As Paradise Rebuilds, It's Also Preparing for the Next Fire

WindowDressers mobilizes community volunteers to build low-cost insulating window inserts for older homes. Their efforts have saved nearly 4 million gallons of heating fuel, preventing 44,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and strengthening neighborhood ties while making heating more affordable—especially for low-income households who now represent nearly 40% of recipients.

The rising cost of housing in cities like Orlando is making it difficult for people who work in the service and entertainment industries to find housing near their place of work. In response, entertainment giants like Universal Studios Florida and the Walt Disney Company are donating land near their theme parks and working with developers to build affordable housing.

The affordable housing crisis in Eagle, Colorado, is creating a severe staff shortage in local schools. So, the school district is partnering with organizations and developers like Habitat for Humanity to develop a mix of new apartments and houses that will be made available to school employees at affordable prices.

The Housing Helps program in the popular tourist town of Breckenridge, Colorado, provides homeowners, buyers, and businesses providing housing for their employees with funding for repairs, assessments, and down payments. The program aims to support home preservation and supply more affordable housing for locals.

After Hurricane Maria, shipping container houses gained popularity in Puerto Rico because of their affordability and faster build times.

The California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act eliminated single-family zoning so homeowners can split their lots to create rentals and make more housing available statewide.

Through collective action and informed practices, such as promoting grazing in vineyards, residents in fire-ravaged communities build a more resilient future. Across California’s wine region, locals have begun to reorient their way of life to mitigate the effects of future wildfires. The Good Fire Alliance, nonprofit group of organizations, focuses on promoting community resilience to wildfires, educating about safe burning practices, grazing, and encouraging general fire-ecology awareness.

Wildfires are inevitable, especially as forests become drier due to climate change, but it is possible to design the built environment so that fires don’t destroy as much property or as many lives. Architects now can choose different materials that resist ignition from wind-borne embers and can put more distance between homes. Spacing homes farther apart and burying power lines can help, but the changing climate is also making some places unsuitable for rebuilding destroyed communities.

After an earthquake devastated the town of Düzce, Turkey, residents banded together to create a housing cooperative and later Düzce Hope Studio, a group of pro-bono architects and engineers working to help rebuild the town. What makes the building team unique is that the design process included and valued residents’ voices. Yaşar Adanah, an urban researcher, states, “What’s happening in Düzce is a rare example of a holistic approach to housing that can be a model for other neighborhoods.”

New York City suffered from fires that erupted in overcrowded, run-down apartments. Then the city sleuthed through residential records and found that landlords who foreclosed let their properties fall apart and ignored safety-code violations. Greater Toronto wants to expand upon New York City’s method by using transportation surveys, census data and computer data to build transit lines.