As rates soar after last year's storms, some homeowners say they simply can't afford to buy insurance anymore.

One minute after midnight Thursday, James Murray became a gambling man and a bundle of nerves.

The same day a new hurricane season dawned, the retired photographer and 85-year-old World War II veteran joined a growing class of Floridians - uninsured homeowners.

It wasn't his choice.

Faced with skyrocketing property insurance rates and rampant cancellations from private companies, many homeowners are unable to afford policies offered by the state-run insurer of last resort, Citizens Property. By law, Citizens must charge higher rates than the private market.

"I got nervous about this,'' said Murray, who lives on a fixed income and said he couldn't pay the nearly fourfold increase in his premium. "I was never a nervous person."

He sank into his recliner in his doublewide mobile home off Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg.

"I feel," he paused, "jittery."

In his 12 years of public service, state Sen. Mike Fasano said he never has received more e-mails, phone calls and letters than now, most all of them from Floridians upset about the rising cost of property insurance.

"The American dream is being taken away from the homeowner,'' said Fasano, a Republican from New Port Richey. "Homeowners insurance is totally unaffordable.''

Residents with mortgages are usually prevented from going without insurance by banks and lenders. But for those who own their homes free and clear, nothing requires them to have insurance.

Nationally, about 5 percent of homeowners go bare, or without insurance, according to the Insurance Research Council. The state's Office of Insurance Regulation doesn't track the uninsured, but some statistics suggest the numbers may be much higher in hurricane-prone Florida where many private insurers are no longer writing policies.

A recent Times review of property and insurance records showed one of every five Pasco County residents in single family homes have no homeowners insurance. Hundreds of coastal Pasco residents face some of the highest insurance increases statewide, driven by climbing sinkhole claims.

Chris and Sandy Butterfield, who own a two-bedroom home in Pasco's Port Richey, are teetering on the edge of the insurance black hole.

The retired musicians have seen their annual insurance bill rise from $400 to $1,800 in the past two years. Their Citizens policy is due in August, and unless they can come up with the cash, the couple might have to go without insurance.

"We're trying to save,'' said Mrs. Butterfield, a 64-year-old whose family relies on a $1,400 monthly Social Security income. "We watch every dime we spend.''

The family has given up on dinners out, the movies and Publix shopping trips.

"I never thought it would come to this,'' she said. "Sometimes we ask ourselves, should we cut our losses and go out of state?''

Mounting insurance bills are the No. 1 concern of residents of the state's mobile homes, estimated to number between 700,000 and 800,000, said Largo resident Don Hazelton, board member of the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida. Pinellas County has one of the state's densest populations of them, about 50,000.

"A lot of people are saying, 'I'll take a chance and not insure. I can't afford the increases,' '' said Hazelton, who has seen his own insurance increase from $880 to $2,300 for coverage on his 1979 mobile home.

He estimates the number of uninsured mobile home owners is increasing by the thousands.

"This is not a small case of a few hundred homes dropping out,'' he said.

Citizens has seen the number of mobile homes it insures more than triple in the last year, going from about 42,000 to 133,000.

Traditionally, mobile homes are less likely to be insured than conventional dwellings. The value of mobile homes is usually below that of regular homes, and they are more likely to be owned outright and occupied by the low-income and elderly.

Few private companies offer coverage to Floridians who own mobile homes, said Bob Lotane, spokesman for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. And coverage under Citizens, he said, can be "very expensive'' for older mobile homes that are seen as more at risk of being damaged in a storm.

Just as Citizens raised its rates for conventional homes, it also upped them for mobile homes by 15 percent statewide and 26 percent in coastal areas.

Despite higher rates, Lotane said, it's unwise for homeowners to go without insurance in a state battered by hurricanes in the past two years.

Richard Gregorio, community manager of Pinewood Village mobile home park where Murray lives, calls the insurance plight facing mobile home residents overwhelming.

"They're struggling emotionally,'' he said. "These are their homes.''

He estimates 60 percent of the mobile homes in the 220-unit park for people over age 55 have been canceled by their insurance companies.

"Our bylaws say you have to be insured,'' Gregorio said. "But we can't kick them out because they've been canceled and can't afford insurance.''

Two Pinewood residents, Janet Moore, 72, and Hurley "Hap'' Puryear, 75, were canceled a year ago and have gone without insurance ever since. Both say they can't afford higher premiums with Citizens.

"It's scary,'' said Moore, who owns a 1979 doublewide. "I could lose everything. I just turned it over to the Lord.''

Puryear didn't even bother checking the rates at Citizens after he was canceled. He knew the cost would be much higher than the $200 he had been paying a year for coverage on his 1977 home.

Still, Puryear said he doesn't fret. Possessions have never been a big concern, he said.

"If I wake up one morning with a new ZIP code, it doesn't worry me too much,'' he said. "If we have a big blow I'd probably be gone from here anyway.''

His neighbor down the street, Murray, doesn't share Puryear's nonchalant attitude.

Tower Hill Insurance mailed him a letter, a notice of nonrenewal, in February, "Out of the clear blue sky,'' he said.

Murray's $25,000 policy was being canceled to "reduce exposure to catastrophic hurricane loss.'' He said the letter horrified him and sent his emotions on a roller-coaster ride, forcing him to start taking nerve pills.

Murray's insurance agent shopped around, but the best she could come up with was a policy through Citizens. To keep his coverage the same, his annual payment went from about $300 to $1,160 - a nearly fourfold jump. With a monthly income of $800 and almost half of that spent renting space at Pinewood Village, Murray can no longer afford coverage for the first time in his life.

"I have to live,'' Murray said, his voice growing louder. "I have to pay for my lights. I have to pay for my telephone. I can't pay insurance.

"I just don't have it.''

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By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Melanie Ave can be reached at 727 893-8813 or mave@sptimes.com

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