised foundation, and located in designated EBB ZIP codes. 

The focus on older properties is due to their common lack of secure bolting to foundations and insufficient bracing in the wood-framed walls around crawl spaces, as detailed on the EBB website. These deficiencies can result in homes sliding or toppling from their foundations during earthquakes, risks that can be significantly reduced through retrofitting.

Civil engineer Joe Demers from Alpha Structural emphasizes the risk, noting, "In earthquakes, houses can literally fall off their foundations if the ground moves side-to-side. We frequently see such failures during earthquakes."

Launched in 2013, the program has recently expanded to cover an additional 200 ZIP codes. The EBB registration is available for a 30-day period annually. Since its inception, the grant program has facilitated the retrofitting of 23,000 homes, yet it is estimated that over a million more homes in California require seismic upgrades.