Amidst Compounding Disasters, Resilient Housing Can Anchor Communities
“We really need to rethink how private insurers can fit into a broader pool so that we’re actually distributing risks appropriately, but incentivizing… hazard mitigation as part of that insurance schema,” said Martín.
The complex challenges around housing extend far beyond any single community. There is a balancing act between federal, state, and local governments because federal policy is often one-size-fits-all or has a broad regional focus. Current federal housing policy was designed to be reactive, not proactive, and oriented around property values. Modeling, like the kind that informs flood maps, relies on data from past events, and is struggling to keep up with increasingly likely extremes. Both panelists discussed the need to create an environment that enables federal and state governments to empower localities to do what’s best for their communities, ultimately promoting investments today in resilience against tomorrow’s disasters. “There will be more communities across our country needing to be ready in these moments,” said Kijewski-Correa, describing how many places will face certain hazards that simply hadn’t occurred there before. “We can move people, and our country as a whole, to planning for those rainy days on sunny days,” she said.
As seen recently, compounding disasters have disparate impacts and can magnify existing inequities in our system. In fact, Martín pointed out that the most vulnerable communities already live in high-risk areas, may be unable to afford costly upgrades, or may rent and have little agency over necessary upgrades. Yet, even when given the tools they need to understand and mitigate the climate risks, homeowners might not be able to respond fully. At the end of the day, “they still have to take the house that they can afford,” Martín said. The panelists emphasized how policy changes, including retrofit requirements that make existing homes more resilient, should prioritize the most vulnerable, including low-income households and households of color whose presence in high-risk areas is the result of historic discrimination. At the same time, there should be an emphasis on building community, as neighborhoods with higher social cohesion fare better in disasters in the long run.
“The housing and climate crises that we have right now are intertwined,” Martín said. “We have to deal with the affordable housing crisis as much as we deal with the climate crisis.” Natural disasters will continue to strike, amplified by the climate crisis. Collaboration between decision-makers at the federal, state, and local level, in tandem with communities, will be needed to build a future where resilient homes are foundational to climate solutions.
Ben Ulrich is a communications associate at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The article was originally posted to the website of the National Academies.
