Protecting Affordable Housing After Natural Disasters

In a piece on The Conversation, Shannon Van Zandt outlines how natural disasters can contribute to the loss of affordable housing, placing the most vulnerable community members at risk for displacement and extra hardship. "Research has shown consistently that lower-income households are not only more likely to suffer damage in a natural disaster, but they are more likely to take much longer – two to three times longer – to recover."

Meanwhile, displacement remains a real danger, says Van Zandt. "Research suggests that affordable housing will almost always be replaced by more expensive housing targeted to a wealthier demographic. And for low-income residents who rent and lose their homes to disasters, there is little chance that they will be able to return to their original development. Little is known about where they end up."

The article describes examples of communities that took proactive steps to protect vulnerable residents after disasters. "La Grange, Texas, which flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, is experimenting with community land trusts. These involve cooperative ownership of land coupled with individual ownership of units." Elsewhere, "Boulder County relaxed its rental rules to help displaced residents find temporary homes after the fire."

Van Zandt notes that resilience planning and disaster recovery are increasingly important: "Nearly every community in the United States is increasingly vulnerable to some kind of natural disaster due to climate change. A Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations found that 40% of Americans lived in counties that were hit with extreme climate-related weather in 2021 alone."