Farmers to Sell More Policies in Inner Cities : Insurance: Firm wants to add 4,500 clients in Southland, Bay Area.

Farmers Insurance Co. said Thursday that it will appoint 61 independent agents in underserved communities in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area with an eye toward writing 4,500 new homeowners insurance policies by the end of the year.

The announcement is part of a five-year effort launched in May, 1994, by the Los Angeles-based insurance company to boost sales in inner-city areas. In the first phase, Farmers established a toll-free line staffed by operators speaking six languages common in underserved areas.

That phone line is now averaging 386 calls a week, said Faye Williams-McClure, Farmers’ director of special projects. “We thought, what can we do to do better?” she said.

Farmers will be offering comprehensive homeowners insurance policies at competitive rates that will include earthquake coverage, she said. By the end of the five-year period, Farmers intends to have sold 175,000 new policies in the underserved communities.

Farmers already has selected 35 of the 61 new agents and has received 429 applications, Williams-McClure said. The agents, most of whom will be in Southern California, must locate in or write most of their policies in the underserved areas, and must make a profit.

Getting insurance at affordable prices has been a continuing problem for inner-city residents, said Anthony Reese, associate director of the Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco-based research and advocacy group focusing on issues affecting minority, low income and disabled people.

The Greenlining Institute was among those that prodded State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. to relax its no-growth policy in a portion of Los Angeles’ inner city. State Farm announced in March that it was making available up to $2.2 billion of new homeowners and renters insurance.

“Low-income communities are getting crushed by the failure of large carriers--or, basically, anyone--to write homeowners policies,” Reese said. “We hope that it’s a recognition on the part of Farmers that it’s profitable to do business in the inner city.”